The moment paralyzed shooting victim identified his accused killer by BLINKING from his hospital bed before dying
- David Chandler, 35, was left paralyzed after he was shot and could only communicate by blinking
- Defense lawyers for Ricardo Woods, 35, say information gleamed from a dying man's blinks cannot be considered reliable
Captivated jurors in a Cincinnati murder trial watched video Tuesday that prosecutors say shows a dying, paralyzed shooting victim who couldn't speak identifying a photo of his killer by blinking his eyes.
Over the unsuccessful and repeated objections of defense attorneys, prosecutors showed the jury a 17-minute video of shooting victim David Chandler, 35, in which he answers detectives' questions by blinking twice to say ‘no’ and three times for ‘yes.’
Ricardo Woods, 35, is charged with Chandler's October 2010 murder and has pleaded not guilty.
Eye contact: Shooting victim David Chandler blinked his eyes hard three times, opening them wide in between each blink, after he was shown a picture of Ricardo Woods and asked if he was his attacker
Impassive: Woods (second left) sat quietly next to his attorneys as the video of Chandler blinking was shown to the jury
Prosecutors say that in the video, Chandler clearly identifies Woods as his attacker, while Woods' attorneys argue that his blinks were inconsistent and unreliable.
The video is considered the key piece of evidence in the trial. Jurors will have to determine whether Chandler appears alert and knew what he was doing when he said ‘yes’ to Woods' photo.
In the video, police have to repeat some questions when Chandler fails to respond or when the number of times he blinks is unclear.
But when police show Chandler a picture of Woods and ask him if he was the man who shot him, Chandler looks at it for a couple seconds before blinking his eyes hard three times, opening them wide in between each blink.
When police ask him whether he's sure that's the person who shot him, he again blinks three times.
All the jurors watched the video closely, some silently moving their lips as they appeared to count the blinks and some taking notes.
One woman appeared upset by the video, which shows a clearly struggling Chandler lying in a hospital bed, his face and body connected to tubes and machines, his vital signs on display in the background.
Woods, dressed in a brown suit, sat quietly watching the video.
Cincinnati police Detective Howard Grant testified earlier in the day that he had ‘no concern at all’ that Chandler understood what he was being asked and pointed out that he'd answered many questions by blinking before being asked to identify the shooter.
Incident: David Chandler, top, identified, 34-year-old Ricardo Woods (bottom), who has now been charged with murder, felonious assault and weapons counts and faces up to life in prison if convicted
Also Tuesday, a jailhouse informant testified that Woods told him that he killed Chandler because he caught him buying drugs from someone else while still owing Woods money.
The informant, Jermaine Beard, is facing four counts of armed robbery that could carry a prison term of up to 56 years.
Defense attorneys questioned Beard's motives, pointing out that he testified in two other murder cases and getting him to acknowledge that he was trying to get a light sentence for himself by helping prosecutors.
In opening statements last week, defense attorney Wendy Calaway told jurors that Woods did not shoot Chandler, calling him ‘an innocent man who found himself in a perfect storm of misinformation and misidentification.’
She said that Chandler had stolen drugs from dealers, was considered a police ‘snitch’ and had many enemies.
Paralyzed and hooked up to a ventilator, David Chandler was two weeks from death when police arrived at his hospital room to question him about the person who shot him. They wanted to know if he could identify a suspect, and they had a photo to show him.
Suspect: Ricardo Woods is led out of the courtroom last year after the murder trial was postponed
Chandler was unable to communicate except with his eyes as he lay in bed attached to myriad tubes and with a brace around his neck. His eyes opened barely more than a slit at times; he was instructed to blink three times for yes and twice for no. One detective quizzed him, and another videotaped his responses.
Chandler didn't respond with blinks to every question in the 17-minute video, and there were solo blinks. But triple blinks came in response to repeated questions asking if he knew the shooter and whether the person in the photo was the culprit.
Legal experts say such cases - while not unheard of - are unusual, and dying identifications relying on gestures rather than words are often not used in trials because of concern over reliability or differing interpretations. But some have been used in murder cases around the country that have ended in convictions.
Police asked Chandler to blink three times for yes and twice for no to a series of questions in the interview, said Assistant Hamilton County Prosecutor David Prem.
Chandler also blinked yes to indicate that he knew the gunman and that his name began with the letter O, Prem said. O was a street name that Woods sometimes used, the prosecutor said.
Familiar: Woods reportedly knew the victim through drug deals
The motive for the shooting, the prosecutor said, was that Chandler owed Woods money for drugs.
Chandler was a drug user who had bought drugs many times from Woods but had gone to an area near Woods' home the night of the shooting with two friends to buy drugs from someone else.
Chandler was shot about 20 yards from Woods' home and in an area known for drug deals, he said.
Prem said that while neither of the men in the car with Chandler could clearly identify the man who shot him, one heard a voice yelling Chandler's name.
Defense attorney Wendy Calaway insisted that Woods did not shoot Chandler. She also focused on the blinking identification, saying that while doctors were able to establish a 'rudimentary' communication system with Chandler, 'his blinks were inconsistent and sporadic'.
Law: Judge Beth Myers of Hamilton County Common Pleas Court ruled at an earlier hearing that jurors could see the videotape, saying she found the blinks reliable
He only blinked in response to doctors' commands about 50 percent of the time, she said.
Both sides are expected to call medical experts to testify about the ability of someone in Woods' condition to understand and respond to questions.
Other witnesses expected to be called include a priest who was a friend to Chandler and gave him money before the shooting, Prem said.
The judge has said that the trial could take up to three weeks.
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Paralyzed Victim Blinks to Identify Killer-Then Dies
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