Judge threatens to remove observers after reactions to officer’s testimony in Ellis case

Jurors heard testimony Tuesday morning from two of three Tacoma police officers on trial for the death of Manuel Ellis.

The day began with officer Matthew Collins under cross-examination about his testimony on Monday. Officer Timothy Rankine spent about a half-hour on the witness stand before the trial stopped for lunch, breaking down in tears at times while he testified.

Most of the morning was spent dealing with unexpected courtroom drama that caused Pierce County Superior Court Judge Bryan Chushcoff concern.

Ellis, 33, died March 3, 2020, from what the Pierce County Medical Examiner ruled was a homicide caused by oxygen deprivation from physical restraint. Before he died, Ellis repeatedly told police he couldn’t breathe while they applied force, including pressure on his back while he lay prone with his hands cuffed behind his back.

Collins, 40, his patrol partner Christopher “Shane” Burbank, 38, and Rankine, 35, who responded to their call for backup, are charged with first-degree manslaughter. Collins and Burbank, who said they struggled with Ellis after seeing him try to open the door of a passing car, also are charged with second-degree murder.

Most of Collins’ testimony Tuesday focused not on the night Ellis died, but a 2017 arrest that he said informed his actions on the night he encountered Ellis. Collins described a powerful subject, apparently on drugs, at a break-in inside an apartment building.

Collins believed that suspect was experiencing “excited delirium,” a controversial concept that professional medical and psychiatric associations reject as scientifically unsound. Police embrace it as an explanation for when people are extraordinarily strong, sweaty and numb to pain – often under the influence of drugs.

One prosecution expert earlier in the trial compared believing in excited delirium to believing that the Earth is flat, because science doesn’t support it, he said.

Collins testified Monday that he suspected Ellis was suffering from excited delirium because Ellis was behaving aggressively. Collins said his foremost concern was cuffing Ellis. As a result, Collins said, he didn’t hear Ellis say he couldn’t breathe. Special prosecutor Patty Eakes confronted Collins with a recording of Ellis pleading for air followed by someone saying, “Shut the (expletive) up, man.” Collins admitted he was the one who said it, but said he didn’t remember saying it.

Collins described Ellis as at first assaultive, then resistant to being handcuffed. Eyewitnesses, two of whom recorded cellphone videos that have been introduced as evidence, portrayed Collins and Burbank as the aggressors. They testified that Ellis did nothing to provoke the officers.

At times, the gallery reacted audibly to Collins’ testimony. There were gasps and sighs from some observers when Collins described Ellis as aggressive as seen on the eyewitness videos – something many present apparently found unbelievable.

“It does seem to me that people are letting their impulses get the best of them,” Chushcoff said of the reactions from the gallery. Without the jury present, Chushcoff said he heard “murmurs” in response to witnesses and lawyers that he feared could affect jurors’ decision-making. He threatened to remove observers from the courtroom if the reactions persisted.

Testimony was interrupted again when a juror reported to the court that he’d accidentally seen a TV news report about the trial after a Monday night NFL game. Jurors are prohibited from following the case in the media. After being questioned by the judge, the juror said he would base his decision-making exclusively on what was presented in court, and he was allowed to remain on the panel.

Rankine, who began testifying late in the morning, described growing up in Singapore, moving to the United States as a teen and serving almost six years in the military.

Rankine said he arrived at the scene when Burbank and Collins were on top of and struggling to restrain Ellis, who was handcuffed. Rankine described “watching Mr. Ellis buck back and forth, and officer Burbank looked like he was just riding a wild horse.”

Burbank tumbled off Ellis, Rankine testified. That’s when “I had to move myself on top of Mr. Ellis,” he said.

Testimony was scheduled to resume Tuesday afternoon in Pierce County Superior Court with Rankine on the witness stand.

This story was originally published December 5, 2023 at 12:53 PM.