Q. That's all from the OC spray, right? MR. SCOTT: Okay. Pass the. THE COURT: State? MR. SCOTT: Yes, Your Honor. State, call your next.

Transcription

1 Q. That's all from the OC spray, right? A. That's correct. MR. SCOTT: Okay. Pass the witness, Your Honor. THE COURT: State? MR. GILLIAM: Nothing further, Your Honor. THE COURT: May he be excused? MR. SCOTT: Yes, Your Honor. 0 THE COURT: You're free to go. State, call your next. MR. GILLIAM: State calls Deputy Ojeda. THE BAILIFF: witness has not been sworn. Your Honor, this 0 THE COURT: Come on up, Deputy. Raise your right hand. (Witness sworn.) THE COURT: Have a seat. You may proceed. EDMUNDO OJEDA, having been first duly sworn, testified as follows: DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. GILLIAM: Q. Deputy Ojeda, will you please introduce

2 0 0 yourself to the jury? A. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I'm Deputy Edmundo Ojeda. Q. And how are you currently employed? A. I'm employed with the Harris County Sheriff's Office for years. Q. And where are you assigned? A. I'm assigned to the Justice Management Bureau, Courts Division, assigned to the th District Criminal Court, which is this courtroom. Q. How long have you worked in this courtroom? A. Approximately about nine years. Q. And I'm going to take you back to -- well, first, let's talk about this. Over your experience have you dealt with inmates who want to represent themselves at trial? A. Yes, sir. Q. And is that called being pro se? A. It is. Q. And those individuals -- those inmates who want to represent themselves during trial, what sort of restraints are placed on them during their actual trial in the courtroom? A. There are none.

3 0 0 Q. So are they allowed to walk freely around the courtroom right here that we see? A. Yes, sir. Q. I'm going to take you back to October nd of 0. Did you have an opportunity to come into contact with an inmate named Weylin Allford? A. Yes, I did. Q. Do you see Mr. Allford in the courtroom today? A. I do. Q. Will you identify him by an article of clothing that he's swearing? A. The gentleman sitting at Defense counsel table with a brown striped shirt. MR. GILLIAM: Your Honor, may the record reflect the witness identified the defendant? THE COURT: It will so reflect. Q. (By Mr. Gilliam) How did you come into contact -- first come into contact with the defendant that morning? A. Well, he had a trial case set for the day, and I received him from the jail in the back secured area of the courtroom. Q. And is the back secured area, is that what's behind this door (indicating)?

4 0 A. Right through those brown doors, yes, sir. 0 0 Q. And do you -- were you aware of the current status of his trial case? A. Yes, sir. Q. Where were we -- where was it in trial, what stage of the trial, if you remember? A. We were going to begin testimony. I believe they picked a jury the day before. Q. And were you present the day before? A. No, sir, I was not. Q. So once you received the inmate and made contact with the defendant back there in the holding cells, what do you do when you first make contact with him? A. When he came up, we had him place his property on the table and I did a pat-down search for officer safety. Q. And are those pat-down searches, do you conduct those on every single inmate? A. I couldn't say every single one, but for him I did. Q. Have you conducted them on this inmate before? A. Based on his history, his behavorial

5 0 0 history, I felt the need to search him. Q. And how did you search the defendant? A. I patted him down from the neck down. Q. And do you pat down his legs and his groin area and anywhere -- A. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Q. So once you patted down the defendant, did you feel anything? A. I did. Q. What did you feel and what did you do once you felt that? A. When I got to his waist area near his groin area, I felt a large bulge; and I asked the defendant what it was he had. He stated that he had a sore and he bandaged it -- he bandaged it up so it wouldn't get infected. So I told him, well, let's take a look. I didn't think he was being truthful with me. So I said let me take a look and see what you got down there. Q. And did you find out what he had down there? A. Yes, I did. Q. And what did you find on the defendant? A. When I looked down there, I saw the butt of a cloth -- a shank is what it was. It was like

6 0 the handle they use. And it was fashioned -- strapped down with a cloth -- I mean, strips of sheet that he might have stripped -- stripped down to tie around his leg area to secure it. Q. And just to be clear, was this -- did you find this shank on the outside of his undergarments or on the inside? A. It was on the inside of his undergarments. Q. And how was it -- you talked a little bit about how it was wrapped. Was there anything 0 else with the shank that you found? A. Yes. He had the inside of a toilet paper roll, the brown part, he used that as a sheath to cover the metal portion, I guess, while he's carrying it so he wouldn't stick himself or cut himself with it or something. Q. Other than the shank, did you find anything else on the defendant? A. Yes, sir, I did. Q. What did you find? A. I found an impact weapon. When we say impact weapon, he had two socks wrapped around on the other side; and inside the sock was broken down electronics, screws, hard metal that he bounded into

