Alternate replaces ill juror at Gray trial

“Somewhere in that 24 minutes, we lost Mr. Gray”, Soriano said.

Porter said a statement to investigators that he urged the van driver to take Gray to a hospital.

Defense attorney Joseph Murtha asked Allan whether she was shown any evidence that showed Gray was hurt between the van’s second and fourth stops or if that was her belief.

Porter was aware of Gray’s reputation for feigning injury during his frequent brushes with police in a bid to avoid going to jail, Jaros said.

“It didn’t help him at all and may have caused significantly more injury”. Porter volunteered to check and was told by Gray he needed medial attention.

The trial continues in Baltimore City Circuit Court.

A persistent protester is continuing his demonstration outside the Baltimore courthouse where the first trial of a police officer charged in connection with the death of Freddie Gray enters its second week. She’s been replaced on the 12-member panel by alternate juror number one, a man. While he declined to grant a mistrial or dismiss the case, he said he would allow the defense to use the officers’ statement.

Asked by Murtha whether Gray’s apparent difficulty breathing could have merely been breathlessness as a result of having fled from police, Soriano curtly replied, “That’s a bit of a stretch, counselor”. Porter, 26, faces charges of involuntary manslaughter, second-degree assault, misconduct in office, and reckless endangerment associated with Gray’s death.

But Dr. Carol Allan, the assistant state medical examiner, testified that Gray could not have been kicking or intentionally banging his head against the side of the van because of his injuries. Allan said Gray likely was injured when the van stopped suddenly.

According to Soriano’s testimony, Johnson suffered an injury in the same section of his spinal cord as Gray, and that in pulling the man out of the van, the officers exacerbated his injury.

Prosecutors say Porter is partially responsible for Gray’s death, which occurred a week after his neck was broken while he was in handcuffs and leg shackles in the back of a police transport wagon.

The first of six police officers charged in his death is now on trial.

Alperstein said medics called to examine Gray initially thought he had overdosed on drugs.

Murtha also pressed Allan on her finding of homicide, saying that she could have also ruled Gray’s death an accident because of the absence of intent.

The two sparred over whether she used a “guideline” or the more exacting “standard” to define homicide. Another expert witness for the prosecution, neurosurgeon Morris M. Soriano, backed up Allan’s assertion.

Asked about whether she knew about Gray’s recent surgery (over prosecutors’ objections), Allan said she did not, but considered the possibility. Allan countered that intent isn’t necessary for a medical examiner to rule a death a homicide.

After re-taking the stand, Allan faced renewed questions as to how she had established her timeline for Gray’s injury, which she said happened between the second and fourth of five total stops the van made after Gray was loaded into it. According to Allan, it was Gray’s own words and actions, as reported by Porter and others, that had provided the evidence.