Well, things finally got engaging in the second degree murder trial of Theodor Wafer, charged with unlawfully killing 19-year-old Renisha McBride on his Detroit front porch in the early morning hours of November 2, 2013.
Of key importance was the playing in court–but outside the hearing of the jury–of audio recovered from police recording units at the scene, apparently from personally-worn recording devices of the officers present.
Numerous witnesses have testified over the course of the trial that a mere $56 dollars had been recovered from Renisha’s body. On the audio recording, however, police officers can be heard noting that a $100 bill had been found on her person, leading to one officer responding “No kidding?” This in turn led to a discussion on the officers’ part as to whether McBride had been working as a prostitute and had been seeking to collect money owed.
Later in the trial Detective Gurka testified at length about how he had early on began looking for any signs that there may have been a get together at Wager’s house, such as a pair of drinking glasses or a pizza box, suggesting that he may have been thinking along the lines of the other officers.
There was also audio recorded of at least one officer mentioning that he’d “stepped in some,” presumably blood or brain tissue evidence at the scene.
All of this occurred near the end of the court day, and gave the Judge by her own admission plenty to think about. I imagine the Prosecution, as well, and I’d expect some healthy debate when court opens again in the morning, before the jury is brought back in.
With that said, I’ll merely note that other than Detective Gurka’s testimony the only other witness was the cross examination of forensics firearms officer Kolonich in the early part of the afternoon. And now to our chronological tweets:
Keep an eye right here at Legal Insurrection for our mid-day wrap-up of day 5 of the trial, and where we’ll succintly share with you the highlights of the morning.
–-Andrew, @LawSelfDefense
[NOTE: Images of trial postings from the live blog of the Detroit Free Press have been removed at their request.]
Andrew F. Branca is an MA lawyer and the author of the seminal book “The Law of Self Defense, 2nd Edition,” available at the Law of Self Defense blog (autographed copies available) and Amazon.com (paperback and Kindle). He holds many state-specific Law of Self Defense Seminars around the country, and produces free online self-defense law educational video- and podcasts at the Law of Self Defense University.
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