Patrick Lee Apostol claims he acted out of fear when he shot a local musician back in 2020.
The murder trial of 48-year-old Apostol began on June 1 after three long years of legal back and forth, with opening statements kicking off on Tuesday morning, June 2.
Apostol appeared in front of a filled courtroom at the Denver District courthouse, donning a gray suit and watching intently as his defense attorney, Zoe Bernstein, addressed the court. Bernstein never denied that Apostol did, in fact, shoot and kill Zackary Smith, a 34-year-old guitarist for the band Autonomix, on Sept. 10, 2020. Instead, Bernstein said that the death was entirely unintentional and that Apostol was shooting out of fear…