Day One: Defense; "Small Window of Time"

Rebecca Wittmann, defense attorney for Flaco, is now making her opening statements.

She was also the defense attorney for Toussaint Davis in the murder trial of New Hartford Officer Joseph Corr last year.

She is thanking the jury for listening to proseuction in what is a "complicated" case. She says that if she is not speaking to her client, it does not mean she doesnt' want to, it is to not distract the translator.

"I don't have to prove anything, I don't even have to speak right now," Wittman says.

She starts with what WON'T be disputed:

*Lindsey was tragically shot during traffic stop in Utica
*But for that traffic stop, he would be here today
*That Lindsey died from a gunshot wound to the head. "As far as i'm concerned, we could be rid of all the medical testimony," Wittman said.
*That he died in the course of trying to keeping the streets of Utica safe

Wittman says the people NEED to present all that evidence, because if the jurors are horrified enough by what happened, she said, that if they feel enough sympathy for what happened, that if they can make Flaco seem a "Diabolical, killer," that the prosecution's case "can't hold up to a jury."

She says "clearly, this was no accident."

One officer, overwhelmed with emotion, just left the room.

Wittman says there was a small window of time for this incident to have taken place with Flaco as the shooter...that the window is so small that it could not have been "a planned execution."