Prosecution rests in trial of Tacoma officers charged in Manny Ellis' death
What You Need To Know
🚔 Tacoma police officers Matthew Collins, Christopher Burbank and Timothy Rankine face felony charges in the death of Manuel "Manny" Ellis, a 33-year-old Black man who died in police custody on March 3, 2020. All three pleaded not guilty and are on paid leave.
🏛 Over the past six weeks, the prosecution has called more than 20 witnesses including medical and crime scene experts, local law enforcement and eyewitnesses.
⏳ The prosecution is called its final witness Wednesday and rested its case. The defense made a motion to dismiss the charges. If it fails, court is expected to resume Monday.
🎧 The Walk Home, a national award-winning podcast from KNKX and The Seattle Times, goes deeper into the life and death of Manny Ellis and what led to this trial.
🗒 KNKX reporters Mayowa Aina and Jared Brown are covering the trial. Questions or comments about the trial? Contact us at outreach@knkx.org
Continue following KNKX's coverage of the trial
We're closing this blog but still covering the trial.
Find the latest updates on the trial of Tacoma officers charged with killing Manuel Ellis at knkx.org/tpdtrial.
Thank you for following KNKX! Support independent, local news coverage like this by donating or exploring other ways to give.
After motion to dismiss is denied, trial moves forward
Prosecutors rested their case on Wednesday against the Tacoma police officers charged with killing Manny Ellis. A motion to dismiss the charges was denied and a rally outside the courthouse called for more access to the hearings.
KNKX reporters Jared Brown and Mayowa Aina share what happened inside and out of the courtroom:
Judge denies motion to dismiss charges
Prosecutors from the state Attorney General’s Office rested their case Wednesday against the Tacoma police officers charged with killing Manny Ellis. Attorneys for Officers Matthew Collins, Christopher Burbank and Timothy Rankine then argued a motion to dismiss their murder and manslaughter charges.
Judge Bryan Chushcoff ruled that the jury should decide whether the officers illegally stopped and assaulted Ellis, then suffocated him in hogtie restraints. The defense’s case will begin Monday with an opening statement from an attorney for Collins. Attorneys for Burbank and Rankine gave opening statements when the trial began in October.
Prosecution rests its case, defense attempts to have charges dismissed
Prosecutors in the trial of three Tacoma police officers accused of killing Manuel Ellis, an unarmed Black man, called their final witness Wednesday morning and rested their case.
Jurors were excused for the rest of the day while attorneys for the officers launched an attempt to have charges dismissed, arguing that prosecutors hadn’t put on any evidence that showed the individual officers’ actions caused Ellis’ death.
Should the motion to dismiss fail, court is expected to resume Monday, when the defense will begin to make its case. Jurors will first hear from an attorney for officer Matthew Collins, whose legal team reserved its opening statements until prosecutors from the Washington State Attorney General’s office rested.
Then, the defense will call its first witness. Attorneys representing officers Christopher Burbank, Collins and Timothy Rankine have listed more than 150 people as potential witnesses, but the lawyers have told the court they expect to present a swift case.
Over the last six weeks, jurors heard testimony from four eyewitnesses whose accounts of the deadly police encounter contradicted the officers’ version of events, a host of medical experts who agreed Ellis’ death was caused by the way police restrained him and a use-of-force expert who said the officers used excessive force.
Jurors were shown several videos of the encounter and heard a recording of Ellis’ repeatedly saying, “I can’t breathe.” His panicked pleas for breath were captured on a doorbell camera some distance away.
Prosecutors have claimed that all three officers heard the man was in distress and should have immediately intervened to render aid, a requirement of Initiative 940, a police accountability law adopted by the state Legislature in 2019. This is the first trial that will test the new law.
Ellis, 33, was walking home the night of March 3, 2020 in Tacoma’s South End when he encountered police and was beaten, briefly put in a headlock, shocked with a series of Taser shots and restrained on the ground. Officers sat on his back while he was bound in handcuffs tied to his ankles.
His cause of death was determined by the Pierce County medical examiner to be a form of oxygen deprivation caused by physical restraint, and it was ruled a homicide. Four eyewitnesses have testified that police instigated the altercation, and that Ellis did not fight back as police subdued and restrained him.
Burbank, Collins and Rankine are charged with first-degree manslaughter in Ellis' death. Collins and Burbank also face charges of second-degree murder. The defendants have pleaded not guilty, are free on bail and remain on paid leave from the Tacoma Police Department.
Lawyers for the officers have argued that police had to subdue Ellis because he was aggressive and resisted arrest, and they have pointed to the man’s underlying health conditions and methamphetamine intoxication as another explanation for his death.
Earlier in the morning, attorneys completed their questioning of prosecutors’ use-of-force expert, John Ryan. Under a re-direct examination by assistant attorney general Lori Nicolavo, Ryan agreed that a Washington State Patrol officer said he was on the scene for about three to four minutes and saw Ellis in a prone position the entire time.
