Jury to weigh murder suspect's guilt
March 06, 2002
By Glenn Chapman STAFF WRITER
Attorneys wrapped up their presentations in Judge Philip Sarkisian's courtroom Tuesday, with the prosecution arguing Green was a towering thug who murdered during a robbery attempt and the defense asserting the 45-year-old man is a victim of mistaken identity.
"If you buy the defense argument, I have some stock in Enron you might be interested in," prosecutor Michael Nieto told jurors after defense attorney Daniel Horowitz depicted him, police and witnesses as inept, untrustworthy or conspirators. "The entire defense is an act of desperation. ... They want to blame everyone else for the situation the defendant finds himself in."
Nieto used a PowerPoint presentation to review evidence he said proves Green stabbed Charles Hass in the heart and knifed Aaron Merritt in the lung during a failed robbery outside a liquor store at the corner of Peralta and 12th streets last year.
The 6-foot-4-inch Green confronted the couple, announced he was a police officer and said they were being arrested, Merritt testified at trial. People from the neighborhood knew Green by the nickname "Askari," which is reportedly a Swahili word for police officer.
Body fluid spilled on the lighted sidewalk at the corner indicates Green stabbed Hass before shoving him to the shadows on one side of the liquor store that night, Nieto told jurors.
An unknown accomplice, identified in court only as "scarface," held Hass "like a scarecrow" while Green groped Hass in a search for valuables, the prosecutor said.
Merritt said Green stabbed him in the chest when he tried to rescue Hass.
The 29-year-old Oakland man said he freed Hass by hitting Green in the head with a bottle. Merritt and Hass dashed to Merritt's nearby apartment, where Hass, 27, collapsed to the floor dying.
"I would like to see the guilty parties have to pay for what they did," Merritt said during a break in closing arguments. "In this case, it is Willie Green."
In an effort to demonstrate how it can be tricky to tell people with similar features apart, Horowitz showed jurors an FBI "Most Wanted" poster bearing pictures of 20 suspected terrorists sought after the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Horowitz went on to flash a tabloid "separated at birth" feature at the jury.
Horowitz implied that Nieto, who is of Puerto Rican heritage, was persecuting an innocent black man on behalf of two white victims.
"What is that, a pinata?" Horowitz remarked, pointing to a Russian nesting doll Nieto had with him in court. Horowitz later told jurors Nieto might "pull out a pinata" during his closing statement.
"To call me a racist in this case is unfair," Nieto said, picking up the wooden doll for a moment. "To ask me why I brought a pinata is outrageous and offensive."
During his review of the evidence, Nieto lambasted a self-described memory specialist called by the defense as "Dr. Show-me-the-money."
"You can't bring a son back to his mother, or a friend back to a friend," Nieto concluded, waving an open hand toward Merritt and Hass' mother, Louise, in the gallery. "But, you can bring justice."
Jurors will spend the day discussing whether Green is guilty as charged with murder and attempted murder.