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A Mesa Police Department internal report found that the words Youre f--ked were inscribed on the on the dust cover of the AR-15 patrol rifle Philip Mitch Brailsford used to shoot 26-year-old Daniel Shaver.
State prosecutors argued that the words were a testament to Brailsfords mindset at the time of the incident, but Maricopa County Superior Court Judge George Foster found the evidence totally prejudicial and ruled it inadmissible.
Foster said although the inscription may have violated department policy, the issue was ancillary.
What mattered, Foster said, was in those eight to nine minutes, were the actions of the defendant reasonable under the circumstances?
Jury selection began Wednesday in the murder trial of a former Mesa police officer who shot and killed an unarmed Texas man after responding to a call at a hotel in 2016.
Philip "Mitch" Brailsford, 26, is charged with second-degree murder in the shooting of Daniel Shaver who was staying at a Mesa La Quinta Inn for work.
The trial, being held in Maricopa County Superior Court, is expected to last 16 days.
During her opening statement on Thursday, Deputy Maricopa County Attorney Susie Charbel showed the Superior Court jury a few minutes of the 18-minute video that depicts the killing.
The state will show the defendant wasn't acting like a reasonable officer, he was acting like a killer, Charbel said.
But Brailsford's lawyer, Michael Piccarreta said the officer had to make a split-second decision to protect himself and his fellow officers. When Shaver tried to raise his right hand, Brailsford took this as a threat because Shaver could have been reaching for a gun, Piccarreta said.
A police supervisor can be heard shouting commands at Shaver, who disobeys some of the orders but doesn't voice any threats toward officers.
"Please do not shoot me," Shaver said.
Brailsford opened fire when Shaver, who had been ordered to crawl toward officers, reached toward the waistband of his shorts. The officer believed Shaver was reaching for a gun.
Authorities have said it looked as though Shaver was pulling up his loose-fitting basketball shorts that had fallen down as he crawled.
A Mesa Police officer who responded to the January shooting, along with Brailsford, took the stand. The prosecution played officer Christopher Doane's body-cam video.
Doane testified that he did not see any weapons in their hands.
<snipped>
The Medical Examiner who performed Shaver's autopsy testified Shaver was shot five times, from about 6 feet away.
Shaver's room phone rang once and he picked it up. Shaver looked confused and said, "Mesa police wants you to step out," Portillo testified.
She was surprised to see what she remembered as eight police officers, four on their knees and four standing up, in the hallway with their guns pointed at her, she said.
She said she remembered being told by an officer to get on her knees, with her hands up in the air and eventually crawled toward the officers on her hands and knees. A police video depicting the shooting that was played for the jury early in the trial showed her crawling toward the officers with her hands up in the air.
After being handcuffed and put on her knees by a police officer, she saw Shaver on his knees. As he crawled toward officers, she said, Shaver tried to pull his shorts up with his right hand because they were falling down. That's when Brailsford fired five rounds, killing Shaver.
Luis Nuñez and a colleague agreed to have a drink with Daniel Shaver in his hotel room, but it soon became clear Shaver was drunk. He had also invited Nuñez to try out his pellet gun from his fifth-floor window.
Its a stupid idea," Nuñez recalled telling Shaver, during testimony in Maricopa County Superior Court on Monday.
Despite the unease, he says he didn't feel threatened by Shaver and left a female colleague behind to make a phone call.
Mesa officer Brian Elmore, who was among the six officers who responded to the scene and had his rifle pointed at Shaver, also testified Monday.
He said that as part of his training he would not shoot a person who made a draw stroke, similar to what Shaver did with his right hand when Brailsford shot him. He would consider other factors, too, he said.
I wouldnt shoot unless I saw a threat, Elmore said.
Brailsford's defense lawyer has argued the shooting was justified because it appeared Shaver had been reaching for a weapon.
Deputy County Attorney Susie Charbel asked Elmore if he saw a threat shortly before Brailsford shot Shaver.
"At that moment, no," said Elmore, one of six Mesa police officers who responded to the hotel.
During redirect, when a lawyer questions his or her witness for the second time, Deputy County Attorney Susie Charbel noted that Elmore didn't fire his AR-15 and asked Elmore if he saw an "imminent threat."
"At that moment, no," Elmore responded.
But earlier in his testimony, when Brailsford's defense lawyer questioned him, Elmore said it was "possible" he may have shot Shaver, who was on his knees sobbing, begging not to be shot, if he saw the same threat Brailsford saw.
On Wednesday, Elmore's lawyer, Robert Jarvis, told the judge that his client misunderstood Charbel's question and thought Charbel had asked if Elmore needed to shoot, not whether he saw a threat.
Jarvis said Elmore read a news article on Wednesday morning and realized he answered Charbel's question incorrectly and wanted to get back on the stand to correct his answer.
The officer in charge during a police situation at a Mesa hotel last year testified Tuesday that he, too, would have shot the unarmed suspect, Daniel Shaver of Texas, when the man did not obey orders to put his hands up.
Langley told the 11-member jury Tuesday that he would have shot Shaver if Brailsford wasnt in his line of fire.
I thought we were going to get shot, Langley said. I thought I was going to get shot.
Langley said because Shaver put his hand down twice and once behind his back, he thought Shaver may have been reaching for a gun.
A Mesa police officer who asked to retake the stand to change his testimony in the murder trial of a former colleague has taken back his request.
Mesa police Officer Brian Elmore changed his mind over the weekend about taking the stand again, Maricopa County Superior Judge George Foster said Monday in court.