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- Florida Forever Funding On Chopping Block
- Accident At I-75 North Exit To I-4 East
- Crash At I-275 Entrance On Ashley Drive
- This Is First Of Series Of Cool Fronts
- Move Over, Roller Derby! It’s the Florida Inaugural Ball!
- Move Over Roller Derby! It’s the Florida Inaugural Ball!
- Brown-Waite Snags Sought-After House Committee Post
- Scarborough: GOP Should ‘Tell The Truth’ About Sansom
- Florida GOP’s Greer Won’t Vie For RNC Chairmanship
- Rain Line Heading Toward Eastern Hillsborough
- Severe Thunderstorm Warning For East Pasco, West Polk
- Wind, Showers Heading Toward Shore
- Thunderstorms Unlikely With Front Today
- Hit-And-Run On I-275 In St. Pete
- Crash Slows I-275 South Of Waters Avenue
The defense is now presenting its case and expects to rest by the end of today.
In his opening, Hanlon went to a long-used strategy in Steele’s case: implicate Steele’s cousin, Nathaniel Vanzant. Another man, Shaun Yeomans, will testify this afternoon that he was with Vanzant on June 1, 2003 in a room at the Crystal Springs Inn. When news of Harrison’s death came on the room’s television, Vanzant told him, “I had something to do with that.”
Other defense witnesses, Hanlon said, will testify that Steele was highly intoxicated on the night of Harrison’s death.
“This is not a cut and dried case if you consider every bit of evidence,” Hanlon told the jury.
Assistant Public Defender Jason Bavol called the defense’s first witness, Scott Henderson, an FDLE agent with expertise in reconstructing bullet trajectories. Henderson testified that the bullets that killed Harrison were shot on a downward angle.
Another bullet fired struck the ground and then ricocheted into the patrol car’s undercarriage. The defense argues that the low trajectory shows that Steele didn’t aim and wasn’t shooting to kill. But the gun’s upward recoil pushed the shots higher than he intended.
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