(snip)
BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT WAS AFFECTED BY A COMBINATION OF THE FOLLOWING FACTORS: THE PROSECUTION WITNESSES’ PRIOR INCONSISTENT STATEMENTS, INCONSISTENCIES IN TESTIMONY AMONG PROSECUTION WITNESSES, THE RENUNCIATION OF PRIOR STATEMENTS, CRIMINAL CONVICTIONS, THE INTEREST OF SOME WITNESSES IN THE OUTCOME OF THE CASE, THE DEMEANOR ON THE WITNESS STAND OF OTHER WITNESSES AND THE MOTIVE WITNESSES MAY HAVE HAD TO LIE AND THE EFFECT IT HAD ON THE TRUTHFULNESS OF A WITNESS’S TESTIMONY. THESE FACTORS PLAYED A SIGNIFICANT PART IN THE PEOPLE’S ABILITY TO PROVE THEIR CASE BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT AND HAD THE EFFECT OF EVISCERATING THE CREDIBILITY OF THOSE PROSECUTION WITNESSES. AND, AT TIMES, THE TESTIMONY JUST DIDN’T MAKE SENSE.
YET, IT WAS APPARENT FROM THE TESTIMONY OF THE PARTICIPANTS THAT THE CONFRONTATION THAT TOOK PLACE IN FRONT OF THE CLUB WAS HEATED. THE SUV OWNER, FABIO COICOU, GAVE THE IMPRESSION THAT HE HAD A GUN, CAUSING AT LEAST ONE OF THE GROUP TO THREATEN TO TAKE IT AWAY FROM HIM.
AND, THE COURT FINDS, ANOTHER THREAT WAS MADE BY JOSEPH GUZMAN TO RETRIEVE A GUN. AT THAT POINT, NOTHING OF A CRIMINAL NATURE HAD TAKEN PLACE. BUT, HAVING WITNESSED THAT PROVOCATIVE CONFRONTATION BETWEEN MR. COICOU AND THE GROUP, THE UNDERCOVER OFFICERS BECAME CONCERNED AND FOLLOWED THE GROUP AROUND THE CORNER TO LIVERPOOL STREET.
DEFENDANT ISNORA APPROACHED THE NISSAN ALTIMA INTO WHICH MR. GUZMAN AND SEAN BELL, TWO OF THE MORE ACTIVE PARTICIPANTS IN THE HEATED EXCHANGE, ENTERED.
THE ALTIMA, WHICH WAS DRIVEN BY MR. BELL, SPED AWAY FROM ITS PARKED POSITION, STRUCK DEFENDANT ISNORA AND COLLIDED HEAD ON WITH THE POLICE VAN THAT HAD ENTERED LIVERPOOL STREET. THE ALTIMA THEN WENT INTO REVERSE, BACKED UP ON TO THE SIDEWALK, STRUCK A GATE AND THEN WENT FORWARD AND TO THE RIGHT, STRIKING THE POLICE VAN AGAIN. AS THIS WAS HAPPENING, DEFENDANT ISNORA -- WHO TESTIFIED IN THE GRAND JURY --OBSERVED MR. GUZMAN, THE FRONT PASSENGER, MOVE HIS BODY AS IF HE WERE REACHING FOR A WEAPON. DEFENDANT ISNORA YELLED, “GUN” AND FIRED.
OTHER OFFICERS, INDICTED AND UNINDICTED, JOINED IN FROM DIFFERENT LOCATIONS ON THE STREET.
THE COURT HAS FOUND THAT THE INCIDENT LASTED JUST SECONDS. THE OFFICERS RESPONDED TO PERCEIVED CRIMINAL CONDUCT; THE UNFORTUNATE CONSEQUENCES OF THEIR CONDUCT WERE TRAGIC.
THE POLICE RESPONSE WITH RESPECT TO EACH DEFENDANT WAS NOT PROVED TO BE CRIMINAL, I.E. BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT. QUESTIONS OF CARELESSNESS AND INCOMPETENCE MUST BE LEFT TO OTHER FORUMS.
ALTHOUGH THERE WERE ASPECTS OF DEFENSE TESTIMONY THAT WERE NOT NECESSARILY CREDIBLE, THE FOCUS MUST BE ON THE PEOPLE’S PROOF TO DETERMINE WHETHER THEY HAVE SATISFIED THEIR BURDEN OF PROVING THE DEFENDANTS GUILTY BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT.
