July 31--An attempt by defense attorneys to put Bryant Brewer's mental illness on display before a packed courtroom Thursday appeared to backfire when he angrily told a prosecutor he was proud of killing Chicago police Officer Thor Soderberg.
Judge Timothy Joyce, who will decide Brewer's fate, halted the trial at one point and ordered him removed from the courtroom after he repeatedly ignored orders to sit down on the witness stand. When testimony resumed, Brewer whispered his answers to the judge.
Brewer was irate and lucid under cross-examination by a prosecutor after appearing confused, easily distracted and soft-spoken during questioning by his attorney.
"Aren't you proud of being a cop killer?" Assistant State's Attorney Brian Sexton asked Brewer on cross-examination.
"Hell yeah I'm proud," Brewer replied. "I'm proud because you want me to be proud."
Brewer repeatedly called a female police officer who shot at him after he killed Soderberg a "bitch" and referred to Sexton as a "f---- retarded a----," threatening to spit on him.
He complained frequently to the judge that Sexton wasn't listening to his answers.
"He ain't letting me talk like I want to," Brewer said.
"Don't worry about him," replied Joyce, telling Brewer he was listening.
"He's insane, he's insane," Brewer said. "He's trying to make me look like (expletive). I'm not guilty because he is."
Brewer also gave contradictory and sometimes bizarre answers -- testifying that he was a drug dealer before denying it moments later, even alleging he had previously "smoked weed" with a prosecution witness.
"You've seen his behavior during the trial, chair dancing, laughing, he's in his own world," his attorney, William Wolf, told reporters after the fourth day of trial. "You now know he has mental problems, something he's probably had for most of his life."
Soderberg's widow, Jennifer Loudon, left the courtroom before Brewer began testifying, but some of the police officers and prosecutors watching in the courtroom from the gallery laughed at his theatrics. One female officer who had been involved in the July 2010 shootout with Brewer, however, stepped quickly from the courtroom, appearing near tears.
When he first took the witness stand, Brewer seemed confused, repeating every question asked by his attorney, Caroline Glennon, and answering in a voice so soft, he was repeatedly asked to speak up.
Brewer testified that he had left a friend's house on foot after smoking a blunt and decided to use a shortcut he often took. He told his attorney that he had started to climb a fence behind a police building in the 6100 block of Racine Avenue when Soderberg grabbed him and pistol-whipped him on the head.
The officer's Glock 17 service weapon fell to the ground, Brewer said, and the two men exchanged punches. He then shoved Soderberg back and picked up the gun.
"I grabbed the gun because I was scared," Brewer said. "I believed he was going to shoot me."
Glennon had Brewer demonstrate how he and Soderberg fought for control of the weapon before Brewer said he shot the officer twice.
Brewer's attorneys have argued that Soderberg's slaying was in self-defense. They plan to call a psychologist to testify Friday that he is also mentally ill. Brewer testified Thursday that he was on antidepressants and that his mother received a "crazy check," an apparent reference to monthly disability checks.
But when he was grilled by Sexton, Brewer's demeanor quickly changed. He began by saying he was "cool with the police" but soon began shouting about the "bitch" who shot at him after Soderberg was killed.
For the first time, prosecutors offered a motive for why Brewer would want to kill a uniformed cop outside a police deployment center in the Englewood neighborhood.
Brewer admitted that a close friend's nephew, Marcellus Perry, was fatally shot by Chicago police in 2009. At the time, police said Perry, 22, was killed after an officer's gun accidentally went off after he had hit the cop. But Brewer denied a connection to his struggle with Soderberg.
"I felt bad, but I ain't try to kill no cop because of it," Brewer said. "It's real life, bro."
He angrily defended fighting with Soderberg.
"Yeah, I was fighting him -- what would you do?" Brewer said. "He was doing what he had to do, and I was doing what I had to do."
"At the time I was scared, man. He made me shoot him, and he's a cop."
Brewer testified that Soderberg's finger somehow got on the trigger of his gun and that the officer twice shot himself accidentally, a response that led Sexton to roll his eyes.
He testified that he then tried to enter the police facility to get help for Soderberg.
Brewer became irate when Sexton asked him to explain why he started shooting at a handyman across the street. Brewer said the handyman was standing in a defiant posture and that he only shot in the air, not at him.
Brewer grew even more incensed when asked about Officer Casey Lynn, who opened fire at Brewer after he shot at the handyman.
"I just shot at that bitch so she'd stop shooting at me," he said."I ain't about to drop the gun so the bitch could shoot me."
"Who the (expletive) do the cops represent? Who do the police work for? Who is the government?"
sschmadeke@tribpub.com