Ryan testified that standard police practice would be to put a person on their side or sitting up once they are secured in handcuffs. He said in regard to his opinions on use of force, it didn’t matter how long Ellis was held on his stomach, and officers shouldn’t have kept him in that position.
The expert also testified it would be “dangerous” to call a suspicious person over to their patrol car because it traps officers in the vehicle. Eyewitnesses testified that Ellis appeared to be summoned back to the patrol car before its door swung open and knocked him to the ground.
Prosecutors’ final witness was a private DNA analyst, Teresa Cheromcha. She works for a forensic laboratory in Florida, DNA Labs International, and she has more than 16 years of experience performing DNA analysis.
Cheromcha looked at DNA recovered from the hobble strap used to restrain Ellis and said her findings provided “very strong” support that the man’s DNA was on it.
DNA expert takes the stand
Court resumed Wednesday morning with the defense continuing its cross-examination of John Ryan, a police use of force expert.
The prosecution then called DNA expert Teresa Cheromcha to testify that the hobble strap in evidence was the hobble used on Manuel Ellis.
The state may rest its case Wednesday. There is not court scheduled for Thursday in observance of Veteran's Day.
Watch the proceedings via the courtroom livestream on the Pierce County website.
Defense lawyers emphasize reports that Ellis resisted arrest, prosecution expected to call final witness Wednesday
Defense lawyers on Tuesday afternoon emphasized reports that Manuel Ellis was resisting arrest, even after handcuffed, on the night he died.
During cross-examination, John Ryan, a prosecution expert in police procedures and use of force, said what officers and their lawyers have called resisting arrest could in fact have been Ellis involuntarily struggling to gain air.
“Once a person is handcuffed, particularly in the prone position, it’s possible they’re actively resisting “ Ryan testified. “It’s also possible they’re fighting for air.”
Mark Conrad, a lawyer for Officer Timothy Rankine, questioned Ryan about the circumstances when Rankine began sitting on Ellis’ back. Rankine told detectives that based on his military combat experience, he presumed Officers Matthew Collins and Christopher Burbank had been killed when he heard empty clicks from one of their microphones over police radio dispatch channels.
Ryan conceded that it would be reasonable to be concerned for fellow officers’ safety at that point. When Rankine arrived with his partner, they helped restrain Ellis. Rankine reported Ellis, who was already handcuffed, was squirming and resisting officers. Rankine said he mounted Ellis and eventually placed his full weight on Ellis’ back while he lay prone and restrained.
“There’s multiple times he’s putting weight on [Ellis’] back while he’s handcuffed and that’s inappropriate,” Ryan testified. Earlier in Tuesday’s testimony, Ryan noted that the threat from subjects who are handcuffed “goes down dramatically,” and police should adjust the level of force they’re applying accordingly, but he said Rankine did not.
Near the end of the day Tuesday, Assistant Washington Attorney General Lori Nicolavo and special prosecutor Patty Eakes called Pierce County Superior Court Judge Bryan Chushcoff’s attention to an earlier remark he made during Ryan’s testimony.
It came when Ryan was considering, in hypothetical terms, what constitutes reasonable use of force by police. Chushcoff said he disagreed with Ryan’s interpretation of the law when he blurted out, “I don’t think so.”
Eakes argued that the judge’s commentary could leave an impression with the jury that the witness was not credible. Chushcoff declined to tell the jury to disregard his statement, and said his jury instructions will be clear about what the jury should focus on and what it should disregard.
The prosecution expects to call its final witness, a DNA analyst, on Wednesday before resting its case. Collins’ legal team deferred its opening statement at the beginning of the trial. Casey Arbenz, a lawyer for Collins, is expected to deliver it upon completion of the prosecution’s case
Excerpted from pool report provided by The Seattle Times.
Use-of-force expert says if jury believes the eyewitnesses, nothing the officers did in videos was 'legally justified'
Lawyers for three Tacoma police officers on trial for the death of Manuel Ellis cross-examined a prosecution expert in police use of force on Tuesday morning as the prosecution progressed toward resting its case.
National police use of force expert John Ryan testified that Officer Matthew Collins used excessive force on Ellis by repeatedly striking him and placing his knee on the back of Ellis’ neck to pin him against the pavement. Officer Christopher Burbank’s use of a Taser on Ellis also constituted excessive force because “based on the reports of the witnesses, there was no act of resistance,” Ryan testified Tuesday.
Ryan testified that Officer Timothy Rankine, by sitting on Ellis’ back for a prolonged time, breached law enforcement standards that have been in place for decades about how to avoid harming subjects who are in prone restraint.
Even if the jury were to take Collins and Burbank at their word - that Ellis had hassled a passing car and turned aggressive - Ryan testified that the witness videos show Ellis was subdued and the officers should have turned their attention to placing him in a safe position instead of continuing to apply force.
If the jury believes the eyewitnesses, Ryan said, nothing the officers were shown doing on the videos was legally justified.
