When Lumumba Sayers Sr. allegedly shot and killed 28-year-old Malcolm Watson at Watson’s son’s fifth birthday party, the boy’s mother fought back.

Audell Thomas punched Sayers Sr. after the shooting, filming the man as he allegedly fumbled through Watson’s pockets.

“You’re going to jail. You’re going to jail… Stop putting sh** in his pockets,” Thomas said to Sayers Sr. in a video recorded on her phone.

Thomas started testifying on the fourth day of the trial of Sayers Sr. — the former MMA fighter and Aurora anti-violence activist — on Thursday afternoon, with questioning from the prosecution, defense and jurors stretching until the fifth day on Friday afternoon.

The woman was a main witness to the attack that occurred on Aug. 12, 2024 when Sayers Sr. allegedly pulled into the parking lot of the Paradise Island Pool in Commerce City around 5 p.m., got out of his SUV and shot Watson five times, including once in the head, killing him.

Sayers Sr. was arrested at the scene and faces charges of first-degree murder, two counts of felony menacing and two counts of tampering with evidence after allegedly shooting and killing Watson nearly a year after his son, Lumumba Sayers Jr., was killed in a shooting.

According to both Thomas and prosecutors from the Adams County District Attorney’s Office, the shooting was an act of revenge.

Thomas, a close friend of Sayers Jr., said Watson was cousins with a man connected to the death of Sayers Jr. on Aug. 19, 2023 at 28th and Welton streets in Denver. Thomas and Sayers Jr.’s sister were injured in the shooting, while 25-year-old Gulian Musiwa was killed.

Watson has also been noted as a friend of Tyrell Braxton, the man later convicted of the shooting.

Thomas told the court on Friday that Sayers Sr. partly blamed her for the death of his son and targeted the father of her children to hurt her.

“He’s obviously kinfolk to me, so he didn’t want to kill me. He wanted to hurt me that way,” she said.

“He truly believed that he wanted revenge,” she added.

The defense, led by attorney Megan Downing, attempted to poke holes in Thomas’ story, asking why she wasn’t nervous that Sayers Sr. arrived at the party. She said she was not worried that he was there to attack them.

Furthermore, Thomas had been in contact with Sayers Sr. right before the party, asking for help in purchasing a cake and spoke at Sayers Jr.’s funeral.

Still, Thomas claimed that the shooting was purely based on revenge, later claiming that when she was fighting Sayers Sr. after the shooting, he said, “What about Lumumba?”

Thomas did not tell police about this interaction after the shooting.

The defense’s claim has been that there was a separate shooter who actually killed Watson. The man was with Sayers Sr.’s daughter, was dressed in all tan and is being called “Rico.”

Downing has noted that Sayers Sr. did not run after the shooting and did not fire a round from his personal handgun. Rico, on the other hand, did flee.

The defense has also claimed that the shots fired came from a ghost gun that has yet to be found.

In the initial police report, investigators said that a witness — Adriana Jacobs — claimed the man said, “I got you.”

Friday, Jacobs told the court that the man said, “We got you.”

According to Deputy District Attorney Laura Anderson, Sayers Sr. acquaintances told investigators that Sayers Sr. was “obsessed” with the murder of his son and “wanted revenge.”

“I have hurt towards him because he killed my child’s father in front of my kids,” Thomas said while crying. “I have to deal with my kids’ emotions every day. I’m just hurt. For my kids, he deserves to go to jail. He deserves to pay for doing that in front of my kids.”

The trial is scheduled to continue on Monday and is expected to go through the end of the week.