Herman Taylor III was an academic standout, not a gang member, but that didn’t matter to the Heath Street associate who allegedly gunned him down during a mission to kill an H-Block rival, a Suffolk County prosecutor told a Superior Court jury today.

“Here’s why Herman Taylor was killed,” Assistant District Attorney Masai King told jurors this morning during opening statements in the trial of LAMORY GRAY (D.O.B. 10/15/85). “He was killed because he happened to be on Humboldt Avenue.”

Taylor, a popular Belmont High School student, suffered fatal gunshot wounds at about 6:00 p.m. on July 12, 2006, as he ran from a confrontation, allegedly with Gray, a short distance from his Humboldt Avenue home. He died of his injuries at Boston Medical Center later that evening.

Gray is charged with first-degree murder for Taylor’s shooting death. He is also charged with unlawful possession of a firearm, and unlawfully carrying a loaded handgun. He has been held without bail since his Oct. 26, 2007, arrest in the course of a far-reaching, 17-month investigation in the Suffolk County Special Grand Jury.

“In July of 2006, there was a gang war on the streets of Boston,” King told jurors. King described two parties in that violent conflict: On one side there was a group associated with Heath Street – “of whom the defendant, Laws, was a full-fledged member,” the prosecutor said – and on the other there was H-Block, which was associated with an area near Humboldt Avenue.

Unaffiliated with either group and not a party to their violence was the victim, Herman Taylor III.

“Herman Taylor was not a member of any gang,” King said.

“Laws was a Heath Street soldier,” King told the jury. “He was on a mission to Humboldt Avenue to shoot someone from H-Block. And he shot Herman Taylor because he thought Herman Taylor was a member of H-Block.”

King described the sequence of events that ultimately claimed the young man’s life, saying that Gray climbed out of a distinctive white Nissan Maxima on nearby Crawford Street and approached Humboldt Avenue.

“He wore a black hoodie in an attempt to conceal his identity,” King said.

A moment earlier, Taylor had left a friend’s house and was walking toward his home. The two men crossed paths and Gray “beckoned” to Taylor, King said.

“It was at that time that the defendant began to speak to [Taylor],” King said. “The defendant became louder and more animated by raising his hands. Laws pulled a gun from his hoodie and fired three to four shots at Herman Taylor.”

King said Taylor began to run from his assailant, but to no avail.

“The defendant stopped firing, paused, put his left hand on top of his right hand, and fired again,” the prosecutor said.

Mortally wounded, Taylor fell to the ground. A “good Samaritan,” King said, saw him and drove him to a nearby hospital while the gunman fled down Crawford Street.

“The defendant thought he got away,” King said, telling of a witness who drove by the scene just moments before the shooting started.

“She recognized the defendant,” King said. “She knew him as Laws and she knew him as Lamory. What he also didn’t know is that there were surveillance cameras in the area that picked up the incident.”

King is second-seated by Assistant District Attorney Craig Iannini. Prosecution testimony is ongoing before Judge Frank Gaziano in courtroom 906 of Suffolk Superior Court. Jurors will view the crime scene tomorrow morning. Gray is represented by attorney James Budreau.