Under cross-examination by Burbank’s lawyer, Wayne Fricke, Ryan conceded there is leeway in police standards to break from policy in unpredictable situations, but only “when reasonable.”
Fricke oriented his questions around a series of photographs that show what appears to be white powder on and around the passenger’s side window of a police cruiser, where Burbank rode to the scene on the night Ellis died. Defense lawyers have implied that it proves Ellis slapped or hit the window as the confrontation began.
Ellis had purchased powdered raspberry-filled donuts at a nearby 7-Eleven store minutes before he encountered police; a box of them was found at the scene. Ryan downplayed the significance of the powder around the window, noting that Burbank had told detectives he used the door to knock Ellis to the ground to prevent him from attacking Collins.
“It could be objective evidence of him being hit by the door,” Ryan said. He declined to read more into the powder than that.
Fricke also trained the jury’s attention on the moments preceding the eyewitness videos. The officers’ defense teams have been adamant that the aggression by Ellis preceded eyewitnesses’ arrival, but that was cast in doubt by the lay witnesses’ testimony. They said they were present from the time both officers exited their police cruiser, and that Ellis never acted in a threatening way.
Testimony is expected to resume this afternoon in Pierce County Superior Court, when the prosecution anticipates calling its final witness, a DNA analyst.
Excerpted from pool report provided by The Seattle Times.
Defense cross-examines use-of-force expert, plans to call its first witness Monday
Court resumed Tuesday morning with more updates on the trial's timeline.
The state may rest its case today or Wednesday. The defense plans to call its first witness Monday, after any possible motions and opening statements from Officer Matthew Collin's attorneys.
The defense then proceeded to cross-examine John Ryan, a former police officer and national use-of-force expert.
Watch the proceedings via the courtroom livestream on the Pierce County website.
Expert testifies Tacoma police officers applied excessive force, breached law enforcement standards
An expert in police use of force testified Monday afternoon that three Tacoma police officers applied it excessively and breached longstanding law enforcement standards on the night Manuel Ellis died.
John J. Ryan, a national consultant in law enforcement training who spent 20 years as a police officer, said Ellis posed no threat that would have warranted the actions of the officers on trial for his death.
Ryan testified that the officers had control of Ellis and continued to apply force.
“Once the attack ends, and you’ve got him on the ground, you can’t keep hitting him,” Ryan said, referring to a portion of the video that showed Officer Matthew Collins repeatedly striking Ellis around the head. “I don’t see active resistance here. He’s on his back with his feet in the air.”
Ryan testified that video evidence showing Collins repeatedly striking Ellis constituted excessive force, as did a carotid artery hold by Collins that pulled Ellis backward. Meanwhile, the eyewitness video showed Ellis raising his hands over his head as Officer Christopher Burbank jolted him with a Taser multiple times.
Ellis “appears to be in a submissive position,” when hit with a Taser, Ryan said.
Seconds later, Ellis goes limp. Ryan said he was rendered unconscious by Collins’ squeezing his carotid artery.
“At this point, we don’t see any assaultive conduct,” Ryan said. If the officers’ claims about Ellis hitting them were true, he said, the use of force would have had to stop at that point. If the eyewitness testimony that Ellis did not provoke the officers’ actions is correct, then every action by Burbank and Collins was excessive, he said.
As the video progresses, Collins’ knee is visible on the back of Ellis’ neck, which Ryan testified is inconsistent with police training standards. “All the training is to avoid the neck, avoid the head and the center of the back” because it risks serious injury to a subject.
Burbank’s three Taser strikes to Ellis’ torso also constituted excessive force, Ryan testified.
“From what we can see in the video, I don’t see any threat” to the officers from Ellis, Ryan said. Soon, Ryan said, more officers arrived, and Ellis was placed in a hobble, strapping his handcuffed hands to his feet. At that point, Ryan said, the hobble completely nullified any threat Ellis posed to officers.
Ryan said police have been trained for decades to avoid causing “compression asphyxia” by placing weight on people in prone restraint, as Ellis was with the hobble cord. Yet Officer Timothy Rankine told detectives he placed his full weight at the center of Ellis’ back while Ellis was in prone restraint.
“It’s going to compress the body at the neck and the middle of the back and will cut off the ability to breathe,” Ryan said, referring to Rankine’s actions.
He described Collins’ and Burbank’s actions as “inappropriate.” “You’ve got to move the person off their stomach as soon as they're restrained. That was not done. … They didn’t get off him, and they didn’t move him into a rescue or recovery position.”
Rankine placed Ellis on his side in the recovery position at least twice — to search him for weapons and later as medics approached. But in between those respites, Rankine “specifically said he instructed the officers to roll Ellis back on his stomach, and we reapplied pressure on him to hold him down until the fire department got there,” Ryan said.
Testimony is scheduled to resume Tuesday with Ryan under cross-examination.
Excerpted from pool report provided by The Seattle Times.
