Killers in the Family Read online

  The prosecution followed that witness’s testimony by calling another one to the witness stand. After being sworn in, Terri Combs told the jurors that on July 10, 2008, she lived in the 800 block of North Euclid Avenue and had been sitting out on her porch.

  “I was sitting there and I heard a lot of ruckus,” she told the court. “I looked to my left and I could see a person running and an officer chasing him saying, ‘Halt! Police!’ He leaps over the guardrail, and the cop runs right behind him over the guardrail, then he comes up to the left side of the double where I live. As soon as he got to the side of my house, I jumped up and I ran into the house and locked the door.” The police officer, she told the court, carried what looked like a gun in his right hand.

  Following this, she said, she crawled toward her kitchen and heard gunshots. She then peeked out of her kitchen window and saw the officers chasing Brian Reese. She ran down to her basement.

  “I looked out my basement door and right there lying at my back door was Officer Fishburn. The officers that were working on him kept saying, ‘Fish, stay with us! Fish, stay with us!’”

  She said that as the officers were working on Fishburn, she called 911. When asked why she had called when she saw that the police were already there, she said, “It was just instinct.” She then listened to a recording of her 911 call and verified it. The prosecutor thanked her and allowed the defense to start their cross-examination.

  Defense attorney David Shircliff asked Terri Combs if there was a gap in the privacy fence on July 10, 2008, and she said yes, there was. He then went over her earlier story of what she had seen and done, and asked if the running man had had a gun out. She said no, she didn’t see one. She then identified Brian Reese as the man she saw being chased, and said that Officer Fishburn had been about fifteen feet behind him.

  “You never saw anyone fire a weapon? Correct?” Shircliff asked her.

  “No, I didn’t.”

  Shircliff then handed the witness back to the prosecution for redirect. Denise Robinson showed Terri Combs a Taser and asked her if that could have been what she saw in Fishburn’s hand. The witness said that the Taser sure looked like a gun. Shircliff objected and the judge sustained the objection. The prosecution thanked Terri Combs and the judge excused her.

  Next up, the prosecution called Detective John Howard to the witness stand. After being sworn in, he told the court that on July 10, 2008, he, too, had worked for the Violent Crimes Unit of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department (as had detectives Jeff Wood and Tim Day). On that day, he said, he received an assignment to conduct surveillance on a house at 1428 North Bosart Street. He told the court that his car had small police badges on the front quarter panels, so he couldn’t get right up on the house without being noticed.

  He said he’d tried to help tail the white minivan Barbara Reese drove, and spoke about how it had stopped in front of the Kroger’s store and a man had jumped out of it and ran. Detective Howard then identified Brian Reese as the man he’d seen fleeing from the minivan. He also said he saw Brian Reese bounce off of a police car that stopped directly in front of him, and then run around the back of the car and flee south. Howard said he jumped out of his own car and joined the foot pursuit, and that when he was about ten feet from the guardrail, he heard several gunshots. As he continued running, he said he slipped and fell, and the other officers ran past him. When he got up he heard several more gunshots. He then looked around the privacy fence and saw several officers approaching Brian Reese, who lay on the ground.

  Detective Howard told the jurors that he raced over to the fallen Reese and handcuffed him. He said he could see a growing bloodstain on Reese’s left shoulder and called on his radio for medical assistance for him. He also noticed a long-barreled revolver lying on the ground near Reese. He added that he stayed and guarded Brian Reese while the other officers went in search of the missing Officer Jason Fishburn.

  Defense attorney David Shircliff, conducting the cross-examination, went over Detective Howard’s testimony about the pursuit and stopping of the white minivan. Then he asked, “Did you see a weapon in Brian Reese’s hand while he was in the van?”

  “No, sir,” Howard answered.

  “Did you see a weapon in Brian Reese’s hand when he jumped out of the van?”

  “No, sir.”

  “Did you see any of the exchanges between Brian Reese and the other officers?”

  “No, sir.”

  Shircliff said that this concluded his cross-examination, and the prosecution told the judge that they had no redirect.

