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The jury returned verdicts of not guilty on all charges last night in the murder trial of Curtis Reeves, the retired Tampa SWAT Captain who shot and killed Chad Oulson in a local movie theater in January 2014 after the two men had a verbal altercation that became physical.
I do not predict verdicts, but this finding of not guilty was consistent with my legal analysis of the case, as discussed first within days of the shooting, all the way through to my analysis shared with all of you yesterday.
I covered the reading of the verdict last in real-time, including nearly three hours of post-verdict commentary, so I’m going to keep today’s written content brief and simply embed the reading of the verdict, and link to the video of my lengthier commentary.
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#curtisreeves #chadoulson
Yesterday was the ninth day of testimony in the murder trial of Curtis Reeves, the retired Tampa SWAT Captain who shot and killed Chad Oulson in a local movie theater in January 2014 after the two men had a verbal altercation that became physical.
The defense presented only a single witness, whose testimony consumed the entirety of the jury’s day—defendant Curtis Reeves, himself. Over the course of the day, 79-year-old Reeves was subject to a full two hours of direct questioning by Defense Counsel Richard Escobar, then another two full hours of cross-examination by Prosecutor Scott Rosenwasser, and finally a brief 10-minute re-direct by Escobar.
The bottom line: Not only did the prosecution, already far short of disproving Reeves’ claim of self-defense beyond a reasonable doubt, not make progress towards achieving their burden of proof necessary for a legally meritorious conviction, they spent their two hours on cross-examination of Reeves flailing around pointlessly and actually losing ground on a guilty verdict.
This is a remarkable failure from a prosecution that has had, in effect, two chances to cross-examine this defendant at length and in minute detail—meaning at both the self-defense immunity hearing in which Reeves testified in 2017, and again yesterday—without managing to use that opportunity to advance their narrative of guilt in this case.
It was, in fact, a humiliating performance for Prosecutor Rosenwasser.
Popcorn Shooter Trial Day 9: Reeves Testifies, Prosecution Train Wrecks on Cross, & Defense Rests
https://lawofselfdefense.com/podcast/popcorn-shooter-trial-day-9-reeves-testifies-prosecution-train-wrecks-on-cross-defense-rests/
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#curtisreeves #chadoulson
Yesterday was the eighth day of testimony in the murder trial of Curtis Reeves, the retired Tampa SWAT Captain who shot and killed Chad Oulson in a local movie theater in January 2014 after the two men had a verbal altercation that became physical.
The defense presented only three additional witnesses yesterday, all expert witnesses—Dr. Michael Foley, a forensic radiologist whose testimony was delivered in the form of a previously recorded video, Dr. Michael Knox, a crime scene investigation expert, and finally Dr. Roy Bedard, a use-of-force expert.
The reason there were only three was largely because of the extensive arguments made outside the hearing of the jury prior to the testimony of the latter two experts. Unfortunately, much of the argument preceding Dr. Bedard’s testimony revealed a substantive ignorance of fundamental aspects of self-defense law on the part of the court, the same type of ignorance we’ve seen lead to injustice in verdicts in other recent high-profile cases. We’ll focus our commentary and analysis here on that apparent ignorance.
The video testimony of all seven of these witnesses is also embedded below, although our commentary here will be focused on the testimony of Dr. Adams.
Popcorn Shooter Trial Day 8: Another Court Ignorant of Self-Defense Law Sets Table for Another Injustice
https://lawofselfdefense.com/popcorn-shooter-trial-day-8-another-court-ignorant-of-self-defense-law-sets-table-for-another-injustice/
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#curtisreeves #chadoulson
Yesterday was the seventh day of testimony in the murder trial of Curtis Reeves, the retired Tampa SWAT Captain who shot and killed Chad Oulson in a local movie theater in January 2014 after the two men had a verbal altercation that became physical.
The defense presented seven additional witnesses yesterday, if we include carrying over forensic video consultant Bruce Koenig from the previous day as the first witness of the morning. The highlight of the day, however, was the final witness—Dr. Vernard Adams, the forensic pathologist expert witness retained by the defense. Indeed, once again the State managed to score a rather massive own goal in an inept cross-examination of a defense witness, as they’d done previously with Vivian Reeves and others. The expression on Dr. Adams’ face at the end of cross rather tells the story, and can be seen in the featured image to today’s content.
The video testimony of all seven of these witnesses is also embedded below, although our commentary here will be focused on the testimony of Dr. Adams.
Popcorn Shooter Trial Day 7: Defense Medical Expert Smokes Prosecution on Cross-Examination
https://lawofselfdefense.com/popcorn-shooter-trial-day-7-defense-medical-expert-smokes-prosecution-on-cross-examination/
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#curtisreeves #chadoulson
Yesterday was the sixth day of testimony in the murder trial of Curtis Reeves, the retired Tampa SWAT Captain who shot and killed Chad Oulson in a local movie theater in January 2014 after the two men had a verbal altercation that became physical.
The defense presented an additional three witnesses throughout the day. Two of those—Vivian Reeves, the wife of Curtis Reeves, and Dr. Donna Cohen, an expert on aging—were frankly of limited interest, for reasons I’ll discuss below.
The final witness of the day, Bruce E. Koenig, provided testimony that is perhaps best described as tiresome—it did, however, present a view of the movie theater surveillance video that is strongly consistent with the defense narrative that defendant Curtis Reeves shot and killed Chad Oulson under circumstances consistent with lawful self-defense.
