MURRIETA — A man who allegedly killed another man in a truck-to-truck shooting on the Soboba Indian reservation told investigators that he was defending himself after the victim shot at him first, according to a tape played in court Tuesday.

Joseph Resvaloso, 24, faces life in prison if convicted of first-degree murder and weapons allegations in the death of 41-year-old Mark Walker on New Year's Day 2003.

Both men lived in San Jacinto but were regular visitors to the nearby reservation, where relatives lived.

Tuesday afternoon, Resvaloso's attorney, Karen Lockhart, played an audio tape of his interview with a homicide detective.

Resvaloso told the detective that he had just arrived at the reservation that day when Walker, who appeared drunk, nearly crashed his truck into Resvaloso's pickup.

“He swerves into my lane,” Resvaloso told the detective.

Right after that, Resvaloso met his cousin and friends as they pulled out of a nearby driveway and almost crashed into Resvaloso's truck.

Concerned about Walker's intentions because he seemed very drunk, the youths decided to drive to the home of Resvaloso's aunt.

According to the audiotape, Resvaloso recalled that Walker's bumper and his rear lights were hanging off his truck.

As Resvaloso and his cousin drove their two vehicles toward the aunt's house, Walker seemed to be playing a game with them by stopping and starting in front of them, according to the taped interview.

After about three times, Resvaloso was exasperated, he said, but was not planning to do anything, though he did put his Uzi-type weapon in his lap.

“I wasn't going to do nothing,” Resvaloso told the detective. “I was going to tell them (his family) about it.

“If I didn't have it (the gun) I probably would have got shot up,” he said.

At one point, Walker stopped his truck and put his arm out to call some friends over, and Resvaloso took the opportunity to drive past him, the defendant said on the tape.

“Right when I go past him, he hit the front of my truck. Right when I got hit I heard the shot,” Resvaloso told the detective in the taped interview.

“He shot and then I shot,” Resvaloso said.

Resvaloso told the detective that he saw a black pistol in Walker's hand before he fired.

“As soon as he grabbed his gun I was like, ‘Aw (expletive)'; I was ready to shoot him back.”

Resvaloso said he fired about “eight or nine times.

“I guess he thought that I didn't have nothing on me,” Resvaloso told the detective.

“He was shooting right at me, why not shoot right back?” Resvaloso said at the time.

Lockhart said her client fired his TEC-9 gun in self-defense. Prosecutors contend Resvaloso chased Walker around the reservation before firing into Walker's truck, killing him.