Jakiem Wilson was able to get two of his friends to help him conceal that he'd killed his wife.

Not very well did they conceal it, mind you, and as a result, all three face stretches in prison -- and one possibly in the death chamber at Central Prison.

The three men have all admitted their complicity in the case -- Wilson to killing his wife, Nneka, and Roderick Howell and Jamie Holder to bumblingly trying to help him make it look as though the killing was a retaliation slaying aimed at Jakiem Wilson.

Howell testified that Wilson called him after fatally stabbing his wife and said, "It's done. It's done."

When Howell expressed skepticism, he said, Wilson placed the phone next to his dying wife's mouth so he could hear her final gasps.

Wilson then drove to the home Howell shared with his brothers, a sister, his hardworking father and, sometimes, Holder.

" 'I'm on my way to pick y'all up,' " Howell quoted Wilson as saying.

Instead of saying "We ain't here" or "Fuhgeddaboutit," though, Howell recalled saying, "All right."

Both men, aware of what had happened, nonetheless jumped into the car -- reluctantly, they said -- and rode over to Wilson's house and, most likely, into prison.

Those of us who've been 18 remember how easily influenced we could sometimes be, how we wanted to fit in, to belong. That need to belong is, experts say, the reason so many young people join gangs -- even homemade "gangs" such as the one Wilson, Holder, Howell and a fourth man formed. It's also the only reason I can think of that Howell and Holder would take blood-drenched rags from Wilson and start writing cryptic messages on walls and the floor.

If your only encounter with a courtroom is watching a murder trial on "Law & Order," that is definitely not the same as watching one while seated in the courtroom.

The grief in Courtroom 215 was palpable. Family members of the victim tried to console one another during the most gruesome parts of the testimony, and Howell's older brother struggled to control his emotions during his brother's testimony. He didn't always succeed.

Nor did Nneka Wilson's stepfather, James Hill. When Howell demonstrated how Jakiem Wilson "finished her off," Hill tried to cross over the railing to get to Wilson.

Hill, short but powerfully built, was gently restrained by a consoling and understanding Wake County sheriff's deputy, who rubbed his back and whispered into his ear until Hill regained his composure.

I sat behind Howell's father, Ronald, who sat behind Hill. Ronald Howell leaned forward, rocking or nodding his head in support during the most intense portions of his youngest son's testimony. Roderick Howell said that as the doomed trio drove away from the house, Wilson stopped and sent him back in to retrieve a potentially damning hairbrush that had been used to clean up blood.

He testified that he didn't go back into the house but stopped on the back porch.

"I stood there and prayed. ... I asked God for forgiveness for the role I had played. ... I prayed for his wife."

As I listened to his testimony, I prayed, too -- for all the young men who think a gang offers them anything besides a trip to prison -- or to death row.

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