The more questions witnesses answered in the McKinney v. Duplain civil case Friday, the more muddled the trial became.
Eye witnesses had different views on how many shots were fired, from where the shots were fired and what Michael McKinney was doing when he was shot by Ball State Police Officer Robert Duplain. Even a husband and wife, who were watching from the same second-story window the events of Nov. 8, 2003, unfold, had a different view on what happened.
McKinney's attorney Geoffrey Fieger called three eye witnesses to the stand Friday, including Michael and Nancy Ellis, the next-door neighbors of Jane Poole, the woman in whose backyard McKinney was shot and killed by Duplain.
After Poole called 911 when she found McKinney pounding on her back door, she then called the Ellis residence, her neighbors to the west on North Street. She told them not to come over because the police had already been called, so Michael and Nancy Ellis watched her backyard from their second floor.
Despite watching from the same window, Michael and Nancy Ellis had slightly but significantly different views of the McKinney shooting.
Nancy Ellis said she saw McKinney stumbling around as he was walking away from Poole's house. She described him as swaying back and forth trying to steady himself. As Duplain approached the backyard, Nancy Ellis said she heard him say "Hey, hey." McKinney looked over to one side and then took a quick leap toward Duplain, coming forward very quickly and assertively, and lowered his left shoulder as he made contact with Duplain, she said. During this motion by McKinney, Nancy Ellis said she heard three gunshots and saw the flash from Duplain's gun. The first shot was fired, followed by a one-second pause, and then the other two shots were fired. The entire episode took about seven to eight seconds from the time Duplain came around the corner of Poole's house, she said.
Michael Ellis was more detailed in his description, which differed from his wife's in a few key observations.
Michael Ellis said McKinney stumbled as he walked down the steps of Poole's deck away from her house. McKinney then stumbled toward a tulip tree in Poole's backyard, he said. Then, a police car pulled up on North Street without any lights or sirens on. It was followed shortly after by another police car, again without its lights or sirens on. Then a man in a short-sleeved shirt, Duplain, got out of the second police car and proceeded to the backyard at a pace faster than a jog but slower than a run. Duplain was carrying a gun in his right hand, Michael Ellis said.
As the officer came around the corner of Poole's house, Michael Ellis said he heard Duplain say "Hey, hey" followed by three syllables which sounded like "Stop right there." McKinney then lunged at Duplain, reaching out to grab the officer with his left arm, he said. Michael Ellis said he then saw the flashes of the gunfire and heard four shots being fired. The shots were fired when McKinney was about three to four feet away from Duplain, Michael Ellis said.
The accounts especially differed compared to Duplain's report in which he said McKinney had his hands in his pockets the whole time and McKinney never made contact with Duplain.
However, defense attorney Bradley Williams said all three witnesses agreed that McKinney charged towards Duplain in one way or another.
For his final witness of the day, Fieger called a medical expert, Dr. Michael Baden, the chief forensic pathologist for the New York State Police Department, who has worked on several high profile cases including the O.J. Simpson murder trial and reexaminations into the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and President John F. Kennedy.
Baden said scientific analysis, including the analysis used in this case to determine how and from where the four bullets entered Michael McKinney's body, is usually more reliable than eye witness accounts.
None of the eye witness accounts given Friday exactly match the findings of the autopsy. Baden supported earlier work done by forensic pathologist Werner Spitz, who testified Wednesday. Baden said two bullets entered McKinney's back and left arm from a distance of about three to five feet, and then two bullets entered McKinney's chest and face, with the bullet to the face being the last bullet fired from a range of about six inches. After recreating the angle of the shots, Baden said McKinney must have been much lower than Duplain when he was shot the last two times. Assuming Duplain was standing straight, McKinney would have had to be close to the ground with his head facing toward the ground, Baden said.
Fieger emphasized the fact that if McKinney's left arm was shot from a distance of three to five feet he would not have been able to reach out with the arm because it was broken by the bullet, which left the arm limp.
The attorneys also spent part of Friday's trial trying to prove bias.
The Ellises and Jane Poole, who also testified Friday, are all connected to lead defense attorney Scott Shockley in some way. The Ellises are clients of Shockley, and Michael Ellis, an architect, designed Shockley's law office.
On the other side, Williams said Baden is a friend of Fieger's and has worked with him on a handful of cases over the years.
Thursday's witnesses:David Balash - a Michigan State Police ballistics expert
Joe Wehner - a former Ball State Police Chief
Donna Winters deposition - was referenced in court
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