Judge denies prosecution's witness in trial of Manny Ellis' death, hearing ends 5 hours early
TACOMA, Wash. - Confusion in the courtroom delayed the biggest trial in Pierce County, as the judge in the Manny Ellis case refused to allow the prosecution's witness to take the stand.
In March 2020, Manny Ellis died while in Tacoma Police custody. Officer Matthew Collins and Officer Christopher Burbank are on trial for second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Officer Timothy Rankine is charged with second-degree manslaughter.
The state planned to have Russ Hicks take the stand.
Hicks is an expert in use-of-force and trains officers. According to the prosecution, he trained all three defendants.
However, with Hicks having no direct connection to the 2020 incident, the defense argued it was pointless to have him take the stand, and the judge agreed.
"Witnesses, as you have pointed out, are not going to provide us any facts with what happened here," said Judge Bryan Chushcoff.
"They are going to provide us facts on what the training was," said special prosecutor Patty Eakes.
This trial was originally expected to last for about two months. It is now predicted that the hearing may go into the new year. Chushcoff addressed a big reason for that delay is the unneeded testimonies from witnesses on the prosecutor’s list.
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"We don’t need to hear from Officer Hicks until somebody’s pointed out that there is a problem with all that. Because, otherwise, we’re just wasting time," said Chushcoff to Eakes.
Due to the change in the expected witness testimony, the prosecution told the judge they had no one prepared to take the stand.
The judge released the jurors around 11:30 a.m., about five hours earlier than normal.
Court is expected to resume Thursday.