Defense cross-examines witness who saw part of Manuel Ellis’ fatal encounter with police
Defense attorneys for the Tacoma police officers on trial for the in-custody death of Manuel Ellis cross-examined an eyewitness Wednesday morning whose testimony has contradicted officers’ claims about how Ellis’ walk home became a deadly confrontation.
Jared Ausserer, an attorney for officer Matthew Collins, questioned Sara McDowell’s credibility as a witness by bringing up comments she posted on social media and news sites in which she called for justice for Ellis and said the Tacoma Police Department was filled with murderers who wanted to cover up his death.
The lawyer also pointed out inconsistencies between statements she gave to investigators before the trial began and what she told jurors Tuesday, and he honed in on exactly when McDowell began recording Ellis’ encounter with police.
Ellis, 33, died of oxygen deprivation from physical restraint after encountering police the night of March 3, 2020, the Pierce County medical examiner ruled. Prosecutors with the Washington Attorney General’s Office have said officers attacked and restrained him without justification. Defense attorneys say the officers were simply responding after Ellis attacked their patrol car, and they have focused on the high amount of methamphetamine in his system as another explanation for his death.
Matthew Collins, 40, Christopher “Shane” Burbank, 38 and Timothy Rankine, 34, remain employed by the Tacoma Police Department on paid leave while they’re on trial. Collins and Burbank are charged with second-degree murder; all three officers are charged with first-degree manslaughter. They have all pleaded not guilty.
McDowell, who recorded video of Collins and officer Christopher Burbank roughly handling Ellis, has described the police as the aggressors in her testimony. She testified Tuesday she saw Ellis casually walking away from their patrol car when Burbank opened his passenger door, knocking him to the ground. Then, she said, Burbank got on top of Ellis and punched him until the driver, Collins, got out, lifted Ellis and slammed him down.
Rankine arrived at the scene after McDowell left the scene. He is accused of sitting on Ellis, who went by Manny, for minutes despite his pleas that he could not breathe.
Ausserer drew jurors’ attention to an interview McDowell gave to an attorney for Ellis’ family in June 2020, when transcripts show she said it was Burbank who slammed Ellis to the ground, not Collins.
McDowell said it must have been nervousness or confusion that made her mix up the two officers in her interview, and she reaffirmed that what she saw was Burbank punching Ellis before Collins body-slammed him.
A doorbell security video of the street corner where Ellis encountered the officers — 96th Street and Ainsworth Avenue — was at one point played for McDowell. About 17 seconds in, McDowell can be heard yelling from her car “just arrest him,” which is heard in McDowell’s own video shortly after it begins.
Ausserer asked McDowell what she could hear in the 17 seconds before her own video started. She agreed she could hear Ellis struggling with the officers. The attorney then asked what happened before she started recording.
“I don’t know, when I started recording he was getting punched,” McDowell said.
Ausserer’s line of questioning drew jurors’ attention to what McDowell didn’t see. Ellis was walking home after buying raspberry-filled powdered donuts and a jug of water at a 7-Eleven, and the defense has claimed Ellis got powder on the police cruiser when he punched its window, prompting Burbank to swing his door into Ellis to stop him.
McDowell has testified she never saw anything in the man’s hands, and she agreed she would have seen if Ellis got doughnut powder on the windows.
“I never saw him put his hands up to the car or anything,” McDowell said.
During a redirect examination of McDowell during the afternoon, prosecutors tried to convince jurors there was nothing nefarious about the fact that the phone she used to record part of Ellis’ fatal interaction with police broke months after his death.
The line of questioning came after defense attorneys for the officers spent the morning questioning the credibility and memory of McDowell. At the prompting of prosecutors, she read text messages sent to Ellis’ sister in June 2020 stating her phone had broken, and she told jurors she didn’t intentionally break it, and that no one had directed her to do so.
McDowell said she didn’t remember how the phone was broken.
Special assistant attorney general Patty Eakes also asked McDowell why she gave interviews to news outlets about Ellis’ death.
“Because what I had seen wasn’t OK, and I wanted my truth to get out there,” McDowell said. “I wanted the Ellis family to get answers.”
A death investigator with the Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office who responded to the scene the night Manuel Ellis died in custody of Tacoma police testified for prosecutors Wednesday afternoon.
Jacob Atzet testified to the evidence he recorded when he arrived at the corner of 96th and Ainsworth Avenue shortly after 3 a.m., and he explained the duties of a death investigator, telling jurors they coordinate with law enforcement, take photographs at the scene, write notes, obtain any relevant physical evidence and examine the body before it is transported to the medical examiner’s office.
Answering questions from assistant attorney general Lori Nicolavo, Atzet said law enforcement often provides death investigators with the only source of information about what happened to the deceased before they arrive. In this case, Atzet said his notes showed a male attacked a Tacoma Police Department patrol car, that the person did not have a firearm, was handcuffed and was unresponsive.
Whether or not Ellis attacked the officers’ patrol car is a fundamental question in the trial. Attorneys for the officers have claimed it was Ellis punching the vehicle that prompted Burbank to swing his door into Ellis to stop him, kicking off the fatal encounter. Two eyewitnesses have so far disputed that story in their testimony, characterizing the police as the first aggressors.
Testimony is scheduled to resume in Pierce County Superior Court on Thursday, when prosecutors’ direct examination of the death investigator is expected to continue.
This story was originally published October 11, 2023 at 12:36 PM.
