What Has Happened So Far
On day one of the Wafer / McBride murder trial, the defense put forward their theory of self-defense to justify the actions of Theodore Wafer, who is charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter for the fatal shooting of Renisha McBride.
Wafer shot McBride in the face through his screen door after she showed up at his house and pounded repeatedly on his front door at 4 am.
“When you’re in your home, it’s your castle. We need the the castle doctrine to keep us safe and if someone is intruding on us, we can use deadly force.” said defense attorney Cheryl Carpenter, “We don’t have to prove self-defense, they have to disprove it.”
According to the Wayne County Medical Examiner’s office, McBride had a BAC of about 0.28. According to a standard BAC chart for the effects of progressive alcohol consumption, at between 0.25 and 0.30 a drinker would display near total loss of motor functions, show little response to external stimuli, have great difficulty standing or walking, be likely to vomit and become incontinent, and may lose consciousness.
Witness testimony was provided by McBride’s mother, Monica McBride, and also her friend, Amber Jenkins, who had been drinking and smoking marijuana with her that night.
The most vital piece of evidence in the case so far is the screen door through which McBride was shot. Broken along the hinges, it was brought into court and shown as evidence.
According to the defense, it was broken by McBride during the violent pounding she administered to Wafer’s front door, causing him to think he was under attack, which in turn justifies his shooting of her. But according to the prosecution, the door was broken when the bullet that killed Renisha tore through the screen, the force of the explosion causing damage to the door.
On day two, some discrepancies come to light between what Wafer had told the first officer on the scene about what had happened and what his defense attorney told the court – not the same story as it turns out.
Dearborn Police Sergeant Rory McManmon was the first officer to arrive at Wafer’s home after he called 911. According to the voice recording captured by McManmon’s body-mic, Wafer told him, after telling what kind of gun it was and that he owned it for self-defense purposes, “I opened the door and it’s kind of like, who is this, and the gun discharged. I didn’t know there was a round in there. I don’t get it. Who’s knocking on your door at 4:30 a.m., bang, bang, bang, somebody wanting in.”
But according to the opening statement provided by Wafer’s attorney in court on day one, he fired the round intentionally, as an act of self-defense, and purely out of fear for his life. When asked after court about the discrepancy, Carpenter said only, “I can’t comment on that.”
Also during day two, Carpenter questioned the methods of the investigating officers, citing the alleged contamination of the body by the Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office, in which the body was placed next to a deer carcass, forcing one evidence technician to remove maggots from McBride’s clothing.
Additionally, the tardiness in which officers collected evidence from Wafer’s property during the course of the investigation was discussed. The screen door was only collected by investigating officers nine days after the shooting, and dusting for fingerprints was only done on the tenth day.
Aside from the evidence technicians and the first responding officers, other individuals to give testimony on the second day were the 911 operator who took Wafer’s call, and two witnesses who had seen the car crash involving Renisha that occurred three hours before the shooting.
The most difficult moment of the day came when evidence photographs of McBride’s body after the shooting were displayed for the court, forcing her mother to become emotional and leave the courtroom.
The trial will continue this morning at 9 am.