Seconds later, Davis said, he saw Mendez pull out a handgun and yell at Rutledge, "Stop screaming at me!"
Davis said he again told his friend to go inside his house and Rutledge replied, "I'm not going to run away from nobody."
Rutledge had barely got the words out, Davis testified, when there was the sound of a gunshot and the teen - celebrating his 15th birthday at his friend's D Street home - slumped into a sitting position against Davis' front door.
Davis was the main witness during the second day of testimony in Mendez's murder trial before a Common Pleas Court jury.
Judge Shelley Robins New told the jury that Assistant District Attorney Deborah Watson-Stokes and defense attorney Lee Mandell would probably finish their cases today. If so, New said, the jury will begin deliberations Monday.
Mandell said Mendez would likely testify in his own defense.
In his opening statement Wednesday, Mandell told the jury that Mendez shot Rutledge but did so in self-defense after the teen reached for a pocket knife.
Watson-Stokes has called the shooting first-degree murder, saying the fact that Mendez went home for a gun after an earlier loud argument with Rutledge proves he intended to kill the teen.
Despite the self-defense argument, Mandell picked at inconsistencies between Davis' testimony and that of earlier prosecution witnesses.
Davis, for example, is the only witness to testify about two unidentified male companions he said were with Mendez when he returned to D Street with his gun.
And to counter Watson-Stokes' portrayal of the snowball fight as typical teen behavior, Mandell emphasized that Davis was on probation for a robbery he committed with his brother when he was 12.
Davis' mother, Tara, was yesterday's final witness, telling the jury how she was preparing a dinner party for Rutledge's birthday before the teens went bowling or to a movie.
She said she ordered her two sons and Rutledge to stop throwing snowballs after the owner of the corner store complained about the boys' hitting a customer.
Tara Davis said she was inside preparing dinner when she overheard Rutledge outside her front door arguing loudly with someone. She ordered Rutledge to come inside; he did, and she returned to the kitchen.
About two minutes later, Tara Davis testified, she heard a gunshot outside.
"I pulled open the front door and Teven fell in," Tara Davis said.
The trained nurse said she told her sons to get towels so she could stanch the blood flowing from a head wound.
Davis said she cradled Rutledge's head in her lap.
"I talked quietly to him, I said, 'Baby, it's going to be OK,' " Davis said, suppressing a sob. "He told me, 'I don't want to die.' "
Contact staff writer Joseph A. Slobodzian at 215-854-2985 or jslobodzian@phillynews.com.
