Mike Lehman testified Tuesday he only dated Ashley Bitikofer for a couple weeks before Dejuan McIntyre confronted them.
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The new couple, who worked together at Indiana Sugars in Gary, had spent the second night at a Super 8 motel.
Around 9:30 p.m. or 10 p.m. June 8, 2023, there was a knock on the door. McIntyre confronted him in the bathroom.
Lehman had “no idea” who he was, he said.
Since McIntyre paid for the room, that helped him get the motel to kick them out. Until that point, Lehman assumed Bitikofer’s sister booked it.
He and McIntyre traded words. McIntyre implied Bitikofer was occasionally still seeing him.
“I just laughed it off,” Lehman said.
When they left the parking lot, McIntyre tailed them. Along the way, McIntyre stopped, popped the hood and got something out.
“I said to Ashley, he just grabbed a gun,” Lehman said.
By the end of the night, authorities allege McIntyre shot Lehman and killed Bitikofer.
He is on trial, charged with murder, attempted murder and two gun enhancements. He has pleaded not guilty.
Lehman testified that he was not able to shake McIntyre on the road. Then, he heard “loud shots,” “glass shatter” and “metal torn apart.”
Lehman crashed his 2007 Saturn Ion into a fence by the Merrillville Menards.
Police were called to the big box store’s parking lot, 6300 Mississippi St., at 11:13 p.m. June 8, 2023, after the car crashed into the store’s east fence.
Just then, he saw McIntyre do a “u-ey in the middle of the road” and drive back toward them. Bitikofer was “groaning” from the impact. Lehman got out and walked to the back of his car.
He had “one or two” knives that night, but never pulled them on McIntyre, he testified.
“I was trying to diffuse the situation,” he said. “Nobody was dead. Nobody needed to die.”
McIntyre told him to leave, saying it had nothing to do with him. Lehman refused.
There was also a “good chance” he would just “shoot me in the back of the head as I walk away,” he said.
When Lehman ran, McIntyre shot him three times – in the nose, the leg, which effectively crippled him, reducing him to a crawl, and in the back.
“I was trying to tourniquet my leg with a belt,” he said.
McIntyre walked past him and fired two more shots, presumably killing Bitikofer. Lehman also called 911.
One person in his car was dead, he said on the call. He appeared to be struggling to breathe.
Bitikofer was “shot by her ex,” he told the dispatcher. “Tell my kids I love them and I’m sorry.”
Toward the end of the call, a police officer is heard in the background.
“I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it,” he testified. “I wanted them to hear it one last time.”
He identified McIntyre in a photo lineup.
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On cross-examination, defense lawyer Michael Lambert asked him why he didn’t call the police. Lehman admitted in earlier testimony the pair drank and did some drugs, including marijuana, earlier that evening.
“I don’t call the cops, that’s not who I am,” Lehman said.
He was headed to a populated, well-lit area, but ended up a “quarter-mile short.”
Lehman told Lambert he didn’t expect the evening to escalate as it did.
“I wasn’t certain (McIntyre pulled a gun from his vehicle),” he said. “I didn’t think someone was going to get murdered.”
Earlier in the hearing, two men testified they heard shots as they passed by the scene. Both called 911. One man testified he slowed down after the first shot, then heard a few more. A guy “fell, holding his side,” he testified.
“I don’t want to get killed myself, but this dude needs help,” he said on the 911 call.
The man said he returned to “be a good Samaritan” and “make sure this man didn’t die.”
On cross-examination, both men told Lambert it was dark and they didn’t get a good look at the alleged shooter.
According to the probable cause affidavit, Officers found Lehman, still alive, north of the fence. He was airlifted to the University of Chicago hospital.
Bitikofer was found south of the fence. She was pronounced dead at the scene at 2:15 a.m. Her death was ruled a homicide.