Frederick trial delayed as defense investigates witness

CHESAPEAKE

Circuit Court Judge Marjorie A. T. Arrington has recessed the Ryan Frederick trial until 2 p.m. today to give Frederick’s defense team time to investigate questions about a jailhouse informant who on Tuesday testified against Frederick.

The trial will resume at 2 p.m.

The informant, Jamal Skeeter, had testified that Frederick confessed to him in the Chesapeake jail that he saw the police outside his house the night Frederick shot and killed Detective Jarrod Shivers.  Frederick has claimed that he didn’t know the police were outside the night the arrived at his Redstart Avenue home in Portlock to serve a drug warrant. 

However, defense attorneys this morning told Circiut Court Judge Marjorie A. T. Arrington that Skeeter has proven so unreliable in past cases that the Portsmouth Commonwealth’s Attorney has refused to use him as a witness.

On Wednesday, Arrington denied a request by Ryan Frederick's attorneys to throw out charges of capital murder and growing marijuana.

After prosecutors rested their case, the defense attorneys argued that the evidence presented in court was insufficient to support a charge of premeditated murder, nor was there evidence showing the manufacture and distribution of marijuana.

"I think that a prima facie case can be made on both charges," the judge said, without elaborating.

That means, barring any other motions, the jury will decide whether Frederick is guilty of capital murder, use of a firearm and the marijuana charge. He's on trial in the Jan. 17, 2008, shooting of Detective Jarrod Shivers during a marijuana raid at Frederick's Portlock home.

On a day packed with witnesses, a video and a jury visit to the Frederick home at 932 Redstart Ave., there was a pause when the judge learned that one of the witnesses, a city detective who was about to take the stand, had learned that his father just died.

Detective Kiley Roberts decided to testify. He described the painful night making a re-enactment video two months after the fatal shooting.

"I almost threw up three or four times," he said of that night. "I couldn't get out of the van. I couldn't move my legs."

The officers re-enacted the raid and shooting, but Roberts acknowledged it was not an exact replica of events.

Special prosecutors, who came from Prince William County to try the case, asked that the video be made so they could better understand the events that happened that night.

"The only thing I could think about was the end of that evening - all that training I've been through couldn't save a man's life," Roberts said.

Defense attorney James Broccoletti questioned how they could have made a video without duplicating exactly how they knocked on Frederick's door the night of the raid.

Frederick claims self-defense. He says he never heard police banging at his door or shouting and that he fired thinking someone was breaking in.

"The most critical and important moment of that night was incorrect?" Broccoletti asked Roberts.

Prosecutors, though, objected, and the judge would not allow him to answer. Broccoletti tried again.

"The knock and announce by you, the method of the knock and announce by you, the sequence of the knock and announce by you, was not correct?" he asked of the video.

"No, it was not," Roberts answered.

After the prosecution rested, the defense attorneys put on at least six neighbors of Frederick's who testified that they heard nothing of the initial knock and announcement by the narcotics detectives, nor did they hear them yelling at Frederick to come out with his hands up after he had shot Shivers.

Thomas Ehret, who lives next door, said he didn't hear anything unusual until his dog started barking and he looked out the window and saw police working on Shivers on his sidewalk.

"Did you hear anyone yelling, 'Police, come out. Police, come out.'? " Broccoletti asked.

"No," Ehret said, adding that the first noise he heard was an ambulance.

Richard Wick, who lives across the street, said the first thing he heard was a loud bang and that when he looked out about a minute later, he saw the officer on the ground in front of Ehret's house.

Other neighbors two and three doors away gave similar testimony.

Sandra Brooks, who lives six doors down and was sitting on her porch that night, said she didn't see the police pull up or hear them banging on Frederick's door. She said she did think she heard neighbors arguing.

"I don't remember hearing anything," she said, until the SWAT team arrived with a bullhorn.

The SWAT team arrived after the shooting and Frederick's surrender.

Broccoletti is trying to show the jury that Frederick couldn't have heard anything, either.

Also Wednesday, several Chesapeake sheriff's deputies working in the jail testified that they had referred some concerns from Frederick to the department's internal affairs office. But the judge would not allow the deputies to explain exactly what th e concerns were.

Frederick's attorneys earlier told the judge, without the jury present, that Frederick had received threats from other inmates and asked that he not be bothered.

Earlier Wednesday, Dr. Elizabeth Kinnison, the assistant chief medical examiner, testified that the bullet that struck Shivers punctured three major arteries, including his aorta.

For more details, return to PilotOnline.com later and read tomorrow's Virginian-Pilot.

Tim McGlone, (757) 446-2343, tim.mcglone@pilotonline.com