Catherine Jenkins saw little of the crime, shed no tears and testified for just 11 minutes -- but the emotional impact of her presence was hard to ignore.

She sported a yellow sundress on the stand, white plastic beads in her braids. And as if remembering a bad dream, Catherine said, she described her big sister Sherdavia dying before her, a gaping gunshot wound to the neck.

Catherine, now 11 and the first witness in the Damon Darling murder trial, told Miami-Dade jurors Tuesday about the sunny July 2006 afternoon that she and her 9-year-old sister were playing outside with dolls and had to escape the crossfire of Darling's gun battle with another man in Liberty City.

``I ran into the house,'' Catherine told prosecutor Monica Gordo. ``She tried to run but didn't make it.''

Gurgling, Sherdavia bled to death just inside the doorway of her home, cradled by her mother. An assault-rifle bullet had pierced the right side of her neck, below the ear.

``Immediately paralyzing her -- internally decapitating her,'' the prosecutor said.

Catherine's testimony, along with her mother Sheronne Jenkins's immediately afterward, was brief. Darling's defense attorney did not ask them questions.

Their accounts laid the framework for a case that roiled Liberty City, spurred vigils and heightened police presence in the poverty-stricken housing projects known as the ``Pork 'n Beans.''

Darling, 24, doesn't dispute involvement in a vicious firefight with Leroy ``Yellowman'' Larose, 31. But Darling says his actions were justifiable under Florida's 2005 ``Stand Your Ground'' law, which eliminated a citizen's duty to retreat before using deadly force to confront an attacker who poses an imminent threat.

Defense attorney Jonathan Meltz, in his opening statement, contended that Larose was to blame.

The defense version: Larose, out to kill Darling for an unspecified beef, had sought out Darling in the weeks leading up to the shooting. That afternoon, Larose parked around the corner, sneaked into the projects on foot and pointed a gun at Darling.

``He lifted his little friend, his .44 Magnum. He just walked straight down, focusing on one thing: That man, Damon Darling, sitting on a porch doing nothing wrong,'' Meltz said.

Darling ``chose life, and he shot and shot and shot at Yellowman before Yellowman could shoot and kill him,'' Meltz said.

Under pressure to find a child killer, Meltz said, Miami police ignored a third man, who wielded an assault rifle. And prosecutors made a ``sweetheart deal'' with Larose, who pleaded guilty to murder, was sentenced to seven years in prison and agreed to testify against Darling.

But prosecutors disputed the third-man theory and countered that Darling was the culprit all along.

Their version: Larose had gone to the projects, as he did often, to buy marijuana. His suppliers weren't there. While leaving, he ran into Darling -- who Larose said had shot at him weeks before.

``Leroy will tell you, all of a sudden, this defendant opened fire, spraying bullets in that residential neighborhood while children were playing,'' assistant state attorney Gordo told jurors. It was unlawful for Darling to use a gun to fire first because he was a convicted felon who was not allowed to have a weapon, she said.

And a ballistics expert will testify that the 20 rifle casings found on the scene could have come only from Darling's weapon, eliminating the possibility of a third shooter, she said.

``The devil is in the details,'' Gordo said. ``The evidence will show this is not a case of `standing your ground.' ''

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