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GREENSBORO — “I’m coming for you next.”

That was one of the last things the 6-year-old child could recall her mother’s killer uttering in the early morning of Feb. 12, 2008.

She was 4 at the time and, according to a Guilford County prosecutor, she watched in fear as a man came into their apartment and shot her mother three times.

“No child should have to witness her mother gunned down before her very eyes and watch her mother gasp for her last breath,” Assistant District Attorney Al Hubbard told jurors in closing arguments Thursday in the first-degree murder trial of Christon Tucker, 29.

“No 4-year-old child should have to linger in the same room with her mother’s corpse,” Hubbard said of the child’s testimony.

Hubbard pushed those images — the final moments of 23-year-old Tiffany Knight’s life — at the jurors before they began deliberations.

Tucker, who was romantically involved with Knight, is being tried on charges of first-degree murder and possession of a firearm by a felon.

According to witnesses’ testimony, Knight was shot in the face in the living room and tried to flee by running to a bedroom where her daughter was. As Knight struggled to keep the intruder out of that bedroom, the attacker shot around a door, striking Knight two more times. She died at the scene.

The child identified Tucker as her mother’s killer in court last week.

Hubbard also pointed to a neighbor who testified that Knight told her Tucker had put a gun to her head and threatened to burn her apartment.

Others testified that Tucker had a short temper and found solace in playing with a handgun to calm down after arguing with Knight.

Catrina Zimmerman, an acquaintance of Tucker’s, testified that he came to her home crying after the killing, admitted it and worked to create an alibi. Police said they were led to Tucker by a series of text messages — some threatening — exchanged between Knight and the man in the hours before her killing. The texts showed an argument over sex, money and drugs.

Defense attorney Randy Carroll ripped through the prosecution’s case, saying Hubbard couldn’t prove his client’s involvement beyond a reasonable doubt.

He pointed to inconsistencies in the little girl’s story, saying she initially told authorities she hid under a blanket as her mother was killed. He also said family members convinced the girl that Tucker killed her mom after his photograph was on TV after his arrest.

“Karen Knight (the child’s grandmother) assumed Chris Tucker was guilty and didn’t want (the girl) to be afraid anymore,” Carroll said.

“Can you find Chris Tucker guilty on an unreliable suggestive ID from a young child?” he asked the jury.

He said Zimmerman didn’t come forward to reveal Tucker’s alleged confession until the evening before she was to face felony charges in court elsewhere. Carroll also accused police of not doing a thorough investigation, saying officers honed in on Tucker immediately — ruling out other suspects.

Tucker faces life in prison if convicted. Jury deliberations will resume at 9:30 a.m. today.

Contact Ryan Seals at 373-7077 or ryan.seals@news-record.com