Use-of-force expert testifies about police training to facilitate breathing, the hazards of prone restraint
John J. Ryan, a national expert on police use-of-force policies and a cop for 20 years, testified Monday morning that officers’ restraints combined with their body weight on Ellis impaired his ability to breathe. He said police training mandates that someone handcuffed should be either seated upright or on their side in a recovery position to facilitate breathing.
“Anytime we take a suspect into custody and restrain them, we’re supposed to watch for signs of distress,” Ryan testified, including when “a person tells you they can’t breathe.” Ellis told officers he couldn’t breathe at least five times, according to evidence presented to date.
Ryan testified that if Ellis were only crossing the street and did not provoke officers, as the four eyewitnesses said, there was no reason for officers to stop or arrest him. Conversely, he said if the officers’ account that Ellis acted aggressively toward them were true, their use of force would have been justified.
Ellis’ movements when the officers were on top of him, characterized by the officers as resisting, could have been Ellis’ desperate attempts to position himself where he could breathe, Ryan said.
For decades police have been trained about the hazards of prone restraint - the type of position Ellis was placed in on his stomach while police tried to gain control of him by cuffing his hands behind his back. “It impairs breathing,” Ryan said. The fact that Ellis was hobbled with a strap connecting his ankles to the handcuffs behind his back, “makes the position even worse,” he said.
Police generally are trained to get suspects out of this position by rolling them onto their sides, where their chests and lungs can expand to allow easier breathing, as quickly as possible after handcuffing them, Ryan testified.
Ellis was moved temporarily onto his side when he was searched for weapons by Rankine and again when medics arrived to treat him, but had minutes-long stretches with the weight of police on his back, testimony to date has shown.
Testimony concluded a half-hour early Monday morning with Ryan still on the stand to accommodate a juror who wasn’t feeling well. Whether that juror will be fit to continue in the afternoon remains to be seen.
Excerpted from pool report provided by The Seattle Times.
Prosecution plans to rest its case Wednesday or Monday
The state Attorney General’s Office said it plans to rest its case in the Tacoma police officers’ trial by Wednesday, or Monday at the latest. There is no court Thursday in observance of Veteran's Day.
Prosecutors have called far fewer witnesses than originally planned since testimony in the trial began Oct. 2. The final number will be about two dozen witnesses. In court Monday, the state said it won’t call Tacoma officers who helped restrain Ellis but weren’t charged in his death.
Lawyers for officers Matthew Collins, Christopher Burbank and Timothy Rankine said they’ll present their defense in about two weeks.
Judge Bryan Chushcoff told the jury that deliberations are likely to start in early December.
Court resumes with use-of-force expert
Court resumed Monday morning with the prosecution calling Jack Ryan, a use-of-force expert and a former police captain in Providence, Rhode Island.
Shortly after Ryan began testifying, lawyers for the officers objected to comparisons of police training in different states. Judge Bryan Chushcoff sent the jury out and after discussion, ruled Ryan can testify about deviations from general standards but should not go into specific training.
The jury returned and the state resumed questioning Ryan.
Watch the proceedings via the courtroom livestream on the Pierce County website.
Clark says he was pressured to change his opinion on how Ellis died
While testifying Thursday, the former Pierce County medical examiner said he was pressured by law enforcement and local prosecutors to change his ruling that Manny Ellis's death was a homicide. The Pierce County Prosecutor's Office was pursuing the case before the state Attorney General's Office took it over.
Dr. Thomas Clark determined police suffocated Ellis by hogtying him with a spit hood over his head and an officer on his back.
Clark retired as medical examiner in 2020 after about a decade.
On the stand, he was asked by a defense attorney to talk about other in-custody deaths where he determined officers were not at fault. He said looking back, he’s not sure if he got the full story from police of how these people died. He said he's more skeptical of law enforcement now.
"It may have left me open to getting bad information. And at that time, it would have never occurred to me that an investigating agency would try to get me to change a cause of death, as they did in this case," Clark testified. "And it would never have occurred to me that a prosecuting agency would get me to change my opinion, as they did in this case. And I may have missed something. And if I did, I regret that I wish I could fix it, but I can't."
In an email, Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney Mary Robnett denied Clark’s allegation. Robnett’s office was the initial charging authority until the state stepped in and charged Matthew Collins, Christopher Burbank and Timothy Rankine.
The Washington State Patrol and Pierce County Sheriff's Department declined to comment, citing the ongoing trial.
The Pierce County Sheriff’s Department was the initial investigative agency on this case before they stepped away because of a potential conflict of interest. Gov. Jay Inslee then asked the Washington State Patrol to investigate.
Clark was excused as a witness at the end of the day Thursday. The trial will resume Monday.
Defense cross-examines former Pierce County medical examiner
Lawyers for three Tacoma police officers charged in the death of Manuel Ellis cross examined Thursday afternoon the medical examiner who conducted Ellis’ autopsy about other in-custody death cases that he determined were accidents rather than homicides.
