Pool via Getty Images fileCOMPTON, Calif. - The man accused of killing the sister of tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams pleaded innocent Tuesday.
A Jan. 15 pretrial hearing was scheduled for Aaron Michael Hammer. He could face life in prison if convicted of murdering Yetunde Price, 31, who was shot in September.
Price was a registered nurse and beauty shop owner. She also was a personal assistant to her sisters, who began their tennis careers in Compton before moving to Florida in their teens.
Hammer is charged with murder and with possession of a firearm by a felon because of previous convictions for check forgery and commercial burglary.
He is in custody on $1 million bail.
At an earlier hearing, a Los Angeles County sheriff’s detective said Hammer acknowledged firing about six shots from a .22-caliber rifle during the shooting.
But prosecutors have said the shot that killed Price did not come from a .22-caliber weapon.
“He’s not the one that fired the fatal shot. He shot independent of the person that fired the AK-47” that killed Price, defense attorney Michael Clark said after Tuesday’s hearing.
An assault rifle was found after the shooting. No other arrests have been made.
The United States swept favored Switzerland out of the Davis Cup on Saturday when Mardy Fish and Mike Bryan beat Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3.
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