News

Kerrick Trial - Day 12 - August 5

By Mark Becker, wsoctv.com
By Mark Becker, wsoctv.com

What to know:

  • Randall "Wes" Kerrick is accused of shooting and killing unarmed Jonathan Ferrell in September 2013.
  • Opening statements were delivered by both sides Monday morning.
  • Dash cam video will be released during the trial.

KERRICK TRIAL ARCHIVE

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Officer Randall "Wes" Kerrick is charged with voluntary manslaughter in the shooting death of unarmed black man Jonathan Ferrell in 2013.

  • CLICK PLAY to watch a condensed version of the dash cam video:

<script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript" src="http://admin.brightcove.com/js/BrightcoveExperiences.js"></script>
<object id="myExperience4401471739001" class="BrightcoveExperience">  <param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" />  <param name="width" value="300" />  <param name="height" value="169" />  <param name="playerID" value="1885717126001" />  <param name="playerKey" value="AQ~~,AAAAVzySnGE~,GJOLLPGiYiE4yJXtQU0a40DR9fKXyfCH" />  <param name="isSlim" value="true" />  <param name="dynamicStreaming" value="true" />      <param name="@videoPlayer" value="4401471739001" /></object><script type="text/javascript">brightcove.createExperiences();</script>

5:42 p.m. update: Less than 25 seconds – that's how long the dash cam video shows Jonathan Ferrell before he runs out of sight.

https://twitter.com/MarkBeckerWSOC9/status/629008243973586944

About two and a half seconds later, there’s the sound of a volley of shots. The 12 shots brought Carolyn Cochrane to tears.

“I swore to myself I wouldn’t cry,” she said. “But these silent tears started running down my face because he didn’t have a chance to drop to the ground.”

Cochrane came from Winston-Salem to see the video that she has left her looking for answers.

https://twitter.com/MarkBeckerWSOC9/status/629005866566553600

Ferrell's family had seen that video soon after he was shot and after seeing it in court Wednesday, his brother Willie Ferrell didn't address it directly.

“There's a lot of things that we're going to see. We're not shocked by some of the things that we are seeing, but I'd like to continue to thank everybody from the city of Charlotte,” he said.

As Kerrick watched that video again with his attorneys, it's impossible to say what he was thinking and afterward his family and friends left without commenting.

His attorneys have said that video leaves lots of questions unanswered. They plan to suggest to the jury as they build their case that he fired those shots in self-defense.

5:08 p.m. update: The video came from Officer Adam Neal's patrol car and he told prosecutors he was working on an accident when he got the call for a break-in with the suspect on the scene.

The camera started rolling when he turned on his blue lights and siren and it rolled for 10 minutes as he drove through the darkness.

When he pulled up to the scene, the video showed Jonathan Ferrell in a bright green shirt walking slowly alongside the road and then suddenly, he starts running in front of Neal's car and out of the picture.

https://twitter.com/MarkBeckerWSOC9/status/629001058203922432

Then there were the gunshots. Mark Becker, who watched the video from the courtroom, said he first heard four, then six and then two more.

After that, a voice said shots fired.

BREAKING UPDATE: 2:45 p.m.: Dash cam video of the incident was released in the Kerrick manslaughter trial Wednesday afternoon.

Wednesday noon UPDATE: More witnesses and evidence was presented to the jury Wednesday in the voluntary manslaughter trial of CMPD officer Randall "Wes" Kerrick.

Witnesses presented evidence from the scene, piece by piece, to jurors Wednesday morning.

At the judge’s suggestion, Ferrell's mother and a few other family members got up and walked out of the court room as graphic evidence was displayed.

The defense tried to keep the jury from seeing the graphic photograph of Ferrell, but the judge allowed them to look at it. He did not, however, allow the image to be projected on the monitor in the court room.

Det. Matt Hefner described how he arrived on the scene and found Ferrell lying face down in a ditch. He told the jury they still had not identified him, so he went into Ferrell's pocket and found his wallet.

https://twitter.com/MarkBeckerWSOC9/status/628940148907094016

It wasn't until sometime later that they actually rolled Ferrell’s body over.

“My sergeant requested that we rolled him over to see if he had a weapon. We did sometime after 6 a.m.,” Hefner told the court. “I assisted in checking for weapons, and none were located.”

At least one of the jurors looked at that photograph only briefly before passing it on. Another spent some time looking at it.

Wednesday morning UPDATE: There's a chance the court could see the dash cam video from the night of the shooting as soon as Wednesday, but first, jurors will hear more testimony from crime scene investigators.

Those investigators are detailing the evidence they collected that night nearly two years ago.

On Tuesday, the prosecution presented evidence never seen before and some of it was graphic. One of the most emotional moments of the testimony came when prosecutors projected a picture of Ferrell on to a screen. He was already dead, with his face down in the grass and his hands cuffed behind his back.

Family members started crying and Ferrell's mother had to get up and leave the courtroom.

The defense asked the judge to take the picture down, calling the repetitive photos a ploy to sway the jury, and at one point the judge used scissors to cut out a portion of one photo.

During other parts of the testimony the prosecutor focused on seemingly mundane objects found in Ferrell’s car like a tube of chapstick and a styrofoam cup.

The big question though is whether or not we'll get to see the much-talked about dash cam video and if it even shows anything at all.

"If it's an incomplete picture, then the evidence is going to focus more on the eyewitness accounts of the officers and depending on what that evidence is, it may be more advantageous than the video itself," said legal expert James Wyatt.

Wyatt said not all the evidence presented throughout the trial will be interesting but the attorneys will have to keep the jury engaged.

Follow Mark Becker and WSOC on Twitter for real-time updates from outside the courthouse from our reporters.

Kerrick case background

Randall "Wes" Kerrick is accused of shooting and killing unarmed Jonathan Ferrell on Sept. 14, 2013.

Three officers were called to the 7500 block of Reedy Creek Road in east Mecklenburg County around 2:30 that morning. A woman told police Ferrell was banging on her front door.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department said Ferrell ran toward the officers when they arrived. One of the officers deployed his Taser, but it was unsuccessful. Kerrick fired his weapon 12 times at close range. Ten of the shots hit Ferrell, killing him.

Police later discovered a wrecked car that Ferrell was driving about 500 yards away. Officers say Ferrell was unarmed.

Around 9:30 p.m. Sept. 14, 2013, Kerrick was charged with voluntary manslaughter, marking the first time an officer in Charlotte had been charged with manslaughter for actions on duty.

Kerrick was released from jail on a $50,000 bond. He remains suspended without pay from CMPD.

Ferrell, a former football player at Florida A&M University, was living in Charlotte with his fiancée. A toxicology report released in November showed Ferrell had 60 mg/dl of ethanol in his system, equal to a .06 if blown during a DWI check point. The legal limit in North Carolina is .08.

The Ferrell family filed a civil suit against the city, county, CMPD and former Police Chief Rodney Monroe on Jan. 14, 2014. The suit was settled in May 2015 for $2.25 million.

George Laughrun and Michael J. Greene will represent Kerrick. His attorneys were hired by the Fraternal Order of Police.

Recent stories:

Channel 9 will have a team of reporters covering the Kerrick trial each day. Follow @wsoctv on Twitter for continuous updates.

Twitter handles for reporters who will be covering the trial:

<iframe src='//cdn.knightlab.com/libs/timeline/latest/embed/index.html?source=1kqkmqUJh92UIDgCILOFF3HXtO4gJ4bsyIzb6kJr1AF0&font=Bevan-PotanoSans&maptype=toner&lang=en&height=650' width='100%' height='650' frameborder='0'></iframe>

WSOC

Most Read