A witness described watching his lifelong friend David Cox allegedly murder his other friend Raymond (Yankee) Rawlins during his 31st birthday party.Michael Parsons claimed he recognised Mr Cox by his eyes, despite him having a hood pulled over his head as he opened fire. Mr Cox, also 31, is accused of being one of two gunmen who killed Mr Rawlins with 16 shots as he entered the Spinning Wheel nightclub early on August 9, 2010.He’s on trial at Supreme Court accused of premeditated murder and using a firearm to commit murder, which he denies.Yesterday, Mr Parsons told the trial it was his birthday party that night. He was stationed at the door to the Court Street nightclub handing out tickets when Mr Rawlins, 47, walked in as an invited guest.A man in a blue rain jacket, who Mr Parsons alleges was Mr Cox, came to the door in “an aggressive way”.He said the man entered the club “a split second” behind Mr Rawlins who had just gone through the metal detector.Mr Parsons said Mr Rawlins, who he called “Daddy” was smiling and greeting a lady party guest when the man in the blue jacket nudged him in the back, causing him to turn.“What I heard next was one shot followed by another but after that first shot I jumped off my chair where I was,” he said.Mr Parsons then went through a security door, away from the shooting.“I remember myself just ducking and running and I found myself going all the way to the back of Spinning Wheel nightclub,” he explained.Asked by prosecutor Cindy Clarke if he recognised the man in the blue jacket, Mr Parsons replied: “It was David.”Pointing to the accused man in the dock, he explained he could see “just his eyes” as the hood of his jacket covered the rest of his head and face.He told the jury he’d known Mr Cox “all my life, since a young child” as they grew up together in the St Monica’s Road neighbourhood of Pembroke.His own father and Mr Cox’s late father were good friends and he also knows Mr Cox’s mother.Mr Parsons said he recognised the accused man’s eyes during the shooting, describing them as “dark”.He explained: “I’ve known him long enough to know him. It’s a way he sometimes squinches up his eyes.”He added: “That’s who I saw. I recognised him by his eyes.”Prosecutor Takiyah Burgess told the jury in her opening speech on Wednesday: “During this trial you may hear about an ongoing feud between rival gangs known as 42 and Parkside.“You may or may not hear that the defendant in the box is a member of the 42 gang. You may or may not hear that Court Street is an area where Parkside tend to hang out and frequent.”According to Mr Parsons: “There was never no misunderstandings between me and David. We were always good friends.”He saw Mr Cox frequently up until the shooting and last saw him at a county game cricket match at Bailey’s Bay prior to it.“We embraced each other in a hug,” he said. “It was just normal. There wasn’t no gripes, nothing like that. We never had that.”Defence lawyer John Perry QC told Mr Parsons as he opened his cross-examination: “Let me make it clear, I am not challenging your honesty; what I challenge is your reliability.”He went on to suggest Mr Parsons may be mistaken in thinking he recognised Mr Cox during the “agony of a shooting”.Mr Parsons insisted he is correct, telling the defence lawyer: “I eat my carrots so I’ve got good vision.”He did not see the second gunman the Crown alleges to be involved in the murder, which happened “very fast”.Mr Cox, of Club Road, Smith’s, is the only person on trial, and the case continues.