“Absolutely not!” Porter said. But Porter did not say that in a later statement to investigators, according to testimony.
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Goodson faces the most serious charge stemming from Gray’s death: second-degree “depraved-heart” murder.
The defense is expected to enter into evidence a statement uncovered earlier this week that Freddie Gray gave a detective in March, complaining of a back injury. Prosecutors also say by not buckling Gray into a seat belt during that stop, Porter was criminally negligent.
William Porter’s trial is the first in the most high-profile and high-stakes in-custody death case in the city’s recent history, and whether jurors believe his testimony will likely be the deciding factor in determining the verdict.
Wearing a gray suit and a navy blue tie, Porter appeared exasperated at times but did not seem to get angry during his cross-examination by Baltimore Chief Deputy State’s Attorney Michael Schatzow. But prosecutors say it would have been as easy as pressing a button on his chest for Porter to call for a medic.
“Freddie Gray’s death was an accident”, Di Maio said.
Porter added that it would have been Goodson’s responsibility to buckle Gray into a seatbelt and he didn’t know if Goodson did so at the fourth stop because he left the scene before as the driver was closing the van doors.
Wednesday marked the defense attorneys’ first day of presenting their case to the jurors, and Porter’s testimony followed that of a retired medical examiner.
Porter testified that he overheard someone – who he later learned was Gray – mentioning having trouble breathing, but that was at the first stop when Gray asked for an inhaler.
Why didn’t Porter call a medic? .
“Freddie Gray and I weren’t friends, but we had a mutual respect for each other”, Porter said of Gray.
Porter, 26, faces charges of manslaughter, assault, reckless endangerment and misconduct.
Porter said would come to know Gray pretty well in his two-and-a-half years patrolling the neighborhood on foot.
Gray’s death a week after the injury sparked outrage and demonstrations, some of which were plagued by arson, vandalism and looting despite his family’s pleas for peace. If that’s true, Gray would not have had a medical problem for Officer Porter to notice.
Porter said he had not been shown at the police academy how to put a seat belt on detainees.
A Baltimore City Sheriff’s Office officer asks protesters to move in front of the courthouse where jury selection began in the trial of William Porter, one of six Baltimore city police officers charged in connection to the death of Freddie Gray on November 30, 2015 in Baltimore, Maryland. “Jailitis”, he said they call it. Porter said he didn’t notice any major injuries to Gray, and didn’t read Gray’s increasingly unresponsive demeanor as anything unusual for someone under arrest.
Police Commissioner Kevin Davis stressed that his department is already making changes and reinvigorating its community engagement, “not waiting for the Department of Justice to tell us what to do”. When asked if Gray said he couldnt breathe at the vans fourth stop, Porter said, absolutely not.One of the prosecutions witnesses, an internal affairs investigator, said Porter told her that Gray said during the vans journey that he couldnt breathe. They have also said Porter acted the way any reasonable officer would have and suggested that the officer may have thought Gray was faking an injury to avoid going to jail. He said Gray’s spinal cord was 80 percent crushed.
On the stand, Porter said the only time he heard a man say he couldn’t breathe that day was when Gray was initially arrested. He wouldnt give me a complaint of injury.Gray was a 25-year-old black man who died a week after suffering a spinal injury while riding, handcuffed and shackled, in the back of the van.
Porter said it “felt like an eternity” for the medic to arrive as he held Gray in a “life-saving position” after finding him unconscious. He said it was not common practice to put belts on.
Porter said he was “always fair” as an officer, and that he had certain pet peeves – including littering.
In Monday’s testimony, Dr. Carol Allan stated that it was unknown how Gray received his neck injury.
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The prosection has rested its case Tuesday, so Wednesday it was the defense’s turn, starting with a forensic expert.