Dr. Thomas Clark, the former Pierce County medical examiner, ruled Ellis’ death a homicide in 2020 and determined he died of hypoxia, a form of oxygen deprivation, as a result of physical restraint. Other significant conditions, he said, were Ellis’ meth intoxication and heart disease.
Jared Ausserer, an attorney for officer Matthew Collins, questioned Clark about why two deaths Clark certified in 2017 and 2018 where the deceased struggled with police, were restrained in some way and had methamphetamine in their systems weren’t determined to be homicides.
Clark told jurors that in those cases he didn’t have any possible causes of death that conflicted with meth being the primary factor, as Ellis’ did, but he said he was more trusting at the time of the information he received about a person’s death.
“Looking at a case like this does make me worry there was something I didn’t know,” Clark said.
In the 2017 case, Ausserer said, a man created a disturbance at a convenience store, and police responded and placed him in a lateral vascular neck restraint that caused him to collapse. The man was put in handcuffs, then became unresponsive and died shortly after. The attorney said the man’s meth concentration was 2000 nanograms per milliliter.
Ausserer pointed out that the meth concentration was lower than Ellis’ concentration, 2400 nanograms per milliliter, and yet Clark ruled the 2017 death accidental and due to meth. Clark reiterated his earlier testimony that meth is unpredictable, and he said it isn’t possible to compare meth concentrations between two people because the same dose could kill one person and leave the other alive.
Thursday morning, Clark conceded to jurors and Brett Purtzer, an attorney for Burbank, that of all the factors that contributed to Ellis’ oxygen deprivation, that there wasn’t one he could point to that killed the man. The factors included restraint on his stomach in handcuffs tied to his ankles, the weight of officers on Ellis and the spit hood placed on him.
“You just don’t know, frankly, how Mr. Ellis died given the constellation of issues he surrounded himself with,” Purtzer said.
“I think he died as a result of asphyxia, but if you get into which asphyxia mechanism, that becomes much harder,” Clark responded. “I think the best way that I can word that is that he died as a result of some combination of those events.”
Purtzer pointed out that in Clark’s autopsy report, he characterized the spit hood as possibly the most important factor in Ellis’ death. Defense attorneys have frequently noted that none of the officers on trial put the spit hood on Ellis. Prosecutors have argued that the officers heard Ellis say, “I can’t breathe,” and that they had a duty to render aid to him at the first possible opportunity, so they should have removed the hood.
Clark said he saw blood and other sticky secretions inside the spit hood, and if that material got on Ellis’ face, it had the potential to completely cut off his breathing. He said that was why he called the spit hood possibly the most important factor, but he still has a hard time choosing which asphyxia mechanism was most important.
“I can’t really point to one of them as being the incriminating event,” Clark said.
The cross-examination of Clark also got into what scientific research papers have to say about whether a person can die as a result of being restrained in a prone position. Clark said there’s about an equal number of papers on each side of the question, so they aren’t helpful.
Ausserer turned to a 2015 study Clark cited in communications with the State Attorney General’s Office, “On positional asphyxia and death in custody.” The attorney said individuals aged 22-42 were restrained in hobbles and put in various positions, including prone. Some had no weight on their backs, some had 50 pounds and some had 100 pounds placed on them. Ausserer said it found no difference in the participants’ oxygenation or their blood flow.
Clark agreed he cited it as a study, but that didn’t mean he necessarily agreed with everything in it. He said such studies are sometimes written for a specific patient population, and a paragraph of the study refers to a group of healthy males. Clark said he wouldn’t put Ellis in that category. The doctor said that area of study has opposing points of view, and there are an equal number of articles that say restraint does cause hypoxia.
Prosecutors briefly questioned Clark in a redirect examination before court adjourned Thursday, and after a few more questions from the defense, Clark was excused as a witness. Trial proceedings will continue Monday.
Excerpted from pool report provided by The News Tribune.
The Seattle Times: Tacoma police trial in Manuel Ellis’ death holds echoes of 1938 killing
Seattle Times reporter Patrick Malone dug into the archives to investigate the trial of former Seattle police officers charged with killing Berry Lawson, a Black man, in 1938.
Malone reports that the deaths of Lawson in 1938 and Manuel Ellis in 2020, which both led to three officers being charged, came amid heightened calls for police accountability.
Clark testifies Ellis was likely brain-dead when paramedics arrived
Dr. Thomas Clark, the former Pierce County medical examiner, testified Thursday that Ellis was likely brain-dead when paramedics arrived. Clark was the forensic pathologist who did Ellis’ autopsy and determined he suffocated from police restraints.
"He wasn't moving, he wasn't talking, he had no eye movement. He wasn't breathing. That's actually the same set of things we look at to determine whether somebody's brain-dead in the hospital," Clark said in court.
"And I'm confident saying that I believe he was brain-dead at the time those measurements were made. So whatever killed him had already killed him. But at that point, his heart was still beating."