  Reserve Sergeant Jim Dora next took the witness stand for the prosecution. After being sworn in, he told the court that he had been an Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department reserve officer for eighteen years and that on July 10, 2008, he had been working the 7:00 P.M. to 3:00 A.M. shift. He said that on that date, he was meeting with another reserve officer at the Linwood Square Shopping Center. They were going to coordinate their patrol that night of a high-crime area around East 42nd Street and North Mitthoeffer Road. Dora said that they heard the call for help in stopping a white minivan over the police radio, and they went to assist. He helped chase the white minivan into the shopping center and witnessed Brian Reese jump from the van and flee. Dora said that he then left his vehicle and ran south down the row of apartments east of the route Brian used, in case he came that way.

  When he reached the end of the apartments, Dora said, he saw the officers jumping over the guardrail and heading south on North Euclid Avenue. He raced down there, and when he came around the privacy fence and onto Euclid Avenue he heard shots but didn’t see who fired them. Dora then saw Brian Reese run out from between some houses and heard more gunshots. He said he didn’t see who fired their guns or if Brian Reese had a gun. At the moment, he’d been looking for cover because he knew he was exposed. Dora told the jurors that he did see the long-barreled revolver lying on the ground close to Brian. He then identified Brian Reese as the man they were chasing that day. The prosecutor thanked him and told the defense that Sergeant Dora was available for cross-examination.

  Defense attorney David Shircliff went over Sergeant Dora’s story about the foot chase and then asked him the same questions he had asked Detective Howard about seeing a gun in Brian’s hand. Sergeant Dora, like Detective Howard, replied no to all of these questions.

  Judge Borges, at the beginning of the trial, when she gave the jurors their initial instructions, told them that if they had any questions of the witnesses they were to write them down and give them to the bailiff. The judge would then read the questions, and if she felt they were proper she would ask them of the witness. One of the jurors wanted to know if Sergeant Dora heard the officers say anything to Brian Reese. He answered no, he didn’t. Another juror asked where Brian Reese was lying specifically, and Sergeant Dora showed them on a diagram of the crime scene. Finally, another juror asked Sergeant Dora if he ever saw a gun in Brian’s hand. He answered no. These questions finished, the judge excused the sergeant.

  Deputy prosecutor Denise Robinson next asked Officer Jerry Piland to take the witness stand. Upon being sworn in, Piland told the jurors that on July 10, 2008, he worked as a uniformed officer on the East District. He said that just before Detective Wood had called for assistance in stopping the white minivan, he and Fishburn had been on a disturbance run involving a fight between a mother and daughter who lived in the Linwood Square Apartments. As they were leaving the run, they heard Detective Wood calling for assistance over his radio.

  Piland said that as he and Fishburn went to East 10th Street and North Linwood Avenue they saw the white minivan heading south on Linwood toward them. They turned on their emergency lights and sirens, but the minivan swerved around them and continued south on Linwood Avenue. He said the van accelerated and tried to get away from them, then suddenly made a move as though it was going to turn into the first entrance to the shop
ping center, but instead continued on and turned into the second entrance. The van stopped suddenly in front of the Kroger’s store and then Brian Reese jumped out and ran.

  “I slammed on the brakes,” Piland told the court, “which caused him [Reese], as he tried to run behind my car, to run into my rear quarter panel. He rolled over the trunk and continued running towards the courtyard of the apartment complex.”

  Piland continued his story by describing how he jumped out of his car and ran after Brian while giving a clothing description and direction of travel over the police radio. He said that he saw Fishburn and Brian just ahead of him, and also saw Fishburn pull out his Taser, but didn’t see it have any noticeable effect on Brian. He added that he was about fifteen to twenty yards behind the two of them.

  Rather than running down Euclid Avenue, Piland said, he ran over to the alley east of Euclid in order to try to cut Brian off. He said he didn’t make it to the alley, though, because he heard gunshots. He immediately reported this on his police radio and took cover behind a car. A few seconds later, Piland added, he heard officers yelling for someone to get down and stay down. He then saw the officers running up to Brian Reese, and he ran over and helped Detective Howard secure him.

