DA calls Raleigh store owner ‘a murderer’ in closing arguments of stabbing death case
For nearly three hours Monday, Taiseer “Taz” Zarka took the stand to defend himself in the fatal stabbing of a customer in his downtown Raleigh store, insisting the younger man grabbed him by the neck, kicked at his head and threatened him with a pistol.
But on the last day of testimony, prosecutors dismissed Zarka’s fear of a gun as a manufactured excuse. They argued instead that the shopkeeper picked a fight with a knife in his pocket, repeatedly pointed the knife in his victim’s face, and then jabbed a 4-inch wound in the victim’s heart while suffering only a pair of finger scratches — all over a stolen bottle of Gatorade.
In their final arguments, prosecutors replayed footage of Mark Garrity Jr., the man Zarka stabbed, stumbling into South Wilmington Street and collapsing on the asphalt, soaked in blood. Several in the courtroom sobbed and covered their ears.
“He’s a murderer,” Assistant District Attorney Patrick Latour said of Zarka in the courtroom Monday. “He may not be what you think a murderer is. He may not be what you want a murderer to be. ... He went from 0 to 100 in the blink of an eye.”
Monday marked the second week in Zarka’s second-degree murder trial, which centers on the bloody fight that led to Garrity’s death at Taz’s on South Wilmington Street in April 2023.
Jurors began deliberating on Tuesday.
Addressing shoplifters at Taz’s
Zarka, 61, testified Monday that he approached Garrity while carrying his grandfather’s knife in his pocket, tightly grabbing Garrity’s bag.
Earlier Monday, Zarka said he deals with thousands of shoplifters but only calls the police 10% of the time.
“It’s to do my best to solve a lot of cases peacefully,” he said. “Police is busy. I am busy. It’s not worth it to go to court over a bag of chips or a KitKat.”
In this case, video evidence showed Zarka took the knife out of his pocket, waved the weapon at a struggling Garrity, cut the handle on Garrity’s bag handle and finally stabbed Garrity as the two of them struggled in the rear of the Taz’s store. Zarka testified Monday that Garrity threatened him and said, “I’ll stick a pistol up your ass.”
Latour, though, told jurors that no other witnesses heard the threat of a pistol, and none of the customers in the store reacted as if anyone were threatening to open fire. Rather, he said, they filmed the scuffle with comments such as, “On my mama, that’s sad.”
Garrity was holding ice cream in one hand and his bag in the other, Latour said, and could not have pried away Zarka’s hands as the shopkeeper testified.
“Mark had both hands full,” Latour said. “That man wasn’t in danger of anything other than a freezer burn from a Breyer’s ice cream.”
Why didn’t Zarka call the police initially?
Under fiery cross-examination, Zarka said he chose not to call police before approaching Garrity with a knife; that he had not actually seen Garrity steal the Gatorade; and that his customer, despite his threat, had no gun.
“It was a $3.39 Gatorade that started all this, wasn’t it?” Latour asked.
“It started with somebody aggressively refusing to open his bag,” Zarka said. “Maybe I’ll give it to him free. ... Why he doesn’t say, ‘I’m sorry, Mr. Taz. I don’t have anything. I’m thirsty.’”
Defense attorney Karl Knudsen reminded jurors in his closing arguments that toxicology reports showed Garrity had Fentanyl and cocaine in his system during that April 6, 2023 encounter, and that “those things affect people’s behavior.”
Zarka and other witnesses have repeatedly testified about crime on the Wilmington Street block near the downtown Raleigh bus station, and the shopkeeper has estimated thousands of thefts from his store.
“If Taz closed the door and called the cops every time somebody tried to steal something from him, he’d never get anything done,” Knudsen said. “And neither would the cops.”
Struggle over a bag, Gatorade
Zarka portrayed Garrity, the customer, as the aggressor in their struggle, testifying that he pulled backward on the bag. His aggressiveness led to Zarka pulling out the knife.
“I held it in the air to show him don’t try anything bad,” Zarka said. “I’m protected, too.”
As the two struggled over the bag, Zarka said he asked a Taz’s employee several times to call 911. He told Latour that he tried his best to keep his hands away from Garrity.
“Except for the parts when your hands were plunging the knife in him,” Latour said.
At first, Zarka said he could only remember one time he stabbed his customer — not three. He recalled a moment near the end of their fight, when he said Garrity was pushing him down toward the floor and he came back up with the knife. As Latour pressed him, Zarka said he guessed Garrity’s other two stab wounds happened while they were struggling near a Red Bull cooler in the store.
Latour: Mr. Zarka, there never was a pistol, was there?
Zarka: As we found out later.
Latour: There certainly was a knife, though.
Zarka: In my hand.
This story was originally published December 16, 2024 at 1:47 PM.