TO THE EXTENT THAT THE DEFENSE OF JUSTIFICATION WAS APPLICABLE TO THE CHARGED
CRIMES, COUNTS 1, 2, 3, 4 IN PART, 5 IN PART, 6, 7, AND 8, THE PEOPLE HAVE NOT PROVED, BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT, THAT EACH DEFENDANT WAS NOT JUSTIFIED IN THE ACTIONS THAT EACH TOOK.
WITH RESPECT TO COUNTS 4 AND 5, TRENT BENEFIELD, WHOSE CREDIBILITY WAS SERIOUSLY IMPEACHED, TESTIFIED THAT HE WAS SHOT WHILE RUNNING DOWN LIVERPOOL STREET. FORENSIC EVIDENCE DEMONSTRATED OTHERWISE. THUS, ALTHOUGH THE JUSTIFICATION DEFENSE WOULD NOT HAVE APPLIED TO THAT ASPECT OF COUNTS 4 AND 5, IT WAS NOT PROVED BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT.
ACCORDINGLY, THE COURT FINDS EACH DEFENDANT NOT GUILTY OF EACH OF THE RESPECTIVE COUNTS IN THE INDICTMENT OF WHICH THEY WERE CHARGED.
http://hosted.ap.org/specials/interactives/_documents/bell_verdict_statement.pdf
______________________________________________________
Acquittal was correct in this case.
Thanks for posting that. This describes the facts that any jury or judge would have heard, and while the officers may have been mistaken, they were fully justified in shooting.
People out there don’t realize how fast these things go down. I have a family member who is a police officer, and one thing that the police say is that in certain situations, when somebody goes for a gun, there’s going to be only one person who goes home that night - and they want to be that person.
Glad to hear this. Thanks for posting.
In Cincinnati last night a 25 year old black female was shot and murdered in front of a crowd in the Fay apartments. Not one single adult will cooperate with the police. And, her two children who also witnessed the shooting are missing. But the black people won’t snitch.
BTW, unlike Sean Bell, this victim actually was a sympathetic viction. Read the sorry story and see:
Enquirer 4/27/08 - Moments after watching a woman shoot his mother, a six-year-old boy laid on her blood-covered body.
His four-year-old sister ran after him to do the same.
Neighbors looked on, shocked. The children waited, hoping their mom would wake up.
As their small bodies covered her, they cried, still unaware this violent scene would be the last moment they’d share with their mother.
Jackie Denise Evans, 25, died Friday night after being shot in the chest while walking home with her four children.
That is the grisly account police gave Saturday as they struggled to piece together what happened outside the Fay Apartments complex in North Fairmount.
Investigative work has been hampered by uncooperative witnesses, creating few leads in this heartbreaking case, said Cincinnati Police Sgt. Gary Conner.
“There were a number of people who were standing outside. Not a single person came forward to tell us anything,” Conner said. “The best information we were able to get came from a six-year-old boy who had just lost his mother. He was the only one with the courage and guts to talk to the police.”
The children – believed to be 6, 4, 3 and eight months – have been placed with their maternal grandmother, police said.
According to police, Evans was shot about 9 p.m. in the 2500 block of Williamsburg Drive, near President Drive.
Evans was taken to University Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
“She was a block from home. Another 10 minutes, and she could still be alive,” Conner said, running through the what-ifs of this tragedy. “If she’d walked on the other side of the street, maybe she would have survived. …Maybe none of this would have happened.”
Police said on Friday there may have been a fight before the shooting. They’re still trying to figure out what could have sparked the deadly argument.
Family described Evans as non-confrontational. “The only thing she would ever fight over is her kids,” they told police, according to Conner.
Detectives spent most of Saturday canvassing the area and going door-to-door, looking for clues to point them to the killer.
They were met with dead-end after dead-end, people who refused to tell them what they witnessed.
“Someone saw this. They had to,” Conner said about the large group that was outside when Evans was shot. “This happened over something as simple as a verbal altercation of some sort. For that, a woman lost her life and four children are without a mother. It’s just senseless.
Meanwhile, police were searching for two children who they believe went missing after witnessing the shooting.
A critical missing report was issued for Armisha Williams, 4, and Damerco Jones, 9. Witnesses told police the children were taken by a woman who is not their mother or guardian. Their apartment was empty, and police were unable to contact their parents.
Anyone with information about the shooting or missing children should call Crime Stoppers at 513-352-3040.
http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080427/NEWS01/304270002
It was interesting to me that the accused officer who spoke to the press, after the verdict was handed down, was also black. The ‘black community’ can’t call it white on black crime. I saw the banners decrying the fact that 50 bullets were fired. With the adrenaline flowing, and the number of officers and perps, I’m surprised it wasn’t more than that.