Author: Andrew Branca

Today continues with the third day of the murder trial of Theodore Wafer in the Detroit front porch shooting death of Renisha McBride.  We covered days two and one here (presented in reverse chronological order):

Detroit Front Porch Shooting case: Day 2 End-of-Day Wrap-Up

Detroit Front Porch Shooting case: Day 2 Mid-Day Wrap-Up

Detroit Front Porch Shooting case: Day 1 End-of-Day Wrap-Up

Detroit Front Porch Shooting case: Day 1 Mid-Day Wrap-Up

This morning saw testimony from five witnesses, among them:

• Davonta Bynes who texted with McBride the night of her death.
• Ray Murad, a neighbor of Wafer's who heard noise before the shooting, as well as the shot itself.
• Michigan State Police Detective Sergeant Kevin Lucidi, an accident reconstruction expert.
• Livonia Detective Wade Higgason, who recovered McBride's cell phone from her impounded vehicle.
• ATF Special Agent Stan Brue, an expert on cell phone records.

This afternoon saw testimony from two additional Dearborn Heights law enforcement officers,  Tim Zawacki and Mark Parrinello. Highlights of this afternoon's events included a request by the Prosecution for sanctions against the defense for a mention earlier this morning of general crime in the Wafer neighborhood.  A pretrial ruling excludes such generalized mention of neighborhood crime unless a foundation can be established of Wafer's personal knowledge of specific crime events (e.g., the defense's proposed "neighborhood crime map" that was excluded by the Judge Hathaway). Also important was the testimony by Officer Parrinello that the peephole in the front door was functional.  A key difficulty for the defense is the question of why Wafer opened the front door.  It was this act that made him vulnerable to potential attack, which is presumably his reason for having discharged the shotgun.  Had he simply stayed behind his locked door, no deadly force would have been required.  One possible explanation would have been that the peephole in his front door was disabled, and therefore he could ascertain the situation outside his front door only by opening it.  That argument's power is now greatly diminished if not eliminated. Similarly, just before the lunch break 911 dispatcher Valentine Pepper testified that Wafer told him over the phone that he fired the shotgun by accident. (This part of the 911 call was not recorded, however, because it occurred when 911 called back Wafer.)

This afternoon I was helpfully directed to a live video stream of the Wafer trial, suggesting the streaming of the trial is not explicitly prohibited, as I had been led to believe Unfortunately the feed was of such low quality it was effectively useless. It seems even the provider recognized this, because after about an hour in the afternoon they cut off the feed entirely. We'll see what happens tomorrow, I guess. In summary of the afternoon, the state brought two witnesses:  Carmen Beasley, the woman whose husband's parked car was struck by Renisha McBride in front of Beasley's home several hours before McBride was shot by Wafer.  It was Beasley who first called 911, and who first communicated with the dazed and injured McBride.  This accident took place about a mile from Wafer's home, the site of the shooting. Also appearing was Dearborn police officer Ruben Gonzalez, who was among the first responders on the scene. Gonzalez interacted directly with Wafer, and helped to secure the crime scene. The defense claims that Wafer reasonably used deadly force in the belief that someone was attempting to violently enter his home. The state argues that Wafer unreasonably created the circumstances in which an innocent person was killed.