TACOMA, Wash. — In court Wednesday, Judge Bryan Chushcoff denied the state the opportunity to call one of its witnesses in the trial for the death of Manuel Ellis.
Ellis, a 33-year-old Black man, died in Tacoma police custody on the night of March 3, 2020. Officers Matthew Collins and Christopher Burbank are charged with second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter. Officer Timothy Rankine is charged with first-degree manslaughter.
The state planned to call Russ Hicks with the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Center to speak to what the three officers learned while they were there.
Defense for Rankine, attorney Mark Conrad, raised the issue that Hicks did not train Rankine in defense tactics – the prosecution argued, however, that Hicks did run scenarios that Rankine participated where those skills would have been evaluated.
The judge ruled that Hicks could not appear because an allegation that the officers violated their training has not yet been made in front of the jury. The judge did say the prosecution could keep Hicks retained until such time an allegation had been made, however.
The judge also threw out witnesses from the state's line-up who planned to speak to Burbank’s training in North Carolina and former Tacoma Police Chief Don Ramsdell, who also would have testified to the officers’ training.
The defense also expressed concern about whether or not the state planned to call the Pierce County Medical Examiner at the time of Ellis’ death, Dr. Thomas Clark.
Clark performed the autopsy on Ellis’ body and is expected to speak to Ellis’ cause of death on the witness stand. The prosecution made a comment Tuesday that they may not call Clark in front of the jury if the judge was striking witnesses who were deemed redundant.
There have been two medical experts so far who testified to Ellis’ cause of death. Another medical expert testified Tuesday as to how police sitting and kneeling on Ellis’ back would have impacted his pulmonary system. The judge nearly disallowed that witness from testifying, due to perceived redundancies in his expected testimony. Chushcoff ultimately ruled that the pulmonologist could not comment on Ellis’ cause of death, because his conclusion echoed information that had already been presented in front of the court.
Clark’s final report and ruling on Ellis’ cause of death lays the foundation for a fundamental conflict between the defense and the prosecution’s cases.
Clark ruled that Ellis’ death was a homicide saying it was caused by hypoxia resulting from police restraints. However, in his final report, he also included a passage commenting on the level of methamphetamine that was found in Ellis’ system: “The methamphetamine concentration is well within the fatal range and could have caused (Ellis’) death independently … an argument could be made that the extremely high methamphetamine concentration should be considered the primary factor.”
Defense for all three officers are prepared to argue that a meth overdose was the true cause of Ellis’ death. Two previous medical experts called by the state said that meth could not have been responsible.
At the end of the session on Wednesday, prosecutors said they plan to call Clark on Thursday morning.
Background on the case
On March 3, 2020, Ellis was walking home when he stopped to speak with Tacoma Police Officers Burbank and Collins, who were in their patrol car, according to probable cause documents.
Witnesses said Ellis turned to walk away, but the officers got out of their car and knocked Ellis to his knees. All witnesses told investigators they did not see Ellis strike the officers.
Other responding officers told investigators that Burbank and Collins reported Ellis was “goin’ after a car” in the intersection and punched the patrol car's windows.
Witness video shows officers repeatedly hitting Ellis. Collins put Ellis into a neck restraint, and Burbank tasered Ellis’ chest, according to prosecutors.
Home security camera footage captured Ellis saying, “Can’t breathe, sir. Can’t breathe."
Rankine, who was the first backup officer to arrive, applied pressure to Ellis' back and held him in place while Ellis was "hogtied" with a hobble, according to documents.
When the fire department arrived, Ellis was “unconscious and unresponsive,” according to documents.
KING 5 will stream gavel-to-gavel coverage of the trial from opening to closing statements. Follow live coverage and watch videos on demand on king5.com, KING 5+ and the KING 5 YouTube channel.