Clark testified that because Ellis’ heart was still beating, he couldn’t have died of sudden cardiac arrest from a methamphetamine overdose or his slightly enlarged heart.
Clark told the jury that the brain stem is where the body gets signals to breathe involuntarily and adjust the pupils for light conditions. The brain stem is also very sensitive to lack of oxygen and can die in as little as three minutes without enough of it.
Attorneys for Officers Matthew Collins, Christopher Burbank and Timothy Rankine will continue cross-examining the former medical examiner Thursday afternoon.
Watch the proceedings via the courtroom livestream on the Pierce County website.
Dr. Thomas Clark describes how he determined Ellis' cause of death
The former Pierce County medical examiner who ruled Manuel Ellis’ death a homicide in 2020 and found he died as a result of physical restraint testified Thursday morning.
Dr. Thomas Clark testified that there were multiple factors to consider in determining Ellis’ cause of death, and it was his job as a forensic pathologist to weigh each and make a decision based on both science and his own experience. He concluded May 11, 2020, that Ellis’ restraint by police — facedown on the street in handcuffs bound to his ankles with a spit hood over his head — was the primary factor in the man’s death.
At the time, Clark said he wasn’t “fully confident” in Ellis’ cause of death because he had conflicting information about the last moments of the man’s life, including whether he was speaking when paramedics arrived at his side and the initial rhythms of Ellis’ heart as recorded on a heart monitor.
But as he learned more from investigators and paramedics, Clark said, the evidence bolstered his findings.
“It’s my opinion Ellis was already braindead when paramedics first examined him,” Clark said.
Clark said Ellis' autopsy was one of the last he conducted for the Pierce County Medical Examiner's Office, where he'd led a team of medical investigators, autopsy techs and other staff for nearly 10 years. He retired at the end of 2020. Clark said he twice turned down inquiries from the State Attorney General's Office asking him to consult in the case, and when he agreed, it came with the caveat that he would have to remain neutral.
Under questioning from special assistant attorney general Patty Eakes, Clark addressed each of the three factors listed in his autopsy report: methamphetamine intoxication, Ellis’ enlarged heart and the physical restraint.
Ellis had 2400 nanograms per milliliter of methamphetamine in his system, a concentration that Clark said was somewhere in the middle of the fatal range. He said the drug has unpredictable effects, to the point that a person could take the same dose of meth for a month without dying, and on the last day, the same concentration could kill them.
Looking at Ellis' enlarged heart presents a similarly unpredictable scenario. Clark said a heart shouldn’t weigh more than 400 grams, and Ellis’ weighed 480. The doctor said it’s possible for people with that large of a heart to die for no apparent reason, and that each gram increases risk of death, but that some people live for years with hearts weighing 600 or 700 grams.
“There isn’t any magic number at which the heart becomes fatal,” Clark said.
The medical examiner was able to rule out the meth and the enlarged heart because a heart monitor paramedics used recorded the rhythms of Ellis’ heart. Clark said the data, which he didn’t have when he first made a ruling on the man’s cause of death, showed that Ellis’ heart was not in a state of ventricular fibrillation, a type of irregular heartbeat Clark said is caused by methamphetamine. Ellis’ heart also didn’t go into a sudden dysrhythmia, Clark said, a common scenario for people who experience sudden death as a result of an enlarged heart.
“Then it must be the other thing,” Clark said.
Defense attorneys began to cross examine Clark before court adjourned for lunch. Their questioning will continue Thursday afternoon.
Excerpted from pool report provided by The News Tribune.
Former Pierce County medical examiner Dr. Thomas Clark begins testimony
On Thursday morning the prosecution called Dr. Thomas Clark to testify.
The former Pierce County medical examiner retired at the end of 2020 after about a decade in that role. His retirement came amid an investigation into his conduct.
Clark said he's performed thousands of autopsies and testified in court over 100 times as an expert witness. He authored Manuel Ellis' initial autopsy report, which has been closely reviewed by multiple other medical experts.
Watch the proceedings via the courtroom livestream on the Pierce County website.
Judge rules state can't call officer trainers, court adjourns early
Jurors won’t hear testimony Wednesday afternoon after defense attorneys fought off prosecutors’ efforts to call witnesses who trained the officers.
Prosecutors from the Washington State Attorney General’s Office planned to call two witnesses associated with the Criminal Justice Training Commission, which trains law enforcement officers in Washington state and maintains their certifications.
Special prosecutor Patty Eakes said longtime trainer Russ Hicks would tell the jury what training officers receive on use of force and prone positioning, dealing with people in crisis and the legal basis for police contact.
Mark Conrad, an attorney for Officer Timothy Rankine, filed a motion Tuesday arguing that Hicks’ testimony would only show what police officers are typically trained on, and not what training Rankine and the other defendants actually received.
