A year after a first trial resulted in a hung jury, a second murder trial began Wednesday for a man who shot an acquaintance at his Punaluu family compound, then hid the body in a banana patch behind his house.

Deputy prosecutor Ayla Weiss told a new jury in her opening statement that Ray Sheldon, a former drug dealer, claims he fired warning shots from a handgun into the air out of self defense, but police found a bullet that had gone into the white Dodge Durango sport-utility vehicle of the victim, Hansen Apo.

Then Sheldon allegedly grabbed an AR-15-style, semi-automatic rifle and started shooting an unarmed Apo, she said. “No words were spoken. No fists have been thrown. Nothing.”

Sheldon allegedly kept shooting Apo “over and over again, without Hansen ever speaking a word or threat,” Weiss said. “His body is rocked by shots …, and (Hansen) falls to his knees, and (Sheldon) delivers one last shot.”

The shooting occurred the night of April 19, 2019, in the long driveway of a residence in the 53-200 block of Kamehameha Highway. Police investigated, but did not find the body that night. They did find blood and spotted the rifle hidden in the car of Sheldon’s girlfriend. They returned April 20 and found the body of Apo.

Sheldon does not deny shooting Apo, but his reason goes back to a 2012 incident involving illicit drugs Apo allegedly stole from a third person, and the following years of threats against Sheldon and his family, said his court-appointed lawyer, Harrison Kiehm, who also represented him in the first trial.

When Apo, who had just gotten out of prison, drove up the driveway late at night for a second time, “Ray, fearing for his life, walked out the front door of his home with a pistol,” Kiehm said.

Apo then drove toward him in a threatening manner and flashed his high beams, he said.

“Ray fired his pistol to make Apo go away,” Kiehm said. “Instead, he accelerated and crashed into Ray’s legs. The pistol flew out of Ray’s hands, and Ray stumbled into a ditch and injured his legs.”

He said Sheldon retreated into his garage, and “grabbed the AR-15 and fired a few shots toward Apo.”

“Ray, shaken to the core, mad, angry, scared, sad,” left Apo’s body in the bushes at the back of the property, Kiehm said.

He called a police officer, and left a message saying he wanted to explain why he shot someone.

The officer met with him and took him to the main station to be interviewed by detectives, waived his right to remain silent, and told detectives “everything,” Kiehm said.

Kiehm said that Sheldon had made constant pleas to leave him and his family alone.

Apo had recently been released from prison, and the evening prior to the shooting, Apo drove up to Sheldon’s house and asked to see him, but his girlfriend said he wasn’t home.

Kiehm said Apo arrived between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. under the pretense of offering Sheldon condolences on his mother’s death.

“Fearing and believing Apo was going to seriously injure and kill him, Ray had to protect himself and his family,” Kiehm said.

Sheldon has been out on $500,000 bail since June 20, 2019.

During his last trial, Sheldon professed to be doing good works as president of the nonprofit My Brother’s Keeper PJKK on Oahu’s West Side.