Will the Mostly White Jury Believe the Liar Race Soldier Cop's Testimony in the Philando Castile Murder Trial? Don't Hold Your Breath in Racist System

Just Tell White Jury You Were Really Scared of Black Man & Start Crying. From [HERE] and [HERE] On July 6, 2016, Philando Castile was fatally shot by Jeronimo Yanez, a St. Anthony, Minnesota race soldier cop, after being pulled over in Falcon Heights, a suburb of St. Paul. Castile was driving a car with his girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, and her four-year-old daughter as passengers when he was pulled over by Yanez and another officer. According to Reynolds, after being asked for his license and registration, Castile told the officer he was licensed to carry a weapon and had one in his pants pocket. Reynolds said Castile was shot while reaching for his ID after telling Yanez he had a gun permit and was armed. The officer shot at Castile seven times.

Diamond Reynolds live-streamed a video on Facebook in the immediate aftermath of the shooting. It shows her interacting with the armed officer as a mortally injured Castile lies slumped over, moaning slightly and his left arm and side bloody.

Yanez, testified Friday he fired his weapon because Castile had his hand on a gun, not his wallet and identification papers.

"I had no other choice. I didn't want to shoot Mr. Castile. That wasn't my intention," Yanez said while wiping tears from his eyes, CNN affiliate WCCO reported. "I thought I was going to die."

An audio recording captured Castile telling Yanez that he had a gun in the car, and Yanez telling Castile not to reach for it.

"It's your testimony today that you saw Mr. Castile pull out an object?" prosecutor Rick Dusterhoft said Friday.

"It was a gun," Yanez said.

"You said he pulled it out?"

"Correct," Yanez said.

"And he said he wasn't (pulling it out)?"

"Correct, but it doesn't always mean that's what he was doing," Yanez said.

Previously, Yanez said

"When Roseville police officers arrived you never warned them there was a gun did you?" Dusterhoft said.

"No," Yanez said.

Now You See It Now You Don't. Previously Yanez inconsistently stated, "Castille put his hand around something."  He said Castile's hand took a C-shape, "like putting my hand up to the butt of the gun." Yanez said he then lost view of Castile's hand.

"I know he had an object and it was dark," he said. "And he was pulling it out with his right hand. 

Yanez said he thought Castile had the gun in his right hand and he had "no option" but to shoot, the complaint said. Most importantly, on the video Yanez is yelling, “Don’t pull it out!”

Prosecutors say Yanez is not credible.

“Based upon the evidence, we believe that Castile never removed, nor tried to remove, his handgun from his front right pocket, which was a foot deep,” said Ramsey County Attorney John Choi. Yanez’s partner also didn’t see a gun. [MORE] On cross examination the race soldier cop was asked, "When Roseville police officers arrived you never warned them there was a gun did you?" 

"No," Yanez said.

Prosecutors say Yanez acted negligently in using deadly force and had not given clear instructions.

Officer Yanez asked Castile to produce his driver's license and proof of insurance. Castile first provided him with his insurance card.

Castile then, calmly, and in a non-threatening manner, informed Officer Yanez, 'sir, I have to tell you that I do have a firearm on me.'

Before Castile completed the sentence, Officer Yanez interrupted and calmly replied, 'okay' and placed his right hand on the holster of his own, holstered, gun.

Officer Yanez then said, 'okay, don't reach for it, then.'

Castile tried to respond but was interrupted by Officer Yanez, who said, 'don't pull it out.'

Castile responded, 'I'm not pulling it out,' and Reynolds also responded by saying, 'he's not pulling it out.'

Then Officer Yanez screamed, 'don't pull it out!' and quickly pulled his own gun with his right hand while he reached inside the driver's side window with his left hand.

Officer Yanez pulled his left arm out of the car, and then fired seven shots in rapid succession into the vehicle.

The seventh and final shot was fired at 9:06 and two seconds p.m. After the final shot, Reynolds frantically yelled, 'you just killed my boyfriend!'

Philando Castile moaned and uttered his final words: 'I wasn't reaching for it.'

To which Reynolds loudly said, 'he wasn't reaching for it.'

Before Reynolds completed her sentence, Officer Yanez again screamed, 'don't pull it out!' [he testifed that it was already out]

Reynolds responded by saying, 'he wasn't.'

Prosecutors explained 'the mere mention or presence of a firearm alone cannot justify the use of deadly force.' 'Unreasonable fear cannot justify the use of deadly force.

Last Monday, as prosecutors began outlining their case against the officer, they presented a different video for the first time in public: dashboard camera footage of the shooting itself.

The footage, which prosecutors had previously described in court filings, left unclear important parts of the encounter between Philando Castile, the motorist, and Officer Jeronimo Yanez. But it showed the speed with which a cordial conversation deteriorated into gunfire, and seemed to capture Mr. Castile trying to allay the officer’s fears about a gun he had with him.

In cases like this one, with lots of video evidence, convictions are far from assured, and white jurors/judges often sympathize with officers who say they had to make a life-or-death decision in seconds.

Officer Yanez is being tried as a former University of Cincinnati police officer prepares to face a jury about 700 miles away in a different fatal shooting of a black motorist during a traffic stop. And a former Milwaukee police officer will be tried next week on a charge of reckless homicide in another death.

