MINNEAPOLIS _ Opening statements began Monday afternoon in the trial for Officer Jeronimo Yanez in the fatal shooting of Philando Castile after a jury of nine men and six women, including two people of color, was selected.
Prosecutors played Yanez's squad car dashcam footage in the shooting, which before Monday had not been viewed by the public. Prosecutors allege Yanez should have given Castile clearer directions before shooting him. Meanwhile, the defense maintained Castile failed to follow orders.
Assistant Ramsey County attorney Richard Dusterhoft said Yanez went on very little to suspect Castile was involved in a robbery, which was the reason he said he stopped Castile.
"What he could see were dreadlocks, eyeglasses and the fact that Mr. Castile was a black man." Dusterhoft said. "Based on that glimpse ...," the stop occurred, he said.
But defense attorneys say Yanez, the father of a 2-year-old daughter with another child on the way, feared for his life when he fired.
"He couldn't retreat," Paul Engh said of Yanez, adding that he acted within his training.
Meanwhile, evidence about Castile's permit to carry a handgun will be allowed at the trial of the police officer charged with fatally shooting him last year, a judge ruled Monday.
Attorneys for Yanez objected last week to including the evidence and said if prosecutors wanted it admitted at trial, the defense would raise the theory that Castile lied about his alleged marijuana use on the permit application. Prosecutors reserved their argument on the matter, and discussed the issue, among others, privately in chambers with the defense and judge for about an hour early Monday.
"It's important to the state's case for the jury to know ... that Mr. Castile did have a permit to carry," prosecutor Jeffrey Paulsen later said in open court. Yanez's parents and two brothers were in court as part of about a dozen total Yanez supporters. About six were there for Castile, although his mother, Valerie Castile, and sister were not present. Valerie Castile's attorney, Glenda Hatchett, was on the floor but not in the courtroom.
Ramsey County District Court Judge William H. Leary III also said he would allow the defense to explore whether Castile was "properly entitled" to the permit to carry. Castile informed Yanez that he had a gun, which was found on him, but did not mention the permit.
Paulsen did not provide further reasoning for the prosecution's stance on the issue, which was raised by defense attorney Earl Gray last Tuesday. Last week, Paulsen said that any alleged misstatement Castile made on the permit he acquired in 2015 is irrelevant, because it was not known to Yanez at the time of the traffic stop and could not have affected his state of mind.
Yanez, 29, a St. Anthony police officer, is charged with second-degree manslaughter for shooting Castile, 32, and two counts of dangerous discharge of a firearm for endangering Castile's girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, and her daughter, then 4, who were in the car. Reynolds used her cellphone camera to live-stream the shooting's aftermath on Facebook.
Yanez's attorneys have said he saw Castile's gun that day. Prosecutors have said he gave inconsistent statements about what he saw.
Officers and medics moving Castile in order to place him on a backboard saw and removed a .40 caliber semiautomatic handgun from inside the foot-deep pocket of his right shorts pocket, according to the criminal complaint filed against Yanez.
Paulsen also told the court that prosecutors were withdrawing an objection to evidence about unburned marijuana found in Castile's car. Prosecutors and defense attorneys said they reached an agreement that evidence of THC in Castile's system can be presented at trial, but that no one could address its levels or extend any meaning from its presence.
The agreement could pose a challenge to the defense. Gray said at a pretrial hearing in May that Castile was "stoned" the day he was killed, and that a defense expert would testify that the presence of THC in his toxicology report shows that he was intoxicated.
"Our expert says there is no way any reliable expert could make that judgment," Paulsen said at the same hearing.
Defense attorneys have long argued that Castile was culpably negligent in his own death because he was high on marijuana at the time of the traffic stop.
"The status of being stoned (in an acute and chronic sense) explains why Mr. Castile, 1) did not follow the repeated directions of Officer Yanez; 2) stared straight ahead and avoided eye contact; 3) never mentioned that he had a carry permit, but instead said he had a gun; and 4) did not show his hands," said a defense memo filed in December.
