The two men accused of killing a pizza restaurant employee during an armed robbery at Little Rock's Park Plaza mall each blames the other for the fatal holdup, a Pulaski County circuit judge heard Friday.

In recorded interviews with police that were played in court Friday, both men also denied any involvement in the February 2013 shooting at the Sbarro restaurant where 25-year-old Christian Ellis Hayes, an assistant manager, was gunned down and a co-worker, 20-year-old Jashonta Thomas, was seriously wounded.

Thomas identified the men as the robbers, and surveillance video shows the men entering and exiting the now-closed restaurant at the time of the slaying, police said.

The defendants, Deonte Edison, 19, and Tristan Lee'Andre Bryant, 21, gave recorded statements -- two apiece -- to investigators in the hours after the shootings.

Edison, a Sbarro worker, and Bryant, a former employee who had been accused of theft and fired, were arrested about two hours after Hayes was killed, and they have been charged with capital murder, attempted capital murder, aggravated robbery and theft.

The men are to be tried separately. Edison, who is accused of firing the fatal shots, is scheduled to stand trial next month, with prosecutors seeking a life sentence.

At separate hearings Friday, Judge Leon Johnson rejected defense challenges to the legality of the statements, ruling that prosecutors would be allowed to play them for jurors. The defendants declined an opportunity to testify about the police interrogation.

The officers who interviewed the defendants, detective Chuck Ray and Sgt. J.C. White, testified they had read the defendants their rights and the men had signed waivers agreeing to submit to questioning.

Meeting separately with detectives after their arrests, each man said he had been at the mall and visited the restaurant the night of the killing but also told detectives he had left before the shootings.

Edison, the first suspect to be interviewed that night, told police that he and Bryant were at the restaurant just before the mall's 9 p.m. closing time to get free pizza.

In his first interview with detectives, which lasted about 26 minutes, Edison said the two spent about an hour at the mall before leaving about five minutes after closing with Bryant's younger brother, who worked at the Great Steak restaurant next to Sbarro.

Edison said he learned about the shootings when he saw them on the TV news.

Questioned about why he'd been named by the surviving worker as the gunman, Edison said he couldn't explain it and denied having any role in the robbery or shootings.

"I have no clue, sir," he told White. "She's probably mixed up names. I don't have nothing against my manager."

Edison's story changed after he was told that he and Bryant were recorded on security cameras located in the employee-only utility halls behind the restaurant. He said he learned about the shooting from friends who called him after hearing what had happened on the news.

In that second interview, about 25 minutes long, he also said he hadn't been truthful at first because he was scared.

"I've never been in no trouble, never been in the back of a police car, never been in this type of environment," he said.

Edison told the detective that he was not in the restaurant when the shooting started. He said he had just gotten his pizza and left the restaurant when Bryant told him that Bryant needed to "handle" something and went back inside through the employee-only utility corridor.

"I guess going in the store" to confront Hayes, Edison told the detective. "They had been beefing for a long time."

He said he ran when he heard a gun fired.

"I heard the first shot and took off running and I was gone," Edison said. "When I was running I heard ... two or three more shots."

But he still couldn't explain why the survivor told police that he had shot her.

"I have no clue. Maybe she likes Tristan," Edison said.

"After he's pumping holes in her with a gun," the detective responded. "I find that a little hard to believe."

In Bryant's first interview, which lasted about 12 minutes, he told detectives he'd arrived at the mall with a female friend to pick up his younger brother, Exzabrain "T.J." Fleming, at Great Steak, and they had left about 9:20 p.m. without seeing anything unusual. He said he had been outside Sbarro but didn't speak to anyone there.

Bryant said Edison wentto his home later that night. He told the detective that he didn't hear about the shootings until a relative, who had learned about them on the news, told him.

"I didn't even know it was happening until I got to my uncle's house. I was like, gunshots? I was just at the mall," Bryant said. "My brother was like, 'We just left.'"

But he changed his story after learning about the mall security video. In that second recording, about 19 minutes long, he told detectives he had gone to the mall with Edison before the 9 p.m. closing, saying they had gone to Sbarro for free pizza but that Hayes told them they couldn't have it until the restaurant closed.

He said Edison and another man who was with them were egging him on to beat up Hayes because of the theft accusations, but he did not hold a grudge.

The three had gone back to their car to wait for his brother when Edison surprised him by showing him a gun, Bryant told the detective. He said he told Edison he didn't want to have any part of whatever Edison intended, "something stupid."

"You go and do it on your own," Bryant said he told Edison. "He told me I needed to handle up."

He said he went with Edison into the utility hallway to get his brother. The siblings left Edison, Bryant said, and heard gunshots a short time later. Edison went running by them, he said, estimating the time at 9:30 p.m. He said he never saw Edison go into the restaurant.

"Deonte stayed behind ... and the next thing you know we hear gunshots and then Deonte is flying past us," Bryant said, telling the detective he heard at least six shots.

Edison gave him some money later that night, but he didn't want it, Bryant told the detective.

"He tried to give me some money, $200, but I was going to take it back to Sbarro," Bryant said. "I didn't want no part of it. He put $200 in my pocket, and I told him no and that's when the police came."

Bryant said he was not sure why anyone was shot, but he had a theory.

"That part, I don't know," Bryant said. "The dude got it in his mind that nobody's left behind, no witnesses or nothing."

Metro on 07/19/2014