White Jury. The jury pool in the trial of St. Anthony Police Officer Jeronimo Yanez currently sits at 15 individuals–nine men and and six women, with just two non-white people sitting on the bench (both are Black - however, they could be alternates). Three of these potential jurors will be dismissed as alternates at the trial's end and will not deliberate. The group is mostly white and skews older. Profiles of the jurors are [HERE]

Defense lawyers tried to remove a young prospective juror who immigrated from Ethiopia as a child, saying she did not fully understand the American justice system and was incapable of serving. Prosecutors challenged the dismissal, saying that she was an accomplished student and that her exclusion was a veiled attempt at racism. Ultimately, the judge ruled that she would serve in the jury pool.

The mostly white jurors must determine whether Officer Yanez acted reasonably given what he knew at the time. Paul Engh, a defense lawyer, told jurors on Monday that the case was all about Mr. Castile’s gun.

“But for Mr. Castile’s continuous grip on that handgun, you would not be here,” said Mr. Engh, who called the shooting a “tragedy” but “most assuredly not a crime.”

Officer Yanez’s trial is the first time in modern Minnesota history that an officer has been charged for an on-duty fatal shooting, according to reports by local news organizations.

The stop took place on Larpenteur Avenue at Fry Street, just outside the Minnesota state fairgrounds, at about 9:05 p.m. Riding in a 1997 white Oldsmobile with Castile were his girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, and her four-year-old daughter. Castile was the driver, Reynolds was the front-seat passenger, and the child was in the back seat.  

Evidence shows Mr Castile, an elementary school cafeteria worker, was racially profiled. On police scanner audio, obtained by local NBC affiliate KARE, an officer can be heard racially profiling Philando Castile and his fiancé moments before they were pulled over by St. Anthony police in Minnesota.

“I’m going to stop a car,” the officer says on the recording. “I’m going to check IDs.  I have reason to pull it over.”

“The two occupants just look like people that were involved in a robbery,” the officer says. “The driver looks more like one of our suspects, just ‘cause of the wide set nose,” the officer continues. [MORE]

Murdered by Race Solder Cop b/c of the "Wide Set Nose"

According to investigators, Yanez approached the car from the driver's side, while Kauser approached it from the passenger side.

At some point in the next 103 seconds—which are not covered by the audio—Yanez fatally shot Castile.

The events that occurred immediately following the shooting were streamed live in a 10-minute video by Reynolds via Facebook. The recording appears to begin seconds after Castile was shot, just after 9:00 p.m. CDT. The video depicts Castile slumped over, moaning and moving slightly, with a bloodied left arm and side. In the video, Reynolds is speaking with Yanez and explaining what happened. Reynolds stated on the video that Yanez "asked him for license and registration. He told him that it was in his wallet, but he had a pistol on him because he's licensed to carry." Castile did have a license to carry a gun. Reynolds further narrated that the officer said, "Don't move" and as Castile was putting his hands back up, the officer shot him in the arm four or five times. Reynolds told the officer, "You shot four bullets into him, sir. He was just getting his license and registration, sir."  Reynolds also said "Please don't tell me he's dead," while Yanez exclaims: "I told him not to reach for it! I told him to get his hand open!"

Reynolds said that officers had failed to check Castile for a pulse or to render first aid, and instead comforted the crying officer who fired the shots. Reynolds stated that Castile received no medical attention until paramedics arrived more than ten minutes after the shooting.

The newly released video — recorded on Officer Yanez’s cruiser behind Mr. Castile’s car — showed an exchange that lasted only a matter of seconds. The camera’s view did not show whether Mr. Castile was reaching for the handgun that he had a permit to carry or exactly where the gun was in the car.

On the video, Officer Yanez and Mr. Castile briefly discussed a broken taillight before Mr. Castile mentioned that he had a gun in the car. Officer Yanez responded, calmly at first, instructing him not to reach for the weapon. Mr. Castile started to respond, but Officer Yanez interjected, his voice louder.

Officer Yanez could be heard on the video yelling, “Don’t pull it out!” Seconds later, he started shooting, seven shots directly into the car through the open driver’s window. When the gunshots stopped, after bullets narrowly missed Ms. Reynolds and her daughter, Officer Yanez kept his gun pointed, grew emotional and began swearing.

Prosecutors said that Mr. Castile was not reaching for the gun, which they have said was in his pocket, and that Officer Yanez had committed second-degree manslaughter.

In an opening statement on Monday, Richard Dusterhoft, a prosecutor, told jurors that Officer Yanez could have eased his own concerns after Mr. Castile mentioned a gun.

“He didn’t tell Mr. Castile to freeze,” Mr. Dusterhoft said. “He didn’t tell him to put his hands up.”

What would a ‘reasonable’ officer have thought?

Still, Mr. Castile’s death has defied some of the racial fault lines seen in other shootings. Officer Yanez is the son of a Mexican immigrant and depended on welfare at points in his childhood, defense lawyers said. Nevertheless, he is a race soldier cop; programmed and working in service of racism/white supremacy.  

Ms. Reynolds, Mr. Castile’s girlfriend, who testified on Monday, said Mr. Castile had attended police barbecues in St. Paul and harbored no animosity toward officers. [white journalists at NY Times think sucj info is fascinating.]

Though Officer Yanez’s dash camera video was played inside a St. Paul courtroom on Monday, it was seen by only a few dozen people. People in the courtroom are forbidden to make video or audio recordings of the trial, and reporters are not allowed to post live updates on social media — strict limits that reflect the tensions such cases have stirred around the nation.

The New York Times requested access to the footage shortly after the shooting and again after it was shown Monday, but a court spokesman said it would not be released until after the trial.