Re-posted, with running commentary by Nicholas Stix
Harlem Lewis guilty in slaying of Bellaire police officer
By St. John Barned-Smith | July 18, 2014 | Updated: July 18, 2014 11:56 p.m.
Houston Chronicle
Comments 162
The question prosecutors and defense attorneys argued over in court Friday was: What happened in the minute before a Bellaire police officer was shot to death?
Prosecutors said Harlem Harold Lewis III executed the veteran officer two years ago as he was trying to pull Lewis out of his car and arrest him.
"You knew you had that gun, and you went for it," assistant Harris County District Attorney Anna Emmons told Lewis when cross-examining him.
Defense attorneys said the 23-year-old had not meant to kill Jimmie Norman. Lewis testified that the gun "went off" as he was struggling with the corporal.
"What matters is what happened in that car in those few moments of struggle," defense attorney Pat McCann told jurors.
After two hours of deliberating, jurors sided with prosecutors, finding Lewis guilty of capital murder in the deaths of Norman and businessman Terry Taylor in the Christmas Eve 2012 shootings.
Lewis showed little emotion as the jury verdict was announced about 3:40 p.m.
Moments earlier, district Judge Mark Kent Ellis warned the gallery in the packed courtroom not to react. A classmate of Lewis' waited with her hands clasped as the jurors filed into the courtroom after deliberating.
Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson, who presented closing arguments, has declined to comment. She had said earlier that she would personally try the case, fulfilling a promise her late husband made when he was the DA to personally prosecute accused cop killers.
McCann said that Lewis was in shock after the verdict. [Nice try. McCann is trying to cover for the fact that Lewis is a stone killer, by lying in terms that human beings can understand.] He’s McCann also said he hoped to avoid a death penalty in the sentencing phase of the trial, set to begin Monday.
"There doesn't need to be another death in this tragedy," he said.
[Oh, yes, there does! It’s a matter of justice and deterrence; justice for Jimmie Norman and Terry Taylor; and deterring Harlem Harold Lewis III from ever killing, or even harming a living thing again. How many free murders does McCann think a man is entitled to, before they start counting?]
Began with traffic stop
Closing arguments earlier Friday from both prosecutors and defense attorneys lasted just more than 30 minutes.
"What kind of man puts a gun to the head of a uniformed police officer and pulls the trigger?" asked Anderson, her voice quavering slightly as she described the risks police officers deal with every day.
"Every time they pull a car over … they know they could die. And they take that on," she said.
Shortly after Anderson finished speaking, a Bellaire police officer left the courtroom in tears.
McCann and Tyrone Moncriffe, another of Lewis' lawyers, said their client panicked when he was being pulled over because he had been raised to fear police.
[So, are they saying that his parents should be convicted and executed in their client’s place? The opposite of what they said is true: If Lewis had been raised to fear police, he would have surrendered. Instead, he was raised to have complete contempt for police, and acted accordingly.]
The day of the shooting, Lewis was driving in a residential area of Bellaire when Norman tried to stop him.
After fleeing and rear-ending a white pickup, Lewis pulled in at Taylor's body shop. Norman approached the car and wrestled with Lewis for about a minute in an attempt to get him out of the vehicle and place him in cuffs.
[And women think they can be policemen?! How are they going to cuff a contemptuous, physically superior, resisting suspect?]
Then, Norman was fatally shot in the head.
[No; then Lewis fatally shot Corporal Norman in the head. There was never any dispute as to who shot whom, so there is no justification for the passive voice. Leave that for killers and their shysters.]
Tracked by blood trail
Witnesses testified Taylor came out to see what was going on and to try to help Norman, a 24-year law-enforcement veteran. But Lewis, who had stepped out of his car, also shot him, witnesses said, then pointed his gun at the driver of the pickup, who had followed him until he stopped at Taylor's Maaco body shop.
Other officers arrived in the middle of the confrontation and shot at a fleeing Lewis 23 times, hitting him twice. [Who the heck has HPD been hiring, the three blind mice?] Police followed a trail of blood to find him hiding under a truck about a block away.
Lewis appeared in court dressed in slacks and a light-blue dress shirt and tie, with a combed-out Afro. He spoke quietly, in succinct "yes ma'am" or "no sir" responses to questions, but contradicted himself repeatedly.
When questioned by his defense team, he told them that the gun "went off" as he and Norman wrestled. But later, Emmons, the prosecutor, asked him if he'd "executed" the police officer, to which he replied, "Yes ma'am."
McCann explained the testimony by saying that Lewis had difficulty communicating and had a low IQ.
[Translation: ‘Your honor, my client has trouble keeping his lies straight.’ Don’t we all?]
"He's easy to trap, it's why we were reluctant to put him up (on the stand), but if we didn't, no one would understand what happened in that vehicle," he said.
[Translation: We were hoping the jury would take pity on him, or that at least one racist black or crazy white lady juror would feel loyalty to him, and engage in jury nullification.]
Right, he has a low IQ, he has trouble communicating, etc.
ReplyDeleteThat is what they say all the time about THEM!
Normally the defense team will NEVER let the accused take the witness stand. Especially in a case like this. But they did and to their detriment too. GOOD!
ReplyDeleteYou wait and see, someone will suggest that this man did not get a fair trial because he had a bad defense team.
Fighting with the cop for a minute is one thing. Taking the gun away and killing the policeman with his own gun means he intended to kill the officer from the start.
ReplyDeleteEven if he did not intend to kill the policeman, shooting and killing the unarmed shop owner was murder beyond an impulse and then threatening the owner of the pick up truck was even worse.
And then engaged in a gun battle and shoot out with the cops afterwards.
What defense could he offer?
It is like the cop said on "Cops". If you are not prepared to engage in a fight with a culprit for up to five minutes you had better not be a policeman. AND YOU HAD BETTER WIN.
ReplyDeleteFor decades the gang bangers have had these martial arts books in prison and practice how to disarm the cop and kill the officer with his own gun. Such a delight they must feel in doing so.
ReplyDeleteAll this for a traffic incident and damage to the pick up truck?
ReplyDeleteSeems so.
Like the look, the glance, the stare. Enough to get someone killed.
I've been trying to think of a substitute for the proverbial MSM phrase "Gun Violence" when describing "Typical ****** Activity," always to throw blame on the weapon to create anti-gun emotions.
ReplyDeleteI've come up with this one after days of thinking: Felonious Black Gunplay or FBG for short.
The cop died from "Felonious Black Gunplay" which I believe ACCURATELY describes the situation rather than "Gun Violence" which the Chicago Tribune would describe it.
That murdered police officer appears to be overweight.
ReplyDeleteWait and see, on appeal it will be suggested that cop was to blame because he was physically incapable of dealing with a younger and stronger opponent in a tussle. The cop brought on himself is the idea.
That argument has been used before.
When the cop tussles with the bad guy and the bad buy makes a move for the gun, that is A SURE INDICATION THE VILLAIN WANTS TO KILL.
ReplyDeleteLike with Treyvons and Zimmerman. Treyvons made a move for the gun and Zimm had to defend himself.
I like the idea you have going for your blog. However, if you're going to comment on news stories, I wish you would keep your retorts intelligent and supported with facts. You lost all your credibility when you attacked female police officers and pulled the racism card. FYI, the news uses a passive voice because they are around to report on the facts (most of the time..), not voice their opinion on the subject. That's what editorials are for.
ReplyDelete