By SANDY McGEE
PROVIDENCE — A former Woonsocket man is in court facing murder charges in connection with a 2006 shooting in Pawtucket that left one woman dead and another woman seriously injured.

 The murder trial, which began Tuesday in Providence County Superior Court, is expected to last a week and a half.

Barry Offley, 20, of Woonsocket and Providence, is charged with the murder of Jessica C. Imran, then 24, who was shot to death in an execution-style slaying in her Pawtucket home.

Offley faces several charges, including murder, conspiracy to murder, assault with intent to murder and discharging a firearm, death resulting. The homicide occurred on July 27, 2006, when Offley and his then 28-year-old uncle, Alonzo P. Shelton of Central Falls, allegedly forced their way into Imran’s apartment around 4 a.m. on Lawn Avenue in Pawtucket.

Prosecutors claim Imran’s roommate, Julie Lang, who was at the apartment at the time of the shooting, was the intended target. Lang, 28, was left for dead on July 27, but managed to survive after being shot four times.

Lang testified earlier this week that Offley shot Imran and attempted to shoot her next, but the bullets missed, twice. Shelton, according to Lang, allegedly took the gun from Offley, reloaded it and shot her.

Assistant Attorney General Stacey P. Veroni asked Lang what she saw that night.

“He (Offley) was holding a gun pointed at Jessica,” Lang said. “I saw Barry shoot Jessica, and I saw Jessica fall to the floor.”

Lang’s testimony contradicted opening statements made by Offley’s defense attorney, Terence Livingston, who said it was Shelton who shot Imran.

During Shelton’s trial, prosecutors repeatedly referred to Offley as “Shelton’s tool” in the murder.

Livingston also said his client visited Imran’s apartment with Shelton because Offley hoped to have sex with the woman.

The prosecutors painted a different picture for the jury. They said Shelton and Offley went to the Pawtucket apartment because Lang, Shelton’s ex-girlfriend, was a witness in a drug case.

Woonsocket police stopped Lang in her car six months before the shooting and allegedly discovered a small amount of crack cocaine hidden in a cigarette pack in her purse.

Lang, who was with Shelton in the car at the time, allegedly pressured Offley’s uncle to tell police the drugs belonged to him.

Shelton, a convicted felon who had just been released from the ACI, was on probation at the time of the Woonsocket traffic stop. The Central Falls man has a lengthy criminal record, including convictions for assault with a dangerous weapon, assault with intent to murder and robbery.

According to Lang, Shelton was worried about years of additional jail time if he took the rap. Prosecutors said the drug case resulted in the murder six months later.

The State Medical Examiner’s Office ruled the death of Imran as a homicide caused by a single gunshot to the head. The murder weapon, a small submachine gun, was never found, according to reports.

According to Lang, both men left the apartment immediately after she was shot. Lang managed to grab Imran’s cell phone and call 911, who directed the call to Pawtucket police.

The police dispatcher misheard the address from a choking Lang, and directed police to the wrong address. At the Lawn Avenue address, police discovered a bloody Lang staggering out of the front door. Lang reportedly told police Alonzo Shelton shot her.

“There is real horror to the way they shot these two women,” said Pawtucket Police Detective Major John Whiting in 2006. “It is obvious they don’t care about human life.”

A national manhunt for the two men immediately followed the shooting. Police received numerous tips after the case was aired on the TV show “America’s Most Wanted.” The men were captured six weeks after the shooting in a housing project in Ocala, Fla.

In May, a jury found Shelton guilty of Imran’s murder. He was convicted of one count of first-degree murder; two counts of conspiracy to commit murder; and two counts of discharging a firearm in the commission of a violent crime.

The jury also found Shelton guilty of one count each of conspiracy to commit burglary; assault with a dangerous weapon in a dwelling house with the intent to commit murder; burglary; carrying a pistol without a license; and possessing a firearm after being previously convicted of a violent crime.

He was sentenced last summer to serve 72 years, including two consecutive life terms and a remaining 17 years for a previous conviction.

Imran was recently engaged and the mother of a three-year-old girl. Friends described Imran as a woman with a “six foot personality in a four foot body.”