After a long in-chambers discussion, we're back and starting the morning testimony in the #JussieSmollett trial. Defense calls Anthony Moore, the security guard at Smollett's building.
Moore was making rounds near the Chicago Burger Company on the west side of the building on the night of the attack. He heard someone coming and saw what appeared to be a "white male" coming at him in a ski mask. "I startled him." He saw a second person too but not his face.
Moore says he saw a third person by the stairs on all fours "like he was looking for something."
Smollett attorney Shay Allen asks: When you use a flashlight, you can tell whether someone is white or black, right?
Yes
Shining a flashlight in someone's face is not going to change a person’s skin color is it?
No.
Moore says he twice reported what he saw to Chicago police
Yes
Shining a flashlight in someone's face is not going to change a person’s skin color is it?
No.
Moore says he twice reported what he saw to Chicago police
Almost a year later, on Jan. 9, 2020, Moore says he was interviewed by the special prosecutors and told them the same thing. He signed a statement that they typed up... only it does NOT say he saw a white male but that it was "possible" he was mistaken by the flashlight
Moore said he had been in the building for hours and"felt pressured and threatened to put something out there that I didn’t see."
Allen asked Moore to point to the person who pressured him. He pointed to the lawyers at the prosecutors' table and said it was the one in "blue." I didn't hear exactly who was identified but Sam Mendenhall appears to be the only lawyer in blue.
On cross now, prosecutors showing Moore surveillance video. The logical fallacy in all of this, of course, is that the Onsundairo brothers are Black. And no one is really disputing that they did the beating... just whether it was a hoax or real.
Maybe it's because they drank a lot of coffee waiting for trial to begin, but jurors seem extra interested in this testimony. Leaning forward a peering at the screen as the surveillance video plays.
Moore testifies that he thought all three guys were just goofing around. He heard laughing as the two suspects passed. And he didn't go help the third guy on the street because he didn't think he was injured.
Prosecutor now having Moore look at this photo. He confirms that, yes, both of these guys are Black: 
A quick redirect of Moore and he is off the stand. On a quick break.
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