EDWARDSVILLE •  Delarrian Davis didn't agree with a school dress code that allowed only black or white shoes.

The 12-year-old Madison Accelerated Middle School student was writing a letter to the school board to ask for a change in the policy on October 7, 2008, when someone sprayed the front of his home in Madison with bullets.

One of the rounds struck Delarrian in the head, killing him instantly.

Police and prosecutors allege that the shooter was 31-year-old Marcus "Butterhead" Powell of Pontoon Beach, who went on trial in Edwardsville Tuesday on a charge of first-degree murder.

In his opening statement, Madison County Assistant State's Attorney Neil Schroeder told jurors prosecutors would show that Powell and Delarrian's stepfather, Kevin Campbell, had long been feuding.

Schroeder said Powell and Campbell fired shots at each other on a nearby parking lot not long before Powell parked his aunt's Ford sedan in front of Campbell's house in the 2000 block of Skeen Street and opened fire. Schroeder said Powell's fingerprints were on one of two bullet casings later found in the aunt's car.

But defense attorney Michael Mettes told the jury Powell was charged after "a fatally flawed investigation" that excluded other suspects. Mettes said police didn't follow up on tips about other enemies of Campbell.

Mettes said a woman who lived across the street and saw the shooting told detectives she was absolutely certain Powell was not the shooter and that the man who did the shooting was driving a vehicle of a different color and type than the one allegedly used by Powell.

At the time of the shooting, Powell was free on bail awaiting trial on charges of attempted murder in the shootings of Delarrian's mother, Sophia Leonard, and another woman in St. Clair County in 2007.

In June, Powell was found guilty in federal court in East St. Louis of selling crack cocaine. He was sentenced to 35 years in prison in that case.