  “I then started looking around,” Piland told the jurors, “and I noticed that Jason wasn’t there, and I couldn’t figure out why because he was right on the suspect’s heels as they started to run between those two houses.”

  He then told about the officers calling for Fishburn and trying to contact him on the radio. They then checked between the two houses and found him. Piland said that Fishburn had vomit on his face and that they wiped it off.

  “We ripped open his shirt and I pulled his vest up and I could see a big nasty swollen area just above his belly button,” Piland told the jurors. “I said, ‘Jason, you’re good. You’re good. Your vest took the shot. You’re going to be okay.’ At about this time though is when he turned his head and I could see that he had a hole behind his ear that was bleeding pretty badly.”

  Once he finished his story, Robinson thanked him and sat down.

  Defense attorney David Shircliff went over Officer Piland’s story of the foot chase and then asked the same questions about whether he ever saw a gun in Brian’s hand. Piland answered no to all of these questions.

  Judge Borges then read several questions the jurors had of Officer Piland, starting with, “Is it standard to carry a Taser?”

  “Yes, the majority of officers carry one.”

  The judge then allowed Piland to show the jury his own Taser.

  “When you removed Officer Fishburn’s gun belt, where was his gun?” another juror wanted to know.

  “It was lying to his left side on the ground. His Taser was also out of its holster and lying towards his feet.”

  The judge then asked, because of a juror’s question, if Officer Piland would unholster and display his Glock semiautomatic pistol and his Taser so that the jury could see if they looked alike or different. Once Officer Piland had done this, the judge thanked him and told him that he could step down.

  Detective Sergeant Leslie VanBuskirk next took the witness stand for the prosecution. She told the court that she was a homicide unit supervisor and also a member of the Critical Incident Response Team (CIRT). She said that part of her responsibilities as a member of CIRT was to respond to officer-involved shootings, so she went to Wishard Memorial Hospital right after hearing about the Fishburn/Reese shooting on Euclid Avenue. She arrived there at 7:23 P.M., shortly before both Officer Jason Fishburn and Brian Reese. VanBuskirk said that after talking with Sergeant Snyder and Officer Piland, she took possession of Fishburn’s clothing and then transported it back to the Homicide Office for the Crime Lab to examine.

  Deputy prosecutor Denise Robinson then had Detective Sergeant VanBuskirk show the jury the clothing that had been cut off of Fishburn. It was in large, clear evidence bags.

  Defense attorney David Shircliff had no cross-examination but did ask the judge to remove the jury so that he could make a motion.

  When the jury had left the courtroom, Shircliff made a motion that he wanted to go on record as objecting anytime the term “homicide” or “homicide detective” was used. According to Indiana law, the prosecution cannot, with individuals on trial for a specific crime, bring up any other crimes the defendant is suspected of, charged with, or convicted of. Shircliff feared that it would prejudice the jury if they knew Brian Reese was a suspect in other homicides. The judge noted the motion.

  The prosecution, once the jury had returned to the courtroom, brought a new witness to the stand. Once sworn in, Lisa Liebig told the court that she worked at the Marion County Crime Lab as a crime scene specialist. She established her credentials and talked for a few minutes about her training and experience, then she told the jurors how she’d responded to a call to process the crime scene for the Fishburn/Reese shooting at 7:50 P.M. on July 10, 2008. She said she started at the Kroger’s store and worked her way to the 800 block of Euclid Avenue, making diagrams, taking photos, and searching for evidence.

  “Did you record the vehicle identification number of the minivan the police chased?” Ms. Robinson asked her.

  “Yes, it was registered to a Barbara Reese of 1428 North Bosart Street.”

  The prosecution then had her run through a set of photographs of the crime scene on an overhead projector, showing the jurors the general area and specifically where she had recovered evidence, such as shell casings, drops of blood, Officer Fishburn’s Taser, his .40 caliber Glock semiautomatic pistol, and the long-barreled .38 caliber Smith & Wesson revolver. The prosecution then had Liebig hold up the front panel of Fishburn’s bulletproof vest and show the jury where she had removed a .38 caliber bullet from it.

