PROVIDENCE — Is Marquise Jones a soft-spoken, respectful “young gentleman” wrongfully accused of doing an awful crime at the time he was actually just babysitting and playing video games at his sister-in-law’s apartment?

Or is Marquise Jones someone who runs with a criminal bunch at the Chad Brown public housing development, stalked and helped to murder a fellow teenager, got caught while on the run, and then wrote an expletive-filled letter from the state prison asking that his buddies do something to make sure witnesses did not give damaging testimony against him?

The first characterization comes from defense lawyer Russell Sollitto, who has described Jones to a Superior Court jury as a “young gentleman” who has patiently confronted head-on all the questions about his actions. And the second comes from state prosecutors.

Both characterizations are for the jury to consider as it weighs a charge of first-degree murder and four other counts against Jones in the slaying of Brian Davis, 17, late in the night of Dec. 7, 2004.

Smoking marijuana and laughing, Malcolm Pulliam, then 29, and Channing Oliver, then 19, were in a car with Davis, southbound on Route 95 in Providence, when a car allegedly driven by Jones began playing “cat-and-mouse” with theirs, according to trial testimony.

Pulliam, who was behind the wheel, took the Elmwood Avenue exit and stopped at a traffic light.

Jones allegedly followed, and two alleged co-conspirators in his car, Montrel Daniels and Robert Crowell, let loose a hail of bullets with a large “Dirty Harry-style” revolver and a sawed-off semiautomatic rifle.

“That car was turned into Swiss cheese,” Assistant Attorney General Kevin Hagan told the jury in his summation yesterday. Pulliam, Oliver and Davis, all of Providence, were wounded, and Davis died from a brain injury a day and a half later.

After Hagan’s and Sollitto’s summations, Judge Robert D. Krause asked the 12 jurors to begin their deliberations. After 3½ hours, the jurors were sent home and told to resume today.

The trial has provided a glimpse into the sometimes neighborly and sometimes violent world of Chad Brown and its immediate vicinity. Chad Brown has had its share of crime, but while on the witness stand in his own defense, Jones depicted it as an easygoing place where distant relatives and acquaintances are welcome to hang out or even sleep over at someone’s apartment.

“There’s a feeling of community … among … the people who live there,” Jones said.

Jones’ personal story is a testament to the fragility of life in and around Chad Brown, however.

During cross-examination, he said his best friend is Joshua “J-Hood” Perry and that his second and third best friends used to be Kyle Johnson and Joel Jackson.

Johnson, 17, died in a motorcycle accident in August 2004 as he was “popping wheelies” — driving on the back wheel — without a helmet on. He hit a speed bump on Berkshire Street, one of the streets that bounds Chad Brown and where Jones’ mother lives, and lost control.

Jackson, a Chad Brown resident and a participant in the state’s witness protection program, was killed in December 2002 outside a birthday party at a house a few blocks from his apartment. Jackson’s 12-year-old half-brother, Jermaine Ellis, had been shot to death 2½ months earlier at Chad Brown.

Jones himself was shot in the summer of 2004 at Chad Brown. A girlfriend drove him to Roger Williams Medical Center for treatment. When the police arrived at the hospital, they said Jones would not tell what happened.

An expletive-filled letter that Jones wrote from prison to buddy Marquise Durell “Relly” Wilson that prosecutors have brandished as an important piece of the case against Jones contains the postscript “RIP Dennis.”

It is a reference, Jones explained, to Dennis Hayes, 16, who was shot to death near Chad Brown on Dec. 23, 2005.

In the letter, signed “Quesey,” Jones appealed to “Relly” for help with the witnesses who were poised to testify against him. Prodded by Assistant Attorney General Randall White as to why he did not seek help from others in his circle of family and friends, Jones said several of them were in prison, as he was, and could not be contacted. At the time, Jones was being held in lieu of bail in the murder case at the Adult Correctional Institutions, but he is free now.

According to trial evidence, a .44-caliber Ruger Redhawk revolver allegedly wielded in the killing by co-defendant Montrel “Trelly” Daniels was found by the police in a baby-care bag stashed beneath the stairs of the back porch of an apartment on Chad Brown Street that was the residence of Howard Rose, a good friend of the defendant, and Quanita Rose, mother of Daniels’ baby.

The .22-caliber Ruger rifle allegedly wielded by co-defendant Robert Crowell was discovered by a man raking leaves behind the Chad Brown apartment of Terrell “Hell Rell” Bliss, another friend of the defendant. Bliss, 19, and Marcus Brown, 24, were shot 12 days ago in a parking lot at Chad Brown, but neither was seriously wounded.

Brown, his arm in a sling, has attended the trial at least once or twice in solidarity with Jones.

Crowell and Daniels also have been indicted in Davis’ slaying and are to be tried separately. According to disputed testimony by prosecution witness Donald “D-Bo” Barnes, a friend of the three defendants, Davis was killed because he had “jumped” and beaten Crowell at a KFC restaurant and Crowell wanted revenge.

gsmith@projo.com