Day Six of Testimony: Back From Lunch on Tuesday

Lunch break is over; defense attorney Rebecca Wittman is questioning NYS Police Investigator Samuel Serrano. She asks to play a video clip from a questioning session of defendant Wesley Molina Cirino by police in Onondaga County. Before lunch, under questioning by Wittman, investigator Serrano said that Molina Cirino had said around 100 times that he "didn't do it".

Wittman asks Serrano if there was any confusion in his mind whether defendant had seen the gun he refers to on more than one date. Serrano says no confusion--he saw the gun. Serrano says that, in the interview clip we just saw, that the defendant says he saw it only once-on April 12-the day Officer Lindsey was killed.

Amidst the Spanish-English translations happening in the video clip of the interview of the defendant by police in Onondaga County, we hear someone say, in English, "Jose said 'I killed the officer'". Sounds as though it was an officer translating what defendant had just said.

Wittman asks Serrano if, during that interview in May, defendant refers to having seen the gun on April 9th--three days before Officer Lindsey was killed. Serrano says yes. Defense asks for another clip from videotaped interview to be played in court-this one from a subsequent interview that took place in June of 2007. The only language being spoken is Spanish. Occasionally you will hear the name of a street in Utica. We hear someone say that Sammy gave the officer i.d. and the officer went back to the computer to check it--presumably an investigator translating what Molina Cirino has just said. Interview taped in Onondaga County is on. Jurors have the benefit of having their own monitors on which they can see closed-captioning of the entire questioning session. For everyone else in the courtroom, the words and letters are too small to make out. The people in the gallery are left with a largely Spanish questioning peppered with an English word or two here and there. In other words--the rest of us have no idea what's being said.