‘Is it believable?’ Prosecutor attacks Tacoma officers’ testimony during closing argument

During closing arguments Tuesday morning, special prosecutor Patty Eakes urged jurors to question the credibility of the police officers on trial for the death of Manuel Ellis.

Comparing the video evidence and eyewitness testimony to the statements of the officers, Eakes said, revealed that the officers overstated Ellis’ actions on the night he died and minimized the consequences of their own actions.

“They make Mr. Ellis out to be violent in ways you don’t see on the video,” Eakes said. “Why? They’re justifying the use of force that you can see happened in that video. Do you trust the video? Do you trust what the eyewitnesses say?”

Ellis, a 33-year-old Black man, died March 3, 2020, after a struggle with police during which he repeatedly said he couldn’t breathe. The Pierce County medical examiner ruled Ellis’ death a homicide caused by oxygen deprivation from physical restraint.

Evidence presented at trial showed that by the time he died, Ellis had been slammed to the ground, struck with fists and elbows, placed in a chokehold, jolted three times with a Taser, knelt and sat upon by a succession of officers, had his handcuffed wrists tethered to his ankles with a strap, and had a nylon spit hood placed over his face.

Lawyers for the officers have pointed to the high level of methamphetamine in Ellis’ system and the enlarged heart that was discovered during his autopsy as the causes of his death.

But Eakes spotlighted testimony from medical experts that Ellis lacked the telltale heart damage associated with an overdose, and that the presence of a pulse after he’d stopped breathing indicated his death was breathing-related.

Officers Matthew Collins, 40, Christopher “Shane” Burbank, 38, and Timothy Rankine, 35, all face charges of first-degree manslaughter. The jury has the option of convicting the officers of the lesser included offense of second-degree manslaughter.

Collins and Burbank, the first officers to encounter Ellis after they say they saw him reaching for the door of a passing car in an intersection, face additional charges of second-degree murder.

All three have pleaded not guilty, are free on bail and remain employed by the Tacoma Police Department on paid leave. Their attorneys are expected to begin their closing statements Tuesday afternoon.

The murder charges allege that Burbank and Collins detained Ellis unlawfully because they hadn’t observed him committing a crime, then they committed either third-degree assault by Burbank using a Taser on him unnecessarily, or second-degree assault by Collins placing him in a neck hold without justification, leading to his death.

The manslaughter charges accuse the officers of acting recklessly and failing to take reasonable steps by continuing to apply force to Ellis after he said he couldn’t breathe.

Collins and Rankine testified, while Burbank elected not to. Collins testified that Ellis acted aggressively toward officers by lifting him off the ground and throwing him through the air – something that nobody else claimed happened, including Burbank who was sitting in the passenger seat of their patrol vehicle. Eakes seized on that fact and told jurors to view Collins’ testimony with skepticism.

“Is it reasonable? Is it believable?” Eakes said. “This isn’t a comic book.”

Burbank and Collins both told detectives from the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department, which initially investigated the case, that Ellis smacked the patrol car window where Burbank sat and threatened to punch the officer, prompting Burbank to abruptly swing open his door and knock Ellis to the ground.

The defense has tailored its line of questioning to spotlight what appears to be a handprint in white powder on the window where Burbank sat, implying that the powder was from the donuts Ellis had purchased at a convenience store just before the encounter.

Eakes showed a photo that indicated the doughnuts had not been opened and likely weren’t the source of the handprint.

Three eyewitnesses testified that they observed the interaction between Ellis and the officers beginning before either officer left their cruiser, implying that they saw how the fatal exchange began.

Eakes noted that those witnesses, two of whom recorded cellphone videos of Collins and Burbank roughly handling Ellis, said Ellis was walking away from the police cruiser when he appeared to be summoned back, then was promptly leveled by Burbank’s car door.

Those witnesses testified that Ellis did nothing to provoke the officers’ violence. But the officers and their lawyers have maintained that Ellis exhibited extraordinary strength and persisted to struggle with them, resisting being handcuffed and flailing his legs as police tried to gain control of him.

Eakes urged jurors to consider who had motive to lie – the eyewitnesses with nothing at stake, or the officers who were under investigation for a death when they made their statements.

Rankine and his partner were the first to arrive on scene as backup to Collins and Burbank. Rankine told detectives and affirmed when he testified that he heard Ellis say he could not breathe, and that he responded, “If you’re talking to me, then you can breathe just fine.”

Collins and Burbank denied ever hearing Ellis say he could not breathe, even though videos admitted as evidence show Ellis said it at least five times. But Rankine’s partner testified that he heard Ellis say he couldn’t breathe in the presence of Collins and Burbank, and Collins admitted on the witness stand his voice was captured on the videos telling Ellis to “shut the (expletive) up” after he pleaded for air.

During nine weeks of testimony, the prosecution presented experts who testified that the officers acted outside of recommended police practices, used excessive force and caused Ellis’ death. The officers’ defense teams countered with expert testimony supporting their theories that the officers used only the amount of force necessary to subdue a resisting subject, abided by Tacoma Police Department policies and that an overdose, combined with health problems, killed Ellis.

Before Eakes presented the final half of her closing statement on Tuesday morning, Collins’ lawyer, Jared Ausserer, argued to Pierce County Superior Court Judge Bryan Chushcuff that in the first half of her argument, presented Monday afternoon, she had ignored rulings limiting what could be presented at trial and altered exhibits before presenting them to the jury.

Eakes had shown several slides that spotlighted particular aspects of pieces of evidence. In doing so, Ausserer claimed that Eakes was prejudicing the jury against his client and the other officers. Ausserer accused prosecutors for the Washington Attorney General’s Office of deliberately skirting the parameters the judge imposed pretrial about what could be shown to the jury.

Rankine’s lawyer Mark Conrad argued that by telling jurors the officers treated Ellis like he was “less than human,” Eakes violated the judge’s order blocking lawyers from comparing anyone to animals.

Legal precedent has excluded references to people as animalistic as “coded racist language,” Conrad pointed out. “They know exactly what they’re doing,” Conrad said. “They’re trying to invoke stereotypes and prejudice against our clients.” Collins and Burbank are white; Rankine is Asian.

In their statements to detectives and in testimony, the officers at times described the sounds Ellis made as “animalistic.”

Judge Chushcoff refused to dismiss the charges against the officers, but he cautioned Eakes, “You’re really pushing the boundaries on this, and not just on this one occasion – in the totality of the state’s approach in this case, you’re pushing the boundaries. Don’t push it any further.”

As Collins, Burbank and Rankine left the courthouse for the midday break, at least seven active Tacoma police officers in uniform, some on bikes, some arriving in cruisers, greeted the defendants in the courthouse parking lot with handshakes, hugs and encouragement.

The jury is expected to hear closing arguments from the officers’ defense lawyers Tuesday afternoon, with the case landing in the jury’s hands to begin deliberation after that.

This story was originally published December 12, 2023 at 2:00 PM.