Judge Bryan Chushcoff ruled that prosecutors couldn’t call witnesses from the Criminal Justice Training Commission until testimony pointed out that the officers didn’t follow their training when they subdued and restrained Manuel Ellis and that doing so risked the man’s life.
Eakes said calling witnesses from CJTC was “critically important,” at one point referring to the defense’s opening statements where attorneys said the defendants fully followed their police training.
After Chushcoff made his ruling, prosecutors said they didn’t have any other witnesses available Wednesday. Eakes said that on Thursday prosecutors will call Dr. Thomas Clark, the former Pierce County medical examiner who conducted Ellis’ autopsy.
The manner of Ellis' death March 3, 2020, was ruled a homicide by Clark. His cause of death was determined to be hypoxia, a form of oxygen deprivation, from physical restraint.
Expert testimony from a forensic pathologist, a cardiologist and a breathing expert has supported prosecutors’ claim that the way police officers restrained Ellis — on his stomach in handcuffs tied to his legs with the weight of officers on top of him — caused him to asphyxiate and die. Other testimony has shown Ellis told police he couldn’t breathe multiple times while officers continued to apply force.
Lawyers for the officers have argued that police had to subdue Ellis because he was aggressive and resisted arrest. Collins and Burbank told detectives they saw Ellis try the door of a car passing through an intersection, and when they called him over to their patrol car, he began punching their windows. Collins reported that when he got out, Ellis fought him with “superhuman strength.”
Outside the jury’s presence, Chushcoff asked prosecutors how they think the defendants did not follow police training, telling them he was unclear on whether it was simply that officers should have placed Ellis in a squad car once he was handcuffed.
Eakes said the criminal act was the totality of the facts of their case: That Ellis was hogtied and couldn’t breathe, and that that information was never related to anyone who could have helped him. She said none of the officers asked for medical aid to respond, and that paramedics were only called after dispatchers asked if it was needed.
Chushcoff said to him, that meant the criminal act came down to officers’ failure to notify medical authorities. He asked how long it took for medical aid to be called after Ellis was subdued, and Jared Ausserer, an attorney for Collins, said it was 12 seconds.
Asked by the judge what it meant to her if the defendants overheard a superior officer call for medical aid, Eakes said having a superior officer on scene doesn’t relieve the defendant officers of their caretaking duties, and all three of them should have requested medical aid.
The sparring over what witnesses could be called was preceded by attorneys completing their questioning of Dr. Curtis Veal, the state’s expert pulmonologist. On cross examination, Ausserer pointed out that after the initial struggle with Ellis, every piece of evidence Veal had showed that Collins was holding the man’s legs, which wouldn’t have contributed to hypoxia.
In a redirect examination, assistant attorneys general Kent Liu asked whether how much weight officers put on Ellis or the length of time they were on top of him would affect his opinion. Veal said it wouldn’t because Ellis’ asphyxiation was a cumulative process. He testified Tuesday that his physical activity with the officers, being shocked with a Taser, the methamphetamine in Ellis’ system and being restrained on his stomach with pressure on his back all would increase his oxygen demands.
Excerpted from pool report provided by The News Tribune.
Defense asks pulmonology expert if Ellis possibly faked being short of breath
Dr. Curtis Veal was the only witness to testify Tuesday. In the morning, he testified without the jury and once the judge let him testify, he repeated everything with the jury.
When asked if a person can speak when they’re having trouble breathing, Veal said speaking, singing and yelling can happen on exhalation.
“You can speak as long as you have a reservoir of gas in your chest,” he said. “You can do that a number of times before you could not refill your lungs and do it some more.”
Officer Christopher Burbank’s lawyer, Brett Purtzer, asked Veal if it was possible that Ellis was faking it when he first said the words, “I can’t breathe.”
“Given the outcome that we know and the fact that he had to be truly short of breath, I have no reason to believe he was making it up the first time,” Veal said. “You don’t have to be hypoxic to be short of breath.”
Officer Matthew Collins’ lawyer, Jared Ausserer, asked Veal to identify the point where Ellis became hypoxic, a form of oxygen deprivation. Veal said it was after Ellis was briefly put in a recovery position and then rolled back onto his stomach with pressure on his back. Ausserer pointed out that Collins and Burbank were no longer involved in the restraint at that point, and Veal agreed.
“Officer Collins was not near Mr. Ellis during that time,” Ausserer asked.
“Yes, I’m aware of that,” Veal responded.
Officer Timothy Rankine’s lawyer, Mark Conrad, pointed out that many officers helped hold Ellis down on the ground as time went on and one put a spit hood over his head.
Veal is expected to continue testifying on Wednesday.
Excerpted from pool report provided by The Associated Press.
Pulmonology expert continues testimony
Despite objections from the defense, Dr. Curtis Veal took the stand Tuesday. He is the third medical expert called to testify by the prosecution.
Veal is an internal medicine and cardiopulmonology expert based at Swedish Seattle. He's focused exclusively on pulmonary critical care since 1986.
