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Chicago police attorneys Jason Van Dyke began submitting evidence after Cook County jurors heard four days of evidence from prosecution witnesses last week. This is what happened Monday in the courtroom.
UPDATES: Testimony ends early; trial resumes Tuesday morning | The first witness testifies to the violent past of McDonald's | The pathologist completes his testimony; trial to resume after lunch break | The defense pathologist minimizes the bullet wounds of McDonald's but two | Defense Pathologist Says Most Bullets Hit McDonald While Standing, Contrary to Apparent Video Evidence | A pathologist of the defense in default of report of autopsy | Chest injury kills McDonald in 1 to 5 minutes, says pathologist | Pathologist's first witness to testify for his defense | Protests in front of the courthouse
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2:48 pm: The testimony ends early; the trial resumes on Tuesday morning
Two other defense witnesses, both of whom worked in the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center, testified to McDonald's presumed past prior to the commencement of the trial.
Tyler Sage, a member of a rapid response team, told the jury that he had to put McDonald's deadlock on April 18, 2014, after the belligerent teenager had difficulty with him and a second employee who was trying to detain the detainees watched television.
Sage said McDonald had to be handcuffed and taken to his bed by force. The teenager continued to be verbally abusive and resisted being handcuffed to bed, although Sage stated that no one had been injured during the incident.
Miguel DeJesus, an admissions officer at the detention center, also stated that on January 20, 2014, McDonald was injured because the teenager was upset to have been locked up that day and wanted his tennis shoes and call him.
DeJesus said that McDonald's was so "not in control of himself" that he suggested that the teen be separated into a separate room. DeJesus said he was able to pin McDonald until more agents arrived to help.
De Jesus said that McDonald, who had just entered the center that day, admitted to being on "the sheet" – PCP.
In cross-examination of the charge against the three defense witnesses, each agreed that Van Dyke was unaware of the incidents of violence at McDonald's when the officer shot and killed the youth on October 20, 2014.
Prosecutors also noted McDonald's youth and never wounded any staff member at the juvenile detention center.
After their brief testimony, Judge Gaughan waived the court for the day, returning the jurors home earlier.
In all, the defense called four witnesses on Monday. The trial resumes Tuesday morning.
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1:59 pm: The first witness testifies to McDonald's violent past
The defense introduced its first of several witnesses called to testify about the violence in McDonald's past: an officer of the Cook County Sheriff who was working in the juvenile court cell in August 2013.
McDonald was detained in the courthouse, testified Joseph Plaud. As McDonald approached the blockage, "he was really agitated, he was screaming, screaming, swearing," Plaud said.
When McDonald saw another youth in the cell, he shouted expletives and asked, "Who do you see? Plaud testified.
Her partner tried to calm McDonald's, trying to take his arm, said Plaud, and in response, McDonald's brought his arm back into what appeared to be an attempt to throw a punch.
"My partner hit him in the belly and that did not really affect him," Plaud said. "I helped my partner to catch it so we could put it on the ground."
It took him three to five minutes to handcuff him as he resisted, says Plaud.
In cross-examination, Plaud stated that he did not know Jason Van Dyke and never informed Van Dyke of the incident.
Under Illinois law, defendants claiming self-defense may introduce evidence of the violent nature and history of the victim – even if the accused had not been able to know the story at the time of the crime. 'incident.
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1:22 pm: The pathologist completes his testimony; the trial resumes after the lunch break
The teas left the stand after three hours of testimony.
The jury seemed tired for much of his time on the stand. In the end, nobody seemed to be taking notes.
Despite intense cross-examination, Teas did not, in his view, waive all but one of the blows when Mr. McDonald was still standing. The medical examiner said that she could not testify to the sequence of bullets that hit the teenager.
Prosecutors have provided evidence that the camera's video of the police's dashboard shows McDonald's falling into the street less than two seconds after Van Dyke opened fire. According to the prosecution 's evidence, Van Dyke continued shooting at the fallen McDonald' s for 12 seconds, emptying his rifle to 16 shots.
The teas were the first witness of the defense. The jury heard 24 prosecution witnesses last week for four days.
The testimony in the hearing room of Judge Vincent Gaughan should resume around 13:30 after a lunch break
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12:49 pm: The defense pathologist minimizes the gunshot wounds of McDonald's except for two
During a sometimes aggressive cross-examination, Attorney Jody Gleason hammered Teas in his view that the vast majority of shots hit McDonald's while he was still standing – a point that Teas n & # 39; 39 not noted in his written report for the defense.
The opinion of the teas contradicts the video showing that the teenager turns and falls on the street less than two seconds after Van Dyke opened fire. Van Dyke continued shooting for another 12 seconds, emptying his gun, according to prosecution evidence.
The prosecutor and Teas also stressed how important it was for McDonald to have a pulse when the paramedics arrived.
Gleason took Teas to task to suggest that other injuries did not matter.
"That certainly counted for Laquan McDonald," said the prosecutor.
When Teas testified that death is a "process", even saying that the heart can beat for a moment after death, Gleason replied, "I understand that death is a process – I mean, we all die, no?"
His response drew a rare laugh from the audience room.