  Following this, the crime scene specialist testified that when she examined the .38 caliber revolver, she found that it had five spent casings and one live bullet in the cylinder. She then showed the jurors photos of the Glocks belonging to Officers Wood and Scott, the two officers who had shot Brian Reese. The magazine of Scott’s gun, she said, had nine live rounds in it, and she found one live round in the firing chamber, meaning that he had fired at least five rounds. The magazine of Wood’s gun had fourteen live rounds in it, and she also found one live round in the firing chamber, meaning that he had fired only one round.

  Moving on to another subject, Robinson asked if Liebig found any fingerprints on the evidence she recovered. She said no, she didn’t, but that she did take DNA swabs from the evidence. She then spoke in great detail about how she’d taken the swabs for DNA from the .38 caliber revolver recovered at the crime scene. She said she took swabs from the grip, the trigger, the hammer, the muzzle, and from the one live round in the cylinder. She also noted that she’d found six live .38 caliber rounds in a holster that Brian Reese had allegedly dropped at the crime scene, but again no fingerprints. Overall, she told the jurors, she spent fourteen hours at the crime scene. The prosecution thanked her and then handed her over to the defense for cross-examination.

  After walking her through her credentials and what she did that day at the crime scene, defense attorney Jeffrey Neel asked, “Did you find any bullet holes near where Officer Fishburn had been shot?”

  “No, I didn’t,” Liebig answered.

  “Did you use a metal detector that night at the crime scene?”

  “No, I didn’t.”

  Neel then attempted to get Liebig to acknowledge that the crime scene was confused and cluttered. She said that debris from where medical personnel had worked on an injured subject always cluttered a crime scene. He then questioned whether Liebig had done a thorough job at the crime scene, since, he pointed out, the wires from the Taser round that Officer Jason Fishburn had fired at Brian Reese weren’t found until several days later. Liebig simply responded that she had done as thorough a job as possible under the circumstances. Neel then fin
ished his cross-examination by asking her again if she had found any bullet holes around where Officer Fishburn had been shot, and she again said she hadn’t.

  On redirect examination, the prosecution asked, “Is it uncommon for all of the medical debris to be at a crime scene?”

  “No, it isn’t,” Liebig responded.

  “And you didn’t find any bullet holes around where Jason had been shot?”

  “No.”

  Lisa Liebig finished her redirect testimony by telling the jury that she did return with a metal detector to the crime scene in March 2009. Rather than excusing the crime scene specialist at this point, however, the judge said that the jurors had some questions.

  “How many rounds does a .40 caliber Glock carry?” the judge read.

  “It depends on the model of the Glock.”

  “Was Fishburn’s Taser fired?”

  “The end cap was off of it,” Liebig responded, “but I don’t know if it was fired. Tasers are not my specialty.”

  With the juror questions finished, the judge excused Liebig and she left the witness stand.

  The prosecution next brought Detective Michael Bain to the witness stand. Bain told the jurors that he worked in the Dangerous Drugs Section of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, and before that he had worked for three years as a homicide detective. He said that he had been in the Homicide Office when the call came out for Homicide to go to the 800 block of North Euclid. The run went to Detective Sergeant Breedlove, but he went along to assist him. He said that they worked at the crime scene until around 10:30 P.M.

  In addition to being a detective, Bain told the court, he was also a firearms expert, so deputy prosecutor Denise Robinson followed up on the jury questions and asked him about the number of bullets that various models of Glock can carry. Bain said that the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department issued two models of Glock. The Model 23 can carry thirteen rounds in the magazine and one in the firing chamber, while the Model 22 can carry fifteen rounds in the magazine and one in the firing chamber. (The prosecution wanted this testimony because it felt that earlier the defense was trying to make an issue of there being fourteen rounds in Detective Wood’s gun, even though he said he had fired at Brian Reese.) Detective Bain finished his testimony by telling the jury that the Glocks the police department used don’t have an external safety.