The enhanced, slowed, and zoomed version shown in court yesterday was difficult to make out on the court’s live stream, but I share a zoomed and annotated version of my own creation of that video below, for illustrative purposes.
See the text version of this content, including video of all of yesterday's trial testimony, here:
Popcorn Shooter Trial Day 6: Video Consistent with Apparent Lawful Self-Defense
https://lawofselfdefense.com/popcorn-shooter-trial-day-6-video-consistent-with-apparent-lawful-self-defense/
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#curtisreeves #chadoulson
Yesterday was the sentencing of Kimberly Potter over the shooting death of Duante Wright. This was the “Taser! Taser! Taser!” shooting in which then-Police Officer Potter mistakenly drew her Glock 17 pistol instead of her intended Taser and shot and killed Duante Wright as he violently fought lawful arrest against three officers wrestling with him as attempting to speed off in his car. A jury misinformed on the relevant law would find Potter guilty of manslaughter as charged.
Ultimately, Judge Regina Chu sentenced Potter to an effective 14 months in prison, where she will be kept largely isolated from the general prison population. Potter was facing a guideline sentence of some 7 years, which could have been greatly extended if Judge Chu had sought to apply the aggravating factors sought by the State prosecutors.
Enjoy this extensive discussion and analysis of the sentencing. BONUS: Joined for part of the show by Attorney Kurt of @UncivilLaw
See the video & text versions of this content here:
An Ongoing Travesty of Injustice, Moderately Mitigated: Kim Potter to Serve 14 Months
https://lawofselfdefense.com/an-ongoing-travesty-of-injustice-moderately-mitigated-kim-potter-to-serve-14-months/
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#curtisreeves #chadoulson
Yesterday was the fifth day of testimony in the murder trial of Curtis Reeves, the retired Tampa SWAT Captain who shot and killed Chad Oulson in a local movie theater in January 2014 after the two men had a verbal altercation that became physical.
This was the day the defense began to present its case-in-chief, and calling its first witnesses. Perhaps ironically, the first two defense witnesses were actually police officers involved in the investigation, and the third was the man who had installed the theater security camera system and collected the hard drives that captured video of the shooting.
The day closed out with testimony from the defendant’s two adult children. The first of these was the defendant’s daughter, who testified largely about her father’s increasingly frail condition as he aged. The second was the son, himself a police officer, who actually arrived at the scene of the shooting just as the fatal shot was fired, and who attempted to provide emergency care to the fatally shot Chad Oulson.
See the text version of this content, including video of all of yesterday's trial testimony, here:
Popcorn Shooter Trial Day 4: State Rests, Court Denies Defense Motion for Judgement of Acquittal
https://lawofselfdefense.com/popcorn-shooter-trial-day-5-defense-begins-its-case-in-chief-defendants-adult-children-testify/
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#curtisreeves #chadoulson
Yesterday was the fourth day of testimony in the murder trial of Curtis Reeves, the retired Tampa SWAT Captain who shot and killed Chad Oulson in a local movie theater in January 2014 after the two men had a verbal altercation that became physical.
The State moved through three more witnesses, which proved to be their last before resting their case-in-chief. The defense then moved for a judgment of acquittal, a routine motion in criminal cases at this point, which was as routinely denied by the judge. Today the defense will begin to present its case-in-chief to the jury.
See the text version of this content, including video of all of yesterday's trial testimony, here:
Popcorn Shooter Trial Day 4: State Rests, Court Denies Defense Motion for Judgement of Acquittal
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Yesterday was the third day of testimony in the murder trial of Curtis Reeves, the retired Tampa SWAT Captain who shot and killed Chad Oulson in a local movie theater in January 2014 after the two men had a verbal altercation that became physical.
The most important testimony of the day was that of then Homicide Detective Proctor, in the form of the recorded interviews of Reeves immediately after the shooting, because this interview testimony was largely consistent with the defense narrative of self-defense, and inconsistent with the State’s narrative of Reeves as a malicious killer who shot Chad Oulson dead in a rage at being disrespected.
See the text version of this content, including video of all of yesterday's trial testimony, here:
Popcorn Shooter Trial Day 3: Defendant’s Recorded Statements Consistent with Self-Defense
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Yesterday was the second day of testimony in the murder trial of Curtis Reeves, the retired Tampa SWAT Captain who shot and killed Chad Oulson in a local movie theater in January 2014 after the two men had a verbal altercation that became physical.
The shot that killed Chad Oulson also penetrated the hand of his wife, Nicole Oulson, leading to a second charge of aggravated battery. If convicted on both charges the 79-year-old Curtis Reeves is looking at a mandatory minimum of 50 years in prison—a sentence unlikely to be served in full for obvious reasons.
Yesterday’s continued presentation by the State of its case-in-chief was remarkable less for the strength of the State’s narrative of guilt—which has not been very robust—than it was for the strength of the defense cross-examination of State witnesses.
This performance of the defense on cross continues a very solid cross-examination of Nicole Oulson the prior day, but follows an almost shockingly poor opening statement by the defense on Monday morning. The State’s opening was also not great, coming across as intentional deceptive and full of half-truths and deceptive phrasing, as we described yesterday here: Popcorn Murder Trial Day 1: Poor Opening Statements, Victim’s Wife Testifies. You can find our prior coverage of this case covered in detail here: http://lawofselfdefense.com/popcorn
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