BRENTWOOD – The Manchester man who shot and killed Jason Violette during a 2007 home invasion in Derry recalled how he struggled with Violette while his fellow robbers ran.

Violette was armed and got at his gun, but Christopher Gagne, 27, already had a MAC 11 submachine gun pointed at him.

"Me and Jason struggled," Gagne said, recalling how he then pulled down his bandanna used to hide his face. "I took off my face mask so I could talk to him. We started struggling. He pulled out the gun. I cocked the gun, closed my eyes and pulled the trigger."

Prosecutors say Andre Rivera, an alleged accomplice and mastermind of the burglary, shares as much blame as Gagne for Violette's killing. Rivera spent his second day on trial yesterday for accomplice to second-degree murder in Rockingham County Superior Court.

Violette was killed on Aug. 12, 2007 inside his home on Hampstead Road in Derry. He was expecting Troy Whipple, a former laborer in his construction business, to come by and purchase some marijuana. Whipple, 26, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder last week.

Instead, he soon learned he was set up. Three men stormed through his basement-floor bedroom door and surrounded him.

Gagne told jurors yesterday that despite smoking marijuana daily and taking ecstasy for days straight, he clearly remembers shooting Violette to death.

"I live with it every day," Gagne said. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder last year as part of a plea deal that required him to testify against Rivera.

Gagne entered Violette's home with Rivera, 21, and Jordan Webster, 20, also of Derry, and flanked Violette as Gagne pointed the submachine gun at Violette, according to Gagne's testimony.

Gagne said he remembered Rivera starting to fight with Violette in the upstairs kitchen of his home on Hampstead Road. It was then Gagne noticed the grip of a pistol sticking out of Violette's front pocket.

"The handle was hanging out of his pocket," Gagne said. "I screamed he had a gun and get the gun and they ran. (They ran) downstairs."

Defense lawyers spent yesterday quizzing Gagne about his memory and his motivation for testifying. Gagne, who awaits sentencing, is expected to serve 22 years to life in state prison.

Defense lawyer Patrick Fleming grilled Gagne about statements he made to police after his arrest, which claimed the other robbers did not know he was carrying a gun.

Gagne said the gun was the starting point of the conversation to rob Violette. Gagne had kept the gun behind his brother's apartment on South Avenue in Derry, where discussion about robbing Violette started, he said.

When he wasn't using the gun, he kept it in a garbage bag in the woods behind the apartment building.

After the murder, Gagne said he went back to those woods.

"I took the clip out of the gun, took all the bullets out of the gun and threw the bullets in the stream," he said.

Before the robbery, Gagne said he had wanted to sell the firearm but Rivera had convinced him to keep it.

"He told me I shouldn't sell the gun because it would give you respect on the streets," Gagne said. Testimony is expected to resume today.