Son, 17, Admitted Killing Clerk, Mother Testifies : Trial: Woman had earlier turned in the youth and his younger brother after his alleged confession to the Azusa slaying.

Glaring at the son she turned in to authorities--then breaking into sobs--a mother testified Monday that the boy had told her about robbing and killing an Azusa convenience store clerk with his younger brother.

“He said he had to shoot so there wouldn’t be any witnesses,” Marilyn Ross, mother of 17-year-old Nicholas R. Nabors, said in Pomona Superior Court. “He said he had to put a bullet in his head. I told him he was going to go to jail for this. He said he wasn’t.”

Ross turned her two sons in to sheriff’s homicide detectives in February, 1994, after the alleged confession. After her life was threatened by the boys’ gang friends, police helped her go into hiding.

Nabors is being tried as an adult for the Feb. 5, 1994, robbery and shooting death of Raj Kumar Sharma, 40. He was 16 at the time.

His younger brother, Josiah Nabors, was tried as a juvenile and sentenced in June, 1994, to a California Youth Authority facility until he is 25, the maximum sentence. He was 15 at the time of the killing.

If convicted, Nicholas Nabors could be sentenced to life in prison, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Valerie S. Rose.

Dressed in a severe black suit, Ross, 38, stared stonily at Nicholas Nabors as she testified that she and her two sons had driven to Carson on the morning of the murder to retrieve clothing and other personal items from the home of her estranged boyfriend, Ollie Feagin. While at Feagin’s house, Ross said, she found a loaded revolver in Feagin’s bedroom. The boys encouraged her to take the weapon, she said.

Ross said she took the gun, along with a box of ammunition, and put them in the family van. But she lost track of the weapon after she and her sons arrived back at the Azusa townhome complex they were living in at the time, Ross said. The next time Ross saw the handgun, which police say was used in the murder, was the next morning, disassembled on the floor.

On Feb. 10, Ross said, Nicholas Nabors beat her during a confrontation over his behavior and she called police. They jailed him for several hours at her request, she said.

After he was released, Ross said, she and Nabors went to a doughnut shop to talk about his behavior.

Over doughnuts, Nabors told Ross to never call the police on him again, the mother testified. When Ross asked why, Nabors told her he was responsible for shooting Sharma, she said.

“He said, ‘You know that shooting that happened last Saturday? Well, I did it.’ ” Ross said, bursting into tears and briefly halting the court proceedings. According to Ross, her son said he did it because he was a member of a violent gang in Carson known as SIN.

According to Ross, her son said his younger brother was supposed to shoot the clerk and rob the store, but lost his nerve.

As his mother spoke, Nicholas Nabors listened impassively to the testimony, his elbows on the table, his hands clenched in front of his mouth.

Occasionally he turned and smiled at his grandmother, Elsie Newman, and other family members. Newman, Ross’ mother, has defended the boys and said her daughter is lying about them because she could not handle the responsibility of caring for them.