TACOMA, Wash. — Prosecution and defense attorneys painted different pictures of what happened the night a Tacoma man died in police custody, as the lawyers presented their opening statements Tuesday in the trial for the death of Manuel Ellis.
Ellis, a 33-year-old Black man, died on March 3, 2020 after a confrontation with Tacoma Police Department officers.
Officers Christopher Burbank and Matthew Collins are charged with second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter. Officer Timothy Rankine is charged with first-degree manslaughter.
Prosecutor Kent Liu, with the Washington State Attorney General’s Office, began the state’s case by quoting Ellis’s last words: “Can’t breathe sir, I can’t breathe. Can’t breathe sir, can’t breathe – still can’t breathe sir.”
Liu recounted for the jury how Ellis repeated some form of the phrase “can’t breathe” several times while he was restrained and being pressed into the ground with an officer kneeling on his back. Medical attention did not arrive on scene until nine minutes later, Liu said.
In opening statements, the state laid out how they are prepared to argue that all three officers, Collins, Burbank and Rankine, violated their duty of care by not ensuring that Ellis could breathe or calling for medical attention at an earlier point despite his audible pleas.
Liu also summarized the statements of three witness bystanders the state plans to call. All three told investigators Ellis did not instigate the confrontation with police and that he was not struggling or fighting back against their attacks. Two of the witnesses also provided cellphone video of the confrontation, which Liu said would show how the officers were reacting with a disproportionate level of force given Ellis’ responses.
Liu frequently cited Tacoma Police Department training, which he said the officers failed to follow at multiple points during the confrontation: when Ellis was Tased in the chest, when officers responded with a disproportionate level of force despite Ellis not fighting back, when Collins used an unapproved neck restraint that cuts off blood flow to the brain and when officers failed to secure Ellis medical attention even after he was restrained and no longer fighting back.
The prosecution also said it was a failure on the part of the three officers when they did not intervene as a spit hood was being placed over Ellis’ head. The spit hood comes with a warning that it should not be used on anyone having trouble breathing. The former Pierce County Medical Examiner determined the spit hood played a significant role in Ellis’ death.
The cause of Ellis’ death also emerged as a point of argument for both the prosecution and the defense.
Liu noted that at the time medical officials got to the scene, Ellis’ heart was registering as having electrical activity but did not have a pulse – a condition that the state’s medical experts attribute to hypoxia caused by police restraints. Liu said experts will testify that this condition cannot be caused by an overdose or Ellis’ heart issues.
The defense plans to argue that Ellis’s death was inevitable and due to a fatal amount of methamphetamine that was found in his system, contributed to by a heart condition they attribute to years of substance abuse.
In his opening statement, Defense Counsel Brett Purtzer quoted verbatim a line from the autopsy report where the medical examiner noted: “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.”
Purtzer noted that the defense’s experts will say Ellis had three to four times the fatal dose of meth in his system at the time of his death, which they will argue put him into a meth-related psychosis from which he was not going to recover.
Purtzer laid out the defense’s plans to call two witnesses who were omitted from the state’s case who also saw the confrontation. Both witnesses told investigators they saw police struggling against Ellis.
Purtzer said other witness videos did not show the beginning of the confrontation, where they allege Ellis was attempting to enter a car driving through the intersection at South 96th Street and Ainsworth Avenue South and then instigated a fight with both officers. Purtzer said the videos prosecutors are prepared to present only showed brief pieces of what happened that night.
Purtzer shared Burbank and Collins’ recollection of events, saying Ellis threw Collins to the ground with “superhuman strength” and also knocked over Burbank later in the confrontation. Purtzer said Burbank then resorted to using the Taser when Ellis continued to fight back despite a restraint that Collins had him in.
Purtzer said Burbank, Collins and later Rankine were working to contain Ellis the entire time he was in restraints and that he was consistently bucking and fighting back while officers had him on the ground. Purtzer said the officers felt they were not in control of the situation and the scene was unsecure.
Purtzer said the officers’ priority, per Tacoma Police Department training, was to secure the scene and that securing Ellis medical attention was a secondary priority. Purtzer said they did not feel the scene was safe until Ellis was in a hobble restraint and spit mask.
Purtzer also noted that the spit mask, which the medical examiner wrote played a significant role in Ellis’ death, was not placed on Ellis’ head by any of the three officers on trial.
Defense attorney Anne Bremner echoed Purtzer and said when Rankine and his partner responded to the scene, they believed their fellow police officers were fighting for their life.
Rankine, Bremner said, only used enough restraint to get control of the situation, but he was not reckless in his actions, as he is accused of. She said Rankine administered CPR and never restricted Ellis's breathing.
Bremner said by repeating Ellis's breathing concerns, the state is trying to compare Ellis's death to the murder of George Floyd to appeal to juror's emotions.
”What they’re trying to do is to compare this in the public consciousness and to the jury’s consciousness to a very different case very far away," said Bremner. "To say that this case is like that one, and it isn’t in any way shape or form.”
Initial statements were delayed for a short time by motions from the defense and prosecution, urging opposing sides to omit certain elements they argued amounted to presenting evidence. The judge struck pictures in both sides’ PowerPoint presentations, concluding they could be perceived as argumentative or inflammatory in nature.
In opening statements, neither the prosecution nor defense are allowed to make arguments; they are limited to outlining the facts of the case and summarizing evidence they expect the jury will hear over the course of the trial.
The trial is expected to last between eight and 12 weeks. Jury deliberations are anticipated to begin Dec. 4.
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.