Prosecutors rest case in Meade trial

Published 1:06 pm Wednesday, April 21, 2010

EVERETT — Snohomish County deputy prosecutors rested their murder case against Everett police officer Troy Meade this morning.

Defense attorney David Allen quickly asked Superior Court Judge Gerald Knight to dismiss the case for lack of evidence. He also called for a mistrial. He said Meade was prejudiced by the graphic photographs shown jurors of Niles Meservey, who died after being shot seven times by Meade. One of the jurors fainted at the sight of one of those pictures, Allen noted.

Knight denied Allen’s motions. He found that evidence enough to allow the jury to deliberate on murder and manslaughter charges. The veteran jurist also said that just because a juror fainted doesn’t mean that will hinder Meade’s chances for a fair trial.

Allen then called two former Everett police officers to testify on Meade’s behalf. Both were involved in an incident in 2006 in which one of the officers was hit by a suspect’s fleeing car. Meade and another officer fired at the fleeing car after the officer was struck by the vehicle.

Anne Bakke told jurors that she sensed that a belligerent driver was going to back out of a parking spot so she tried to get out of the way. She was next to the driver’s side door. The car accelerated quickly. Bakke said she wasn’t able to get out of the path of the car and she was struck. She suffered back injuries and said she was forced to retire.

Allen has told jurors that watching a fellow officer get struck by a car played in Meade’s decision-making the night he shot Meservey.

The Seattle attorney is expected to call additional police officers to the stand this afternoon as well as an expert on the use of lethal force. There was no immediate word whether Meade will take the stand this afternoon or if his testimony will beThursday. Allen has said Meade will testify that he shot to protect his own life and the lives of others.

On Tuesday, a Washington State Patrol detective told jurors that Meade was about 3½ feet to the rear and to the left of a drunken man’s car when he opened fire

But it’s also possible Meade was closer to the Chevrolet Corvette, the trajectory analyst conceded.

If so, Meade may have been between the suspect’s car and another vehicle when the gunfire erupted, detective Donald Cunningham said.

Jurors on Tuesday listened to sometimes confusing testimony about where investigators believe Meade was standing when he fired into the back of a Corvette, killing Meservey.

Meade fired eight times into the back of the car. All but one bullet struck Meservey. Prosecutors allege that Meade was not in danger of being run down and not justified in shooting Meservey.

Meade is charged with second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter. If convicted of murder, he faces up to 18 years in prison.

Jurors spent most of Tuesday morning and part of the afternoon hearing from Cunningham. He told jurors how he measured the path of bullets and used computer programs to pinpoint Meade’s alleged position when he opened fire.

Cunningham said he concluded that Meade was about 3½ feet to the left of the Corvette and about 3½ feet behind the car. Cunningham told jurors that the shooter may have been closer or farther away, but if he was, bullet trajectory indicates he would have been holding his .40-caliber Glock either above his shoulder or below his belt.

That isn’t likely since four of the bullets were clustered within inches of each other, Cunningham said.

Many jurors took notes as Cunningham explained how measurements were taken while investigators examined bullet holes in the driver’s seat of the Corvette. The angles of the bullet paths and the bullets recovered in the car helped him pinpoint the officer’s location, Cunningham said.

Allen questioned Cunningham and his conclusions. The detective told Allen it was possible that Meade may have been closer to the car than three feet when he shot, but that he doesn’t think that’s where the officer was standing based on the evidence.

Allen asked Cunningham if it was possible that an officer may fire from his hip, not shoulder-height, during a chaotic encounter with a drunken driver.

Police officers are trained to fire from the hip if they are faced with a suspect in close proximity, Cunningham said, but he added that that isn’t typical.

Allen then said Cunningham was being critical of Meade and suggested it may be because the detective had never shot at anyone in the line of duty.

Cunningham said his conclusions were based on the data and his experience investigating about 20 officer-involved shootings since 2005.

During questioning, Cunningham said the Corvette could have been backed out of the parking spot and may have swung to the right or left. He didn’t say whether the car could have struck Meade, but he made clear that its movements would have been limited.

“The car doesn’t move sideways,” Cunningham said.

Later in the afternoon jurors got their first looks at photographs of Meservey. The first picture was of him before he was killed. Later they were shown a photograph of Meservey dead on the ground outside the Chuckwagon Inn.

A juror fainted during testimony from Carl Wigren, the forensic pathologist who conducted the autopsy for the Snohomish County Medical Examiner’s Office. He was describing the different types of bullet wounds he found on Meservey’s body. Two of the wounds would have been fatal, including one shot to Meservey’s neck.

Herald Writer Jackson Holtz contributed to this report.