Sean Nelson Smith fatally shot the 25-year-old son of an Edgewood community activist in self-defense, Smith’s attorneys said Tuesday.

“This case is about the right to self-defense, the right to protect oneself even through deadly force, if necessary,” John Janowich, an assistant public defender, told jurors in his opening arguments Tuesday afternoon.

“You have to look beyond the state’s evidence and wait for the defense to present its case … to see that this incident was justified.”

Smith is charged with the Aug. 11 killing of Samuel Horne, the son of Edgewood community activist Mildred Samy.

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Janowich portrayed Horne as a neighborhood bully, citing an incident in 2006 when Smith was in a car with another man when Horne confronted them. Smith fled, Janowich said, but his associate was shot and wounded in the back.

“Sean Smith knew Samuel Horne would use deadly force against him, because he’d seen it before,” Janowich said.

Janowich also recounted alleged threats Horne had made against Smith at the Belcamp Waffle House the night before the shooting.

Deputy State’s Attorney H. Scott Lewis rebutted the defense attorney’s claims.

“Samuel Horne is not on trial in this case,” Lewis said. “It’s important to remember that Sam Horne is the victim … It was the defendant who approached him, the defendant who confronted him, the defendant who had the gun, shot him four times and murdered him.”

Latoya Singleton, Horne’s girlfriend, was the first witness to testify for the prosecution Tuesday. She said Horne did not have a gun with him, did not keep one in her apartment and did not have one in her car before he asked her to drive him to Brookside Drive that day.

She was on Judy Way with her children when she heard the shots and saw Horne on the ground, she said.

The trial is expected to continue today and may last until early next week, attorneys said.

msantoni@baltimoreexaminer.com