Killers in the Family Page 12

  Following his testimony, Fishburn went to sit with his wife in the courtroom audience. After the jury had been removed, Shircliff immediately objected to Fishburn’s continued presence in court. He said that the constant reminder of the victim in the courtroom, especially since his injuries were now so apparent to the jury, would unfairly prejudice them against his client. In response to this, the prosecution presented case law that supported allowing Fishburn to remain in the courtroom, and consequently Judge Borges denied this objection but did have Jason and Tonya Fishburn sit where they wouldn’t be in the jury’s direct line of sight.

  After Jason Fishburn’s testimony, which hadn’t taken long since the defense said it had no cross-examination, his wife Tonya next took the witness stand. She told the jurors that she worked at the Marion County Crime Lab, and that she and Jason had been married in June 2002. She then went on to talk about how the shooting had nearly destroyed her life. Tonya spoke about how the shooting had negatively affected both her and Fishburn’s lives, about his slow recovery, and about how much things had changed in the lives of everyone in the Fishburn family since the event.

  “What were the following days like for you?” Brizzi asked.

  “They were the worst days of my life,” she answered.

  Again, the defense declined to cross-examine.

  “I learned a lot at the trial,” Tonya later said. “The trial was the first time I found out exactly what had happened the day Jason had been shot.” But while enlightening, the criminal trial was also tiring and emotion filled. “The trial was long and stressful,” said Tonya. And watching the accused perpetrator didn’t bring about any consolation, either. “[Brian] Reese just kind of sat there, like he could have been anywhere,” Tonya added. “He didn’t show any emotions at all that I saw.”

  The defense was fighting an uphill battle at this trial, though Shircliff tried his best to see that Brian Reese received a fair trial. During a recess, when the jurors were out of the courtroom, he asked the judge for a mistrial because he had discovered that two jurors who had arrived at the courthouse early had seen Brian being brought into court wearing handcuffs and leg shackles. The defense feared that this would prejudice them against Brian. When his motion for a mistrial was denied, Shircliff then asked that at least the two jurors who saw Brian be removed. Judge Borges brought the two jurors in and asked them if what they saw would prejudice them against Brian Reese, and they both said no. The judge even questioned Brian, and he told the judge that, yes, he saw the two jurors looking at him. Regardless, the judge said she could find no reason to remove the jurors, and the trial continued.

  Next up, the prosecution called Detective Randall Cook to the witness stand. He told the jurors about learning that Lona Bishop may possibly have been involved in the Clifford Haddix robbery and murder, and about how he had sent the narcotics detectives to her house on North Hamilton Street to bring her in for an interview. The defense attorney cross-examined Detective Cook but basically just reviewed what he had said.

  The prosecution next presented a stipulation to the court. The defense had no objection to offering into evidence the police radio transmissions from the incident at 215 North Hamilton Street, along with the vehicle chase of Brian and his mother and the incident in the 800 block of North Euclid Avenue.

  The prosecution then asked Detective Ryan Vanoeveren, one of the narcotics officers who had gone to pick up Lona Bishop, to take the witness stand. After being sworn in, the detective told the court about how he and the three other narcotics detectives had driven together to 215 North Hamilton Avenue at around 2:30 P.M. on July 10, 2008. He said that all four of them had been wearing their badges on chains around their necks and had their guns exposed. He went on to say that as he and Detective Chris Smith walked up toward the front door, it opened and a white male started to come out. Vanoeveren then pointed to Brian Reese in the courtroom and identified him as the man he’d seen coming out of the door that day. He said they asked about Lona Bishop and if they could speak with her, and that he seemed very nervous. The man mumbled something to them about putting his dog up and darted back into the house, locking the door.

