Jury deliberations are not public, but jurors did emerge a few times Monday to rehear instructions and to rewatch police videos of the crime scene. Jurors did not have to offer any reason for why they wanted to review the evidence.
In the morning, they listened to Superior Court Justice MaryGay Kennedy reread the jury instructions for the murder charge. She reminded the jury that Butterfield is presumed innocent until they’ve reached their verdict, and that in order to find him guilty they have to agree the state provided enough evidence.
Shortly after returning from lunch at 1 p.m., the jury asked to rewatch the body camera footage from one of the first Portland police officers to reach the crime scene. Prosecutors had played the video for the jury on the second day of Butterfield’s trial but the audio it wasn’t as loud and it was difficult to hear clearly.
The video shows a poorly lit Woodford Street, already teeming with police and first responders. Coffin is laying on the ground, writhing in pain. Hartnett, wearing a baseball cap, is crouched nearby. Jurors saw that hat, with a bullet hole in the brim, several times during the trial.
But the jury didn’t seem as interested in what they could see – rather, it was about what they wanted to hear. The court had to play the video at full volume because of the loud wind and rain rattling the courtroom windows.
Coffin could barely speak. He was clearly in pain, having been shot twice in the torso, and struggled to stand up. Officers kept telling him to stay down and began taking off his clothes and asking him where he was shot.
Jurors watched intently. Some leaned forward, titling their heads and holding their chins.
In the gallery, Coffin’s family bowed their heads and cried. Much of the video is focused on Coffin, who was pronounced dead hours later at the hospital.
Hartnett answered the officers’ questions slowly.
“I don’t know who it was,” she tells police.
“Where did that person go?” they ask.
“I don’t know,” she said.
Hartnett was the first witness to testify in Butterfield’s trial. She told the jury that she didn’t recognize any of the attackers and she couldn’t see her shooter’s face – only that he was much taller than the other men and he was wearing black and red clothing.
Prosecutors showed the jury a black jacket and the multicolored shirt that Butterfield was wearing when he was arrested almost 24 hours after the shooting on unrelated charges. But his attorneys said on Friday that the clothes didn’t fit Hartnett’s description perfectly and police never thought to ask her if she recognized Butterfield’s clothes while they were investigating him.
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