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Lunch recess in #KeithDavisJr trial. This morning yet more Brady violations came to light. State did not notify defense that in 2017, one of the firearms examiners was removed from casework for failure to perform his job.
After motions, jury heard from the first crime scene tech to arrive on the scene of the police shooting of #KeithDavisJr. She was not dispatched to the scene until roughly 90 minutes after they shot Keith.
The next state’s witness was a latent fingerprint examiner. She testified she found a partial palm print on the gun found in the garage after #KeithDavisJr was shot by BPD. The print was never entered into AFIS, which typically returns 20-30 possible candidates.
We will try to fill in some more details after the afternoon session, which will start at 1:30 and probably go til 5:00.
As promised, a little more detail from today. Regarding the numerous Brady violations defense has brought to the court’s attention, defense counsel asked in a hearing (before the jury was brought in), “At what point are there sanctions?” (Cont)
“How does this compare to the fact that since June 2015, Mr. Davis has been in an 8x10 cell without private access to use the bathroom, or daylight, or being able to touch or feel his family in his arms.”
“Think of how many people are in prison right now” on the testimony of these firearms examiners.
“Mr. Davis’s right to full and fair confrontation is compromised” by the state providing documents and info in the middle of trial (or not providing them at all and leaving it to chance for defense to find out and defense’s diligence to investigate).
After the hearing, during which sanctions were not imposed (the judge is going to review over the weekend), jury heard testimony from the crime scene tech referenced above, who was called to the scene long after Keith was shot. She arrived two hours after the shooting.
In fact once she arrived, she immediately went down the alley to look at a backpack. She did not enter the garage until 12:08, 3 hours after Keith was shot in it.
Next witness was the latent print examiner. State had tried to make it sound on direct like four different prints were found on the gun. On cross it came out that one was unusable and two were just duplicates of each other.
Also during cross, she testified that while she lifted two (not four) prints from the barrel, there were no prints found on the magazine.
Defense noted that per her own documentation, this examiner had possession of the gun for six minutes. She confirmed this was the case.
When asked why she did not run the prints through AFIS, which would have returned a couple dozen possible matches, she testified that she “wasn’t requested to.”
She also confirmed she was paid $1,000 to be there today, in addition to her air travel from Nevada, her hotel, and her meals being covered by the State’s Attorney’s Office. The state’s objection to this question was overruled.
Afternoon started with the state playing a call #KeithDavisJr made from jail in July of 2015. They did so without putting a witness on the stand to authenticate or contextualize it in any way. On the call, Keith says he didn’t rob a hack (the jury who later acquitted him agreed).
Next was a crime lab tech from BPD. She photographed Keith in the hospital after he was shot, and she claims not to remember who directed her to do so.
The state presented a photograph of Keith’s right hand, which the tech testified she photographed because when the covers were pulled off Keith she noticed a substance on his hand and that struck her as “unusual.” She didn’t look at or photograph his left hand for comparison.
On cross, the defense showed a full photo of Keith on a bed in the ICU taken by the tech before the covers were pulled down. The state objected to the defense showing any other photos and this objection was sustained.
Defense asked who directed the tech to pull the covers almost all the way down and photograph Keith’s “nearly naked body,” and the state objected.
Defense asked if the tech knew what the substance was on Keith’s hand and whether it could be fingerprint ink, and she testified that she did not know the answer to either question.
Next witness was a police officer who arrived on the scene where Keith was shot and followed the ambulance to Sinai where he took possession of Keith’s clothes.
According to his report, he checked into evidence control Keith’s socks, jeans, shoes, belt, ring, and watch, and some loose change. No shirt. He had no explanation for the missing shirt (note the state didn’t ask him for one).
He had no independent recollection (without being shown the items) of what any of these items looked like.
On cross, he said he was never at the garage. Defense asked if he hadn’t just testified he arrived at the scene of the shooting (which is a garage) and saw Keith being taken on a gurney.
He “clarified” (?) that he said “put in an ambo,” and defense asked “and where did you see that happen?” He replied “I don’t remember.”
He also could not remember what the ring or watch looked like. (Keith’s watch has disappeared since coming into the custody of the Baltimore Police Department.)
Another crime lab tech then testified that she was directed by Detective Mark Veney to take pictures of Keith’s jeans and shoes in June of 2018, three years after he was shot by police and Kevin Jones was murdered. She did not know why he directed her to do this.
She also did not know how many times in those three years the items were processed for DNA, or whether portions of either item were cut away for testing. She did not know if the condition she found them in on 6/29/18 was the condition they were in on 6/7/15.
She testified that on 6/8/15, the day after Keith’s shooting, she was sent out to that scene to collect a projectile which defense noted was a .40 cal bullet (which would be a police bullet)
In a redirect question that confused many people in the courtroom, the state asked if she wasn’t sent to follow up because the first tech (who had testified for the state) missed something. This isn’t the first time the state has discredited its own witnesses during this trial.
Trial will resume on Monday, July 22, at 9 a.m. in courtroom 231. Please come and observe! Whether or not you can or want to take/share notes, your presence is welcome and needed! A packed courtroom is an important public display of community support for #KeithDavisJr.
And a reminder that the presumption of innocence means that the state should be held to the highest possible standard and scrutinized extremely closely, not just by jurors in this specific case but by the public at large and in general. People’s lives are in the balance.
