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Day In Court Reduces Paultre-Bell To Tears

Prosecutor: Shooting Can't Be Explained As Mere Accident Or Mistake

QUEENS (CBS/AP) ― Three police officers went on trial Monday in the death of an unarmed man killed in a barrage of 50 bullets on his wedding day, with prosecutors recreating the chaos of that fateful night as they sought to portray him as the victim of reckless, trigger-happy detectives.

Lawyers for the officers didn't dispute the degree of firepower in the now-infamous killing of 23-year-old Sean Bell. But they argued that the shooting was not excessive and that it was justified because their clients had ample reason to believe Bell and his friends were armed and dangerous as they left a Queens strip club in the early hours of Nov. 25.

The trial occurred in a packed courtroom that lacked the theatrics of most high-profile trials, largely because the case is being heard by a judge and not a jury.

But it did become emotional at times. The woman Bell was to marry, Nicole Paultre-Bell, wept as she testified about being summoned that night to the hospital where she learned Bell was dead. Clutching a tissue, she needed about a minute to compose herself as she relived the night.

Detectives Gescard Isnora and Michael Oliver are charged with manslaughter while Detective Marc Cooper is on trial for reckless endangerment. Oliver fired 31 shots -- including the one that killed Bell. Isnora squeezed off 11 shots, and Cooper fired four times.

Assistant District Attorney Charles Testagrossa told the judge that once the evidence is heard, "It will be clear that what happened cannot be explained away as a mere accident or mistake. It can only be characterized as criminal."

Isnora's attorney, Anthony Ricco, said there was evidence that Bell was drunk and "out of control" as he left the strip club after his bachelor party. Witnesses overheard Bell exchange curses with another patron, and heard Bell's friend Joseph Guzman say to someone, "Go get my gat," slang for gun, Ricco said.

The lawyer said Bell, at Guzman's urging, "tried to run over" Isnora with his car after the officers confronted the members of the bachelor party and identified themselves as police. The lawyer described the car as a "deadly weapon" and "human battering ram."

"When there is a confluence of alcohol and ignorance, there's always a tragedy," Ricco said.

But Testagrossa said that Oliver would have found there was no threat if he had "paused to reassess" while firing 31 of the shots. He emptied his clip, reloaded, and shot again.

Defense lawyer James Culleton estimated that it took as little as nine seconds for Oliver to fire the 31 rounds from his semiautomatic pistol -- even with reloading -- leaving him no time to reassess.

Culleton said Oliver saw Bell's car trying to flee, then heard Isnora yell, "He's got a gun! He's got a gun!"

The defense lawyer said Oliver will testify that during the chaos, he saw Guzman starting to lift his arms. Culleton said Oliver was convinced that if he hesitated, "He'd be looking down the barrel of a gun and he'd be a dead man."

Investigators found no gun at the scene.

Outside the courthouse, a handful of noisy protesters chanted and banged on drums to show their support for the shooting victims and Bell's family.

Before going inside, Nicole Paultre-Bell, who legally took her fiance's name after his death, stopped to pray with Guzman, who was also shot that night, and the Rev. Al Sharpton.

In a soft voice, she mentioned their daughters, ages 5 and 1, and recounted how she met Bell in high school. He had a tattoo on his chest bearing her nickname -- "Coli."

She was not cross-examined.

While comparisons to other police-involved shootings are inevitable, this trial wasn't expected to arouse the kind of outrage that occurred after the 1999 killing of Amadou Diallo, an unarmed African immigrant hit by 19 of the 41 shots fired by police in the Bronx. The officers were acquitted of criminal charges in a 2000 trial.

In the current case, the officers involved are Hispanic, black and white. Bell was black, as are the other victims.

Isnora's attorney dismissed the notion that race played a role in the shooting. The undercover team was "a diverse group. Nobody had an ax to grind."

Oliver and Isnora face up to 25 years in prison if convicted; Cooper faces up to one year on the lesser endangerment count. The case is being heard by state Supreme Court Justice Arthur J. Cooperman, 74.

(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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