In a closing argument today, a Suffolk County prosecutor told a Superior Court jury that two men “working in concert” were responsible for the 2007 fatal shooting of 18-year-old Cedirick Steele as he waited on a street corner for his mother across the street from a Boston middle school.

Assistant District Attorney Paul Treseler told the court that Steele, a college student who worked for Meals on Wheels, was standing on the corner of Highland and Centre streets on the afternoon of March 14, 2007, when “a coward snuck up on him.”

Motioning to the defendants – ANTWAN CARTER (D.O.B. 10/13/88) and DANIEL PINCKNEY, Jr. (D.O.B. 7/4/88), both of Boston’s South End and both charged with first-degree murder in connection with Steele’s death – Treseler told jurors, “That coward is before you, sitting right here.”

Steele had locked his keys in his car on this day, Treseler said, and happened to be waiting on the wrong corner when Carter and Pinckney were bent on shooting a rival – any rival. Steele was not a member of a rival gang, however, or a member of any gang, Treseler said.

Earlier in the day, Treseler said, Pinckney and Carter had a conversation about “getting one of those Highland Street kids.” The two men and a female witness allegedly got into Pinckney’s black Pontiac and drove to the area of Highland Street.

“They went and did a ‘recon’ – driving around to see what they can see,” Treseler said. During the trial, multiple witnesses testified to seeing a black Pontiac circle the neighborhood at least three times before parking on Norfolk Street. Pinckney then handed Carter a handgun and a pair of black gloves and instructed him on what to do next, Treseler said. “Shoot somebody, shoot anybody,” Pinckney allegedly said. “Put it in your hoodie. Get ready to shoot off.”

“What did he do? A cowardly act, an atrocious act, a cruel act,” Treseler said.

Treseler told the court that Carter approached Steele and shot him eight times, before running back to Pinckney and the waiting car.

In the hours and days after the murder, Treseler said, Pinckney undertook to devise an alibi by asking family members to lie about his whereabouts when Steele was killed.

While Pinckney devised an alibi, Carter took a different approach, Treseler said. “He’s trying to get [the female witness] killed,” Treseler said. “He wants her dead. How do we know? Because we have his voice saying so on a number of phone calls.”

Carter was “desperate” Treseler said, because if the female witness talked to police “she can tell police she was witness to this horrific murder.”

Urging jurors to review the evidence presented during the past three weeks, Treseler said, “You’ll be left with one outcome. On March 14, 2007, Daniel

Pinckney and Antwan Carter, working in concert, brutally murdered Cedirick Steele.”

Today’s proceedings mark the end of testimony of the men’s second trial. The first proceedings ended in a hung jury on Sept. 22, 2009.

Kara Hayes is the district attorney’s victim-witness advocate assigned to the case. Carter is represented by attorney Barry Wilson and Pinckney is represented by attorney James Greenberg. Judge Thomas Connolly is presiding in courtroom 806 of Suffolk Superior Court.