Jurors briefly heard from Veal before the noon lunch break. He resumed testifying Tuesday afternoon.
Watch a livestream of the proceedings on the Pierce County website.
Defense objects to state's next medical expert, after debate judge allows pulmonologist to testify
Prosecutors spent Tuesday morning trying to convince the judge to let their breathing expert tell the jury what happens to a person who is held face down with pressure on their back.
Lawyers for the officers had objected to the testimony of Dr. Curtis Veal, the state’s pulmonology expert, arguing the state already had a cardiologist and forensic pathologist tell the jury about hypoxia and positional asphyxia. Veal’s testimony would just repeat that information and the trial is already weeks behind schedule, they argued.
After hours of testimony and arguments, Judge Bryan Chushcoff agreed to bring the jury in and let Veal take the stand, just before the noon break.
Before the jury was brought in, Veal described the distress a person can feel if they’re not able breathe, a condition called “air hunger.”
“When any of us have a sense of shortness of breath, it is extremely distressing to most people,” he said. “It’s a sense that you are smothering.”
After the jury came in, Veal described how that impacted Ellis. He had been involved in physical activity with the officers, had methamphetamine in his system and had been shocked with a Taser, Veal said. Those factors together would increase his oxygen demands. Next came the pressure.
Burbank was sitting on Ellis’ back when Rankine arrived and took over. When medics arrived and took his pulse, it was 80 beats per minute, which suggested that he was suffering from Bradycardia — an abnormally low heart rate, he said. Veal was expected to continue his testimony after the lunch break.
Excerpted from pool report provided by The Associated Press.
Judge limits what can be said about Pierce County Sheriff's investigation, Ellis' sober-living housemate testifies
Lt. Byron Brockway, of the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department, testified Monday that after he interviewed the officers involved in Manuel Ellis' death, he changed the title of his case from “death investigation” to “aggravated assault of a public official.” However, Brockway acknowledged that investigators from the sheriff’s department failed to find or collect witness cell phone videos before the conclusion of its investigation of Ellis’ death.
The Pierce County Sheriff’s investigation into Ellis’ death spanned three months. It not only failed to reel in the eyewitness videos that were starting to show up on CNN and social media, but it also failed to identify one of its own officers who helped restrain Ellis until the night before the completed investigation was due to be presented to prosecutors.
Early in the investigation, Sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer, who has since been elected Pierce County Sheriff, denied officers placed “knees on necks” or restrained Ellis in dangerous ways.
The eyewitness videos showed otherwise, and the witnesses who took them have testified at trial that the officers’ accounts of Ellis aggressively initiating the incident were false. The eyewitnesses consistently described the officers as the aggressors.
Gov. Jay Inslee criticized the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department’s investigation and handed it off to the Washington State Patrol, but Pierce County Superior Court Judge Bryan Chushcoff, who is presiding over the trial, has limited what can be said in front of the jury about the investigation.
Testimony ended for the day with Cedric Armstrong, who operates the sober-living home where Ellis resided at the time of his death, on the witness stand. Ellis was free on bail awaiting trial on a robbery charge when he met Armstrong at a counseling center.
“He had approached me and said, ‘Hey man, I know you don’t know me, but I’m trying to get off these streets. I don’t have any money. What can you do?’” Armstrong testified.
“I said, ‘I’ve got a room for you,’” Armstrong said. “He just kind of broke down.”
Armstrong testified to attending church with Ellis earlier on the night that he died.
“Manny was really happy that he went to the revival…,” Armstrong said. “He didn’t seem like he was off in any way.” He said Ellis did not appear to be under the influence of drugs when he last saw him around 10 p.m., less than an hour before he encountered police.
The trial is scheduled to resume Tuesday morning in Pierce County Superior Court, when a substance abuse counselor who treated Ellis is expected to testify.
Excerpted from pool report provided by The Seattle Times.
Jurors hear recorded statements from Burbank and Collins, the two officers who first encountered Ellis
In court Monday, jurors listened to recorded statements from the two Tacoma police officers who first encountered Manny Ellis. The statements were taken by an investigator just days after Ellis’ killing.
Officers Christopher Shane Burbank and Matthew Collins were partners. They both say they spotted Ellis in the intersection messing with a car. After they stopped him, they say Ellis turned to their patrol vehicle and banged on the passenger's side window.
The officers differ on what happened next.
Collins, the driver, said he got out of the vehicle and Ellis ran at him.
"He grabs me by my vest, as I’m trying to grab him, and he lifts me off my feet and throws me on my back in the middle of the street. I left my feet…this guy had superhuman strength," Collins told investigators.
Burbank doesn’t describe this. He said after his partner got out of the vehicle, Ellis got in a fighting stance.
"As soon as I realized that he had focused on Officer Collins and was probably about to attack him or start fighting him, I used my door to actually door check him and hit him with the door to draw his attention away from Officer Collins and kind of divert him away from that," Burbank said in the recording.
None of the four eyewitnesses that have testified during the trial saw