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Fireworks Light Up Bell Trial As Guzman Testifies

Witness Has Verbal Spat With Cop's Lawyer On Stand

NEW YORK (CBS) ― There was a war of words inside the courtroom at the Sean Bell 50 shots trial on Tuesday. It was possibly the most riveting and the most hostile day of testimony yet.

First there were tears when Joseph Guzman described his friend dying in front of him. Then sparks flew when Guzman crossed swords with lawyers for the police officers on trial.

The most important witness for the Queens district attorney's case against the three cops accused of killing Bell is Guzman, one of only two survivors in the car, but the one who did not get out. Guzman was the one who took 19 bullets, sitting up front next to Bell. He's the one who watched Bell die.

"Today was very hard," Nicole Paultre Bell said. "(I wanted to know the truth)... and --- now I think I know."

Guzman, who had known Bell for about eight years, admitted that he had spent time in prison for selling crack and endangering with a firearm. But his version of what happened that night riveted even supporters of the cops. Guzman said first Det. Jesse Isnora fired; and then Det. Michael Oliver opened fire as well, while he urged Bell to somehow drive away, their car crashing forward and backward.

Guzman: "Everything slowed down like slow motion. He kept shooting. I said, 'Let's do it! This is not a robbery! They're trying to kill us!'"

District attorney: "In what position were you in when the gunfire stopped?"

Guzman: "Sean was under me."

District attorney: "What was his condition?"

Guzman: "There wasn't much left."

Guzman: "I thought it was over. I thought I was dead."

Later Guzman said he and Bell exchanged final words as Bell was dying, telling each other, "I love you." But the medical examiner had already testified at this trial that Bell's vocal cords had been severed by the first bullets, and he probably couldn't speak. Still, the Bell family lawyer said not to miss the real point of this case.

"There is no justification whatsoever...as he tried to get out of that car," Sanford Rubenstein said.

But when the lawyers for the police officers questioned Guzman, the tone became hostile -- and electric. For example, Det. Oliver's lawyer, James Culleton, asked if Guzman tried to escape.

Det. Oliver's lawyer: "And you're telling us you're trying to (crawl past Sean Bell to the door?)"

Guzman: "I'm still tryin' to get out of the car 'cause this dude (and he pointed at Det. Oliver) is still shootin'! Like he's crazy! Out of his mind! Like he's shootin' at a TANK or somethin'!"

Isnora's lawyer, Anthony Ricco, then questioned Guzman's intentions.

Det. Isnora's lawyer: "Didn't you tell that man outside the club, ' Let's go get my gun!' "

Guzman: "Where you from, man?"

Lawyer: "Why?"

Guzman: "You're supposed to be a black man. Where you from?"

Lawyer: "I'm from a 'hood, like you."

Guzman: "Well where I'm from, that's not a good bluff."

Michael Palladino of the Detectives' Endowment Association was taken aback by Guzman's words.

"I've never seen the disrespect for the court that he has shown the court this morning," Palladino said.

On Wednesday morning, the district attorney will finish, with the Bell family, frankly, not entirely satisfied with how the case against the cops has been made. And remember: there is no jury, just a judge. And by late morning the defense will tell the judge their version of what happened.

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