  Detective Vanoeveren told the jurors that there was a window next to the door and that he stepped over and looked through it. He said he saw two white females in the living room, and an older white male standing just inside the kitchen. Detective Vanoeveren was trying to talk to the older female through the window when he heard the detectives at the rear of the house shouting over the police radio that a man with a gun had just jumped out of a window. He and Detective Smith immediately ran in the direction the detectives in the rear said the man with the gun was heading and they saw Brian cut through some yards and then head north on Hamilton Avenue. The detectives chased after him and saw him turn west on New York Street. He was pretty far ahead of them, and they lost sight of him when he turned and ran south in the first alley west of Hamilton Avenue.

  In response to the prosecutor’s next question, Vanoeveren said he could see that Brian was carrying a gun in his left hand as he fled from the officers. Upon losing sight of Brian, he continued, the detectives returned to 215 North Hamilton, where they spoke with the older woman, Rosemary Bishop, Lona’s mother. She seemed scared to talk about Brian with the officers, but she did finally tell them that that’s who it was who ran. Lona had at first claimed that the person who fled the house was a man she was dating by the name of Steven Fillipo.

  On cross-examination, defense attorney Laura Pitts asked Detective Vanoeveren if Brian Reese had ever pointed the gun at him. He answered no, he hadn’t.

  Following Detective Vanoeveren, Detective Chris Smith stepped up to testify. Upon being sworn in, he told the jurors about how, after hearing the radio broadcast from the officers at the rear of the house, he had seen Brian Reese cut through a vacant lot a few houses north of them and then run out onto Hamilton Avenue and west on New York Street. He said that by the time he and the other detectives returned to 215 North Hamilton, the older white male had fled the scene. He repeated the story about Lona at first claiming that the man who ran from the police was Steven Fillipo.

  Laura Pitts again handled the cross-examination, and once more she asked if Brian Reese had ever pointed the gun at him. Detective Smith said no, he hadn’t.

  After Detective Smith finished his testimony the court broke for lunch. Before the jury returned to the courtroom the defense once again objected to Jason Fishburn sitting in the courtroom, and Judge Borges once again denied the objection.

  Following lunch, the first witness called by the prosecution was Lona Bishop. She took the witness stand and told the jurors that the house at 215 North Hamilton Avenue belonged to her mother. She then said that she first met Brian Reese in 2003 or 2004, and that on July 10, 2008, he was her boyfriend (though apparently not any longer). Just before the police arrived, she said, Brian and his father, Paul Reese Sr., were getting ready to go to a nearby gas station. When Brian saw the police out front, Lona went on, he slammed the door and locked it, then started shouting, “It’s the Feds! It’s the Feds!” By this time, she said, he was already halfway out the bedroom window.

  Lona admitted that she gave the police a fake name when they asked who had just fled the house with a gun. She said she also told the police, after admitting that it had been Brian, that he would likely go to his mother’s house. The prosecution then turned Lona over to the defense for questioning.

  Laura Pitts once again handled the cross-examination. She first had Lona basically repeat her earlier testimony, and then asked her if she smoked crack cocaine. Lona answered that yes, she did. She said that she and Brian had smoked some crack very early in the morning of July 10, 2008. When asked how much they smoked, Lona replied a “thirty piece,” meaning thirty dollars’ worth of crack cocaine. Pitts thanked her and turned her back over to the prosecution for redirect examination.

  Deputy prosecutor Denise Robin
son asked Lona how she and Brian smoked the crack, and Lona answered in a pipe. She said that the effect of the thirty piece lasted about three to four hours. Robinson then asked Lona how Brian acted when he smoked crack cocaine.

  “Hyper, very, very hyper,” Lona answered. “He can’t sit still. He gets fidgety, talks a lot.”

  “Does he get violent?” Robinson asked.

  “No.”

  “Out of his head crazy?”

  “No.”

  “Was Brian hyper when he got ready to leave the house to go to the gas station?”

  “No, he wasn’t.”

  Robinson then turned Lona over to the defense for recross examination. Pitts asked Lona if she had still been under the effect of the drugs she had smoked when the detectives took her down to police headquarters for questioning. She said that yes, she had still been a little affected. Ms. Pitts asked Lona if she was “tweaking” then, which Lona explained to the court meant that a person desperately needed some more drugs. Lona said that yes, she had wanted some more crack.