Gleason managed to have Teas – one by one – admit 16 shots – which caused injuries to McDonald's. It was a move to bolster the 16 aggravated battery charges that Van Dyke faces, in addition to the charges of first degree murder and official misconduct.
The teas came back and said that every injury was important, but given the lack of blood, they did not cause her death. She says McDonald died in one to five minutes.
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11:59 AM: The defense pathologist says most of the bullets hit McDonald's while standing, contrary to what appeared
In a testimony that will likely be questioned by prosecutors, Dr. Shaku Teas, the forensic pathologist hired by the defense, said the vast majority of shots had hit McDonald's before he had fallen into the street.
This view seemed to contradict what prosecutors allege can be seen on the video of the police's dashboard camera that shows police officer Van Dyke pulling McDonald's 16 times.
According to evidence of the prosecution last week, McDonald's can be seen falling into the street less than two seconds after Van Dyke opened fire. It takes Van Dyke 12 seconds to finish the shot, while McDonald's is on the sidewalk.
Former Van Dyke partner Joseph Walsh accused that last night, testified last week that Van Dyke had continued shooting when McDonald was still on the sidewalk because the teenager was still a threat.
Presented with the testimony of Chief Medical Examiner Arunkumar, according to which McDonald's was alive for "every gunshot wound," Teas said it depended on the definition of "alive."
"If I say death is a process, I say yes, it was dying," she said.
Most gunshot wounds caused relatively little blood loss, Teas said, probably because the chest injury caused him to lose a lot of blood.
"Are you saying that he died before these other injuries even had a chance to bleed?" Asked Van Dyke's lawyer, Tammy Wendt.
"Probably," said Teas. "I should say that he did not have efficient circulation."
In addition to shooting in the chest and neck, no injury to McDonald's would have caused death in 30 minutes or less, Teas said.
The shot in the chest killed McDonald's minutes or even seconds, Teas said.
The teas also testified that there was probably more PCP in the McDonald's system than the detected toxicology tests, since the samples sent to the lab had been diluted with the blood that McDonald had received during the treatment.
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11:13 AM: A pathologist of the defense finds a defect in the report of autopsy
Dr. Shaku Teas, a pathologist, put aside the autopsy report, criticizing everything, from the relatively low level of experience of the doctor who performed it to the numbering system used to identify each injury. Gunshot.
At least one injury described as an entrance injury was probably an exit wound, she added. And what the autopsy characterizes as two separate shots on the arm can be just one, she said.
Neither the teas nor Dr. Ponni Arunkumar, who testified for prosecutors, actually did the autopsy of McDonald's. Both testified after reviewing the autopsy report and various other records.
Unlike Arunkumar, Teas had specific views on how McDonald's body was positioned at every shot, even standing up to show the jurors on his own body the trajectory of some bullets or the way McDonald's turned.
Most bullets hit McDonald's when he was still standing, Teas said.
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10:53: Chest wound killed McDonald in 1 to 5 minutes: the pathologist of the defense
The bullet that pierced Laquan McDonald's chest was the blow that killed him. Teas testified by showing the jurors photos of the dark red wound.
"It's the injury that caused Laquan's so fast death," said Teas, noting that the bullet has passed through an important blood vessel. "He was going to bleed pretty fast from that."
Without immediate medical intervention for such an injury, a patient would likely die in one to five minutes, Teas said.
The defense questioned prosecution witnesses when McDonald died precisely. A paramedic who testified last week to prosecutors said McDonald still had a pulse while he was in the ambulance, but had lost his pulse en route to the hospital. The prosecutor's medical examiner, Dr. Ponni Arunkumar, confirmed last week that McDonald had been officially declared dead at the hospital and that each of the 16 gunshot wounds he sustained had contributed to his death.
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10:46 am: The pathologist's first witness to testify for his defense
For the second time, jurors are viewing graphic photos of McDonald's bullet wounds, this time with the first defense witness, pathologist Shaku Teas, on the witness stand.
Unlike last week, McDonald's mother, Tina Hunter, was in the courtroom when photos of her son's bullet wounds were posted.
She dropped her head while the first picture of a bright red sore on McDonald's scalp was displayed on a screen.
This injury did not bleed profusely, said Teas, and did not contribute to McDonald's death.
The teas said a gunshot wound to McDonald's neck came from one of Van Dyke's first shots. McDonald reportedly faced the officer and was still standing up for that bullet to hit him that way, she said.
Last week, Van Dyke 's lawyers had always quarreled with the prosecution witnesses when McDonald died precisely and the shot may have killed him. The legal experts consulted by the Tribune expressed confusion as to why the distinction would be so important to prove the defense.
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9:39 am: Demonstrations in front of the courthouse to defend his cause
On Monday morning, before the defense began to present evidence in Jason Van Dyke's murder trial for shooting Laquan McDonald, the number of police in front of the Leighton courthouse was higher than that of the protesters.
They chanted, "From catching slaves in KKK to today's killer cops, condemn Van Dyke and throw him in jail. All the damn system is guilty in hell.
Last week, the protest leaders gave the prosecution high marks for her efforts and criticized the defense's attempts to paint Laquan McDonald as a violent and uncontrollable teenager. Van Dyke was unaware of McDonald's track record when he sparked the crisis, said Frank Chapman, an on-site organizer for the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression.
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