Ayubullo Mohammad-Daud is blaming “inattention” as the reason he says he “accidentally” drove a stolen van onto a sidewalk, striking and killing a man who had beaten him in a street fight less than an hour earlier.“I accidentally lost control ’cause I reached for a phone on the ground and (was) not paying attention,” Mohammad-Daud testified in front of a Superior Court jury Monday. “I had no idea that somebody got hit,” he said.The 23-year-old has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the late-afternoon hit-and-run death of Steven Doyle, 27, who was riding a bike on George St., between Shuter and Gerrard Sts., on Aug. 15, 2016.On Monday, Mohammad-Daud repeatedly called prosecutor Karen Simone a liar when she challenged his testimony that he returned to George St. to score heroin — not settle a score — despite a witness hearing him tell Doyle “I’ll be back” after the two got into an altercation.“I don’t even know the person,” Mohammad-Daud said, adding it was “a very tragic day of my addiction to heroin, of wanting heroin.” Read more: Murder trial opens for man accused of deliberately driving van at cyclistWearing a collegiate-style leather jacket with his dark hair pulled up into a large bun, Mohammad-Daud sometimes smiled and giggled during his animated testimony and made sudden requests to sip water.After he denied earlier meeting Doyle, Simone played surveillance footage of the two interacting on George St. an hour before he returned.“I’m the person on the street, how would you know,” Mohammad-Daud said. “May I tell you something, everything you’re saying is a very untruthful thing and it’s sad that you’re saying this ... in front of normal people.”Simone told Mohammad-Daud he was the one lying to the jury and said he stole the van with the intention of returning to George St., because he was ...
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