Freddie Gray prosecutor: Police turned arrest van into ‘casket on wheels’

Prosecutors said in closing arguments Monday that Officer William G. Porter’s failure to help Freddie Gray turned a police arrest van into a “casket on wheels,” while Porter’s defense attorneys said the state’s case was based on theories and asks jurors to fill in the blanks.

While prosecutors had hinted at it during trial, Chief Deputy State’s Attorney Michael Schatzow directly accused Porter of lying about his account and suggested a “coverup.”

Defense attorney Joseph Murtha said there were high legal bars for the state to reach with its evidence in order for jurors to convict — bars it had failed to reach.

“You’re making a legal decision, not moral, philosophical decisions,” Murtha told the jury.

Jurors are poised to begin deliberating after 2:15 p.m. Monday. The closing arguments capped two weeks of testimony, in which Porter took the stand and dueling medical experts theorized about how Gray was injured. Porter is charged with involuntary manslaughter, second-degree assault, misconduct in office, and reckless endangerment. He faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted on the first count.

Deputy State’s Attorney Janice Bledsoe began an impassioned closing argument by holding up a seat belt and clicking it. “That’s all it would’ve taken,” Bledsoe told jurors. She also grabbed her collar, mimicking the action of an officer radioing for help.

Gray, 25, sustained a severe spinal injury in the back of the police van after his arrest April 12 and died a week later. Porter is one of six officers charged in his death and the first to stand trial.

The state’s case leans heavily on testimony from one of the police investigators, Det. Syreeta Teel, who said Porter told her that Gray complained that he could not breathe. The comment came in an unrecorded, informal phone conversation, and Porter contends that Teel misunderstood him. When Porter came in days earlier to give a formal taped statement that lasted an hour, he did not repeat the comment and was not pressed by investigators. Teel, however, “did not waver” in her account, Bledsoe said.

That comment, along with the medical examiner’s determination that Gray was injured early in the arrest van’s journey, has been put forward by the state in arguing that Porter’s failure to quickly summon a medic for Gray cost him his life. Schatzow reiterated earlier remarks that Porter showed a “callous indifference to human life.”

The defense says that in the Baltimore Police Department’s chain of command, Porter actually did more than he had to when it came to Gray’s care – by helping him up to a bench and telling others that he would need to be taken to a hospital. He said that the state and the other medical experts could not specify when Gray was injured, which undermined the state’s claim that Porter’s actions had actually caused Gray’s death.

“It’s astonishing, and it’s scary,” Murtha said. “The state is asking you to make a judgment and a decision based on speculation and conjecture.”

Baltimore police have canceled leave this week for officers “out of an abundance of caution.” All sworn personnel will work 12-hour shifts, under a plan by Commissioner Kevin Davis to ensure the department is adequately staffed.

Judge Barry G. Williams on Monday outlined instructions to the 12-member jury.

“You should not be swayed by sympathy, prejudice or public opinion,” Williams said.

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