photo by: Chris Conde

From left, defense attorneys Michael Clarke and Hatem Chahine and defendant Steven A. Drake III listen to Judge Kay Huff's instructions during the first day of a murder trial on Feb. 15, 2022, in Douglas County District Court.

A Lawrence police officer testified Tuesday that he tried to save the life of a man who was bleeding to death on another man’s front stoop after being shot in the face.

The officer, Steven Koenig, said he thought at first that Bryce S. Holladay, 26, still had a pulse. Koenig kept performing CPR until paramedics arrived, but he said the attempt was in vain — Holladay was dead.

Koenig testified during the opening day of a trial for Steven A. Drake III in Douglas County District Court. Drake, 25, faces a first-degree murder charge for the shooting of Holladay on Sept. 19, 2017, at Drake’s duplex in the 2000 block of West 27th Terrace.

Drake has admitted killing Holladay, but he has said he did so in self-defense after Holladay came to his home high that night and wouldn’t leave.

In previous hearings in the case, Drake and three other people who were at the house with him had testified that Holladay was taking items from the home and wouldn’t go away, even after the four of them tried to physically force him out the door. Witnesses had testified at a preliminary hearing that Holladay was trying to punch them and force his way inside the house when Drake retrieved a handgun from a bedroom and shot him in the face at close range.

On Tuesday, Drake’s defense attorney Hatem Chahine said evidence would show that Holladay had arrived uninvited earlier in the day and assaulted one of the residents of the home, and that Holladay refused to leave after the people at the house threatened him with a bat, sprayed pepper spray in his face and threatened him with a handgun.

photo by: Chris Conde

District Attorney Suzanne Valdez speaks during the murder trial of Steven A. Drake III on Feb. 15, 2022, in Douglas County District Court.

District Attorney Suzanne Valdez, meanwhile, argued that Drake had intended to kill Holladay early on in the altercation. She showed Facebook messages that Drake sent to a roommate about 20 minutes before the shooting occurred: “I’m gon shoot him with the 410,” one of Drake’s messages read, referring to a shotgun. The roommate’s reply read: “Do it.”

Two of the people who were in the house during the events leading up to the shooting — another man who lived at the house and a woman who was Drake’s girlfriend at the time — testified on Tuesday.

The man who lived in the house said he was home alone and remembered waking up to find Holladay in the house; he said he wasn’t sure how Holladay got inside. He said that Holladay started putting things in his pockets and shoving him.

The witness said he didn’t know Holladay personally, but that Drake did. He said he called Drake, who was in Baldwin City at the time, and told him to come back to the house.

Drake and his girlfriend then drove back to Lawrence, and Drake’s girlfriend testified that Drake spoke with Holladay and tried to convince him to leave. She said that Holladay refused to leave or give back the items that he had put in his pockets, and that she then left the house to buy cigarettes. When she returned, she said Drake’s stepmother was also at the house and the situation was much more tense.

Eventually, Drake’s girlfriend said she, Drake, the stepmother and the other resident of the house tried to physically push Holladay out of the front door. She said that Holladay hit her in the face and hit Drake’s stepmother in the head with the door. She then said that Drake left to get a 9mm handgun from another room.

The other resident of the house and Drake’s girlfriend both said that Drake pointed the gun at Holladay and warned that he would shoot if Holladay didn’t leave. A few seconds later, the witnesses said, Drake shot Holladay.

Immediately after the shooting, they said, Drake went back into the house and called 911.

Koenig said that when police arrived, Drake was compliant and cooperated with officers.

The trial, which is scheduled to last 10 days, will continue on Wednesday. Drake is being held in the Douglas County Jail in lieu of $750,000 bond.