Opening statements and testimony were heard Tuesday in a 2014 armed robbery case.
Waymon Newton, 37, was charged with armed robbery and kidnapping last year after a reported altercation with a Bryant's Auto Sales employee on Sept. 30, 2014.
Aiken County Assistant Solicitor David Miller led the case against Newton; Newton is being defended by Wallis Alves.
"This comes down to credibility," said Miller in his opening statement. "The evidence ... (and) testimony will decide who is telling the truth."
Alves opened by telling the jury it would be easy to just listen to the solicitor's case, however, "(Newton) is pronounced innocent until you decide otherwise," she said. Alves added she is "pretty confident" that Newton would be found not guilty.
Eartha Herrin, the store employee who claims she was robbed by Newton, was called to the stand first.
She told the court that Sept. 30, 2014, stood out to her because "it was the day I got robbed."
She testified that a man drove up in a black Chevrolet Trailblazer and asked her about a Dodge Durango in the lot.
Herrin said she was the only employee at work that day, and the man said he needed information about the vehicle to take to the bank.
She testified the man followed her into her office and made a comment about car dealers making "a lot of money."
She testified that was when the man attacked her with a knife and demanded money from the business.
Herrin told the man there was no money in the store, and Newton then took her purse and left the scene, she said.
She said the man held the knife at her throat when he asked about the location of the money.
Herrin said her purse had "everything" in it, including her personal checkbook.
Miller asked Herrin if the man who robbed her was in the courtroom, and she said he was. When asked to identify him, she pointed at Newton, who was sitting at the defendant's table.
Herrin said she was taken to Aiken Regional Medical Centers, where she received a tetanus shot and 11 stitches on the inner part of her right hand due to a cut from the knife.
Three days later, Herrin was contacted by Aiken County Sheriff's Office investigator Chuck Cain, who presented a photo line-up to her, she said.
During Cain's testimony, he said Herrin picked Newton out of the line-up "almost immediately."
The defense presented a different story.
Newton was called to the stand, where he claimed Herrin was his drug dealer, and he was meeting her at the auto sales store to get money or drugs that he had purchased from her.
Newton continued saying he had conducted many transactions with Herrin previously, but she was unable to deliver the amount of drugs he had paid for at the time.
Newton also testified the reason checks belonging to Herrin were found on his property was because Newton was given the checks as a way to make up for the remaining drug debt.
He said he came to the car lot because she asked him to, and he admitted to becoming angry and going through her purse where he found a bag of pills. That was when she attacked him with a letter opener, Newton testified.
Following the altercation, he left the scene with the purse, saying he thought he could find more drugs in it, he said.
"I didn't make any threats," he said. "I didn't put my hands on her."
The trial is scheduled to continue Wednesday morning at 9:30 a.m.
Will Whaley is the crime and court reporter for the Aiken Standard.