7 0 0 a ball, stuck it inside the sock so I guess he could have used it as an impact weapon, you know, to hit somebody over the head. Q. Did the defendant make any indications as to how long he had had that shank or how often he had brought that shank up? A. He claimed that he had brought it up before but... Q. Did he tell you whether he had it the day before or -- A. He said he brought it up to the court before. He didn't say it was the day before. He just said he brought it before. Q. I'm showing you State's Exhibit No. that I've previously marked. Is that a fair and accurate depiction of what it purports to show? A. Yes, it is. Q. And I'm showing you what I've marked as State's Exhibit No. and its contents. Do you know if there was an incident report associated with your discovery of the shank? A. There was. Q. And do you have that incident report with you or do you know the number? A. I don't know the number. I do have it

8 0 0 with me. Q. Is that a copy of your incident report? A. Yes, it is. Q. And does your incident report have a number associated with it? A. It does. Q. And do you see that number on State's Exhibit No.? A. I do. Q. I'm showing you the contents of State's Exhibit No.. Do you recognize that? A. Yes, I do. Q. And what is this? A. That's the shank that I found on the inmate that day. MR. GILLIAM: Your Honor, at this point in time I would offer State's Exhibits No. and into evidence. MR. SCOTT: Can I approach the witness for just a second, Judge? THE COURT: You may. (Off-the-record discussion between Defense counsel and the witness.) MR. SCOTT: No objection, Your Honor.

9 THE COURT: All right. No objection -- was no objection to. MR. SCOTT: I'm sorry, Judge. That THE COURT: All right. is admitted. Okay. is admitted. (State's Exhibit No., Photograph, offered and admitted.) MR. SCOTT: We have no objection, 0 Your Honor. 0 THE COURT: All right. No objection, it's admitted. You may publish. (State's Exhibit No., Shank, offered and admitted.) Q. (By Mr. Gilliam) What does State's Exhibit No., the shank, appear to be made out of? A. Metal object. What metal, I can't say. I don't know. Q. And was it at least made into a pointed end on the one side? A. It was made to a point, yes, sir. Q. State's Exhibit No., what is this showing us? A. That's showing a picture of the shank. That's my hand there in the picture along with the

10 0 impact weapon in the back side there. See, the top of it has a ball-shaped figure. Q. Am I pointing to the impact weapon that you were talking about (indicating)? A. Yes, sir. Q. Once you found that shank on the defendant, what did you do next? A. I reported it to my supervisors. Q. And was there a report generated regarding this incident? A. Yes, sir, there was. witness, Your Honor. MR. GILLIAM: State passes the THE COURT: All right. Defense? MR. SCOTT: have a moment, please? Yes, Your Honor. May I THE COURT: Yes, sir. (Brief pause.) MR. SCOTT: No questions, Your 0 Honor. THE COURT: All right. No questions. May he be excused? MR. GILLIAM: Yes. MR. SCOTT: Yes, Your Honor. THE COURT: All right. You're free

11 to go. Thank you, sir. THE WITNESS: Thank you. THE COURT: State, call your next. MR. GILLIAM: State calls Sergeant Leachman. THE COURT: Is this your last witness? MR. GILLIAM: Yes, it is, Your Honor. 0 THE COURT: Okay. We'll go ahead and finish this witness and we'll finish for the day, folks. All right? Could I see the attorneys up here real quickly, please? (Proceedings at the bench:) THE COURT: Do you think you're going to have anything in punishment? MR. SCOTT: I'm not sure yet. THE COURT: You're not sure yet. 0 Okay. This is what we'll do. I'll plan on having them come back at, like, :0. So we can interrupt docket, do whatever you need to do, if he's going to testify, or argue and let them start deliberating. MR. GILLIAM: Got it. (Bench proceedings concluded.)

12 Deputy -- Sergeant. THE COURT: All right. Come up, THE BAILIFF: witness has not been sworn. THE COURT: hand. Your Honor, this Please raise your right 0 0 (Witness sworn.) THE COURT: Have a seat, please. You may proceed. R. B. LEACHMAN, having been first duly sworn, testified as follows: DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. GILLIAM: Q. Sergeant Leachman, will you please introduce yourself? A. Sergeant R. B. Leachman, Harris County Sheriff's Office. Q. And how long have you been with the Harris County Sheriff's Office? A. Been there since. Q. So what is that? It's years? A. years? Q. Is that correct? A.. Q. That's why I'm a lawyer, not a