  Once Lona Bishop left the witness stand, the prosecution next called her mother, Rosemary Bishop, to testify. She told the jurors that on the afternoon of July 10, 2008, she had been sleeping on a couch in the living room but had woken up when she heard Brian and Paul Sr. getting ready to go to the gas station. She then told the same story about Brian telling the officers he had to put his dog up, and then locking the front door and running into the bedroom. Rosemary said she eventually let the police officers inside and at first didn’t tell the police it had been Brian Reese who fled, but finally did. She said she had been scared. The prosecutor thanked her and turned her over to the defense for cross-examination.

  Rosemary told the defense attorney that she hadn’t withheld from the police the name of the man who had run from them because she was scared of Brian, but because she was scared of Paul Reese Sr. The defense attorney asked Rosemary if she was aware of Brian and Lona’s drug usage, and she said yes, she was. The defense attorney next asked her how her daughter Lona acted after smoking crack.

  “She gets very angry,” Rosemary responded. “She goes off on everything.”

  “Do you think Lona was under the effect of drugs when she went down to the police station to talk to the detectives?”

  “No.”

  The defense attorney said she had no more questions. The prosecution had no redirect questions, so the judge told the prosecution to call its next witness. They called Detective Aaron Tevebaugh to the witness stand.

  Detective Tevebaugh told the same story about going to the house on North Hamilton Street and the foot chase. Then he told the jurors that, after learning the identity of the two men at the house on North Hamilton, he went back to his office to get pictures of Brian and Paul Sr. He said that during this time they received information that Paul Sr. might have headed for his father’s house at 1210 East Washington Street, so he set up surveillance there in case Brian also showed up. However, Tevebaugh said, he was pulled off this surveillance and told to instead assist with the surveillance of Brian’s mother on Bosart Street.

  Next, Detective Tevebaugh told the court that he heard the chase and the shots fired report on the police radio as he was headed to assist in the surveillance. He stopped his car at East 10th and North Linwood and then ran over to the 800 block of North Euclid, but by the time he arrived, the situation was over. He said that he saw Brian Reese lying handcuffed on the ground and that he had soot marks on his arms.

  During cross-examination, Pitts asked Detective Tevebaugh if Brian ever pointed the gun at him. He answered no, he hadn’t. With no redirect questions from the prosecution, the judge excused the detective from the stand.

  The prosecution next called Detective Chad Osborne to testify. After being sworn in, he told the court that he drove the Chevrolet TrailBlazer that day, and then the same story about the house on North Hamilton. He said that he saw Brian Reese run across two lots north of the house on North Hamilton, then out and north on Hamilton, and finally west on New York Street. He also saw the gun in Brian’s hand as he ran.

  Following the incident on North Hamilton, Osborne said he went with an Officer Jamie Guilfoy to the 1400 block of North Bosart Street to set up surveillance on Brian’s mother. He said he saw a white minivan stop in front of the Reese house but then continue on. The minivan returned a few minutes later, and Barbara Reese exited the minivan with a bag of groceries and went inside. She came back out a few minutes later and got back into the white minivan and drove away. He did not follow her; he said he was told to stay where he was and continue the surveillance. He told the court that he later heard the police radio traffic about Detective Jeff Wood saying he had seen the white minivan pick up Brian Reese, about the attempt to stop the minivan, the chase, and the shots fired report on North Euclid. At that point, Osborne said, he went over to the crime scene on North Euclid, but that there were already lots of officers on the scene tending to Jason Fishburn, so he helped move cars out of the way to make a clear path so that the ambulance could get through. He said that he recognized the man under arrest there on North Euclid as the same one they had chased on North Hamilton, although the man had different clothes on, and his face and arms were covered with soot.

  The defense again asked on cross-examination if Brian Reese had ever pointed the gun he carried at him. Detective Osborne answered no, he hadn’t. The judge excused him.

  The prosecution followed Detective Osborne’s testimony by calling Detective Tim Day to the witness stand. Detective Day said that on July 10, 2008, he worked for the Violent Crimes Unit of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. He told the jurors that he went with Detective Jeff Wood and several other officers to set up surveillance on Barbara Reese. He said that he parked down the street from the house while Detective Wood sat closer. He then told the same story about the white minivan stopping at the house and then picking up Brian at the church. He said he pulled away and joined Detective Wood as he tried to stop the van. Detective Day added that at 10th and Linwood, several marked police cars with their flashing lights and sirens turned on converged on the intersection. The van paused briefly and then swerved around the police cars and headed south. Barbara stopped the van for a second in the 900 block of North Linwood but then took off again. When the white minivan pulled into the parking lot of the Linwood Square Shopping Center, police cars came from all directions and blocked the vehicle’s path. Barbara stopped and Brian leaped out and ran.

  Prosecutor Denise Robinson then asked Detective Day, “Did you see what the driver of the [van] was doing at this time?”

  “Yeah, she exited the vehicle and tried to run toward the street,” he answered.

  “She didn’t get very far?”

  “No, ma’am.”

  Detective Day continued by saying that he joined in the foot chase of Brian Reese and that all of them were yelling, “Stop! Police!” He said he lost sight of Brian due to a privacy fence just beyond the guardrail. When he heard the first gunshots, he raced around the privacy fence and a few seconds later he saw the officers shoot Brian Reese. He then pointed out for the court the man he’d seen shot that day by pointing to the defendant Brian Reese.

  Day went on to say that he spotted a revolver on the ground near Brian and then heard the other officers yelling, “Where’s Fish? Where’s Fish? He’s not answering his radio!” Detective Day said that he ran over with the other officers to where Fishburn lay on the ground, and that he saw Fishburn’s Taser on the ground nearby. Prosecutor Denise Robinson thanked him and then turned him over to the defense.

  Defense attorney David Shircliff handled the cross-examination. He went over Detective Day’s story of the surveillance and pursuit of Barbara’s minivan, then asked him to describe the scene in front of the Kroger’s store in Linwood Square. Detective Day told the jurors how Brian had jumped out of the minivan and actually ran into the right re
ar of a police vehicle that had stopped in front of him. He bounced off, though, and continued to run. The detective then told again about the foot chase. Shircliff asked Detective Day if he had personally seen the revolver in Brian’s hand. He answered no, he hadn’t.

  “Was Brian Reese facedown on the ground when you arrived?” Shircliff asked Day.

  “No, he was on his side.”

  Shircliff then went over the story of Day and the other officers finding Fishburn, and finished by asking, “You never saw Brian Reese brandish a weapon? Correct?”

  “Correct.”

  The defense then turned Detective Day back over to the prosecution for redirect. Robinson asked him, “Did you see any weapons in Fishburn’s hands, either?”

  “No, ma’am,” Day replied.

  The prosecution next called Donna Pike to testify. After she took the witness stand and was sworn in, she told the court that on July 10, 2008, she was headed with her daughter and two grandchildren to the Kroger’s store in the Linwood Square Shopping Center. She and her family had cut through the apartment area just south of the shopping center when suddenly a man ran past them really fast with two people chasing him. She thought it likely that he was a shoplifter. The three people all ran past the guardrail and privacy fence, and a few moments later she heard gunshots. That was the extent of her testimony, so the prosecution gave her over to the defense for cross-examination.

  Shircliff went over again what she had seen, and asked if the police officers chasing the man had their guns out.

  “No,” she answered.

  “Did you see anything in the hands of the person being chased?”

  “No.”

  Donna Pike then said that she definitely heard more than two gunshots. Shircliff asked if she saw anything after the men went around the privacy fence, and she answered no, she hadn’t. With no more questions from either side, the judge excused her.