PUBLISHER'S NOTE: As reporter Alex Johnson notes: "A video made by a
bystander showing Slager
shooting Scott in the back in April 2015 stunned the nation and led to
murder charges for the former North Charleston police officer, who could
be sentenced to 30 years to life in prison if he's convicted."..."This
Blog is digging into the momentous on-going trial from time to time,
when issues relating to the forensic evidence emerge from the fray."
Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;
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"Testimony in the trial of the former North
Charleston police officer charged in the shooting death of the driver
who fled a traffic stop has wrapped up for the week. Michael Slager is charged with murder in the April 4, 2015, death of 50-year-old Walter Scott. Scott's
brother, Anthony, took the stand in the officer's trial Thursday and
said he last spoke to his brother the Wednesday before the shooting. On
April 4, 2015, Walter Scott was pulled over by Michael Slager. Slager,
who is charged with murder in Scott's shooting death, claims Scott
grabbed Slager's Taser during a struggle, forcing Slager to shoot. Anthony
Scott told the jury he was first alerted to something being wrong when
his mother called him the morning of the shooting and asked him to go
check on his brother. Scott said his mother told him something had happened with a Taser. "When I arrived at the scene and saw police tape around the car I knew something was wrong," Scott said. He
said a man showed him a snapshot of the shooting and took him to a
restaurant where he met Feidin Santana, the passerby who recorded the
incident on his cellphone. Santana, Scott said, did not want to give up
the video, but after a release from the North Charleston Police
Department, Santana gave the video to Scott who then took it to the
South Carolina Law Enforcement Division.
Defense argues state investigators botched crime scene processing; Earlier,
Slager's attorneys argued the state botched the investigation. The lead
crime scene investigator was back on the stand Thursday. Defense
attorney Andy Savage asked former State Law Enforcement Division agent
Almon Brown why agents didn't collect certain evidence from the scene of
the shooting. That included Slager's duty belt from his uniform. Brown also said that trying to get fingerprints from Slager's Taser wasn't part of the crime lab's protocol. When asked by Chief Deputy Solicitor Bruce Durant what he Brown failed to do, Brown responded, "nothing." Brown
told Durant he believed there was no "nefarious intent" in not taking
fingerprints or swabbing the entire Taser. Brown also testified that
there was no doubt that Slager and Walter Scott fought before the
shooting, but that nowhere in his notes does it mention that Slager got
tased. Wednesday, a forensic pathologist went over every detail of
the wounds on Scott's body. Dr. Lee Tormos said his wounds were
consistent with those depicted on a cellphone video of the shooting that
was distributed widely and stunned the nation. In court, Tormos
demonstrated where the bullets hit Walter Scott on his body. She
testified Scott most likely was standing up when he was shot, and that
the shots were fired from at least three feet away and possibly as far
as 30 feet from his body. The prosecutor asked her if she determined the exact cause of Scott's death. "I
determined the cause of death to be gunshot wounds to the torso,"
Tormos said. "The most fatal wound was the gunshot wound to the back of
the right chest." Tormos also said the autopsy revealed traces of a combination of cocaine and alcohol in Scott's body. She also said there was one Taser barb in Scott's left chest but no other puncture wounds. Court
proceedings slowed Wednesday afternoon when, with the jury out of the
courtroom, attorneys argued for nearly an hour over the testimony of a
prosecution witness. Cocaine was found in Scott's blood in an
autopsy, and forensic toxicologist Demetra Garvin interpreted the lab
results. The prosecution wanted the defense instructed not to question
whether Scott was a chronic cocaine user in cross-examination. Circuit
Judge Clifton Newman asked Garvin if she could conclude Scott was a
chronic user based on the autopsy result, his discharge from a job for
drugs two years ago, and a marijuana arrest nearly three decades before
that. She said she could not, and the judge agreed that the defense could not raise the issue."
http://www.live5news.com/story/33673236/testimony-wraps-for-week-in-michael-slager-trial-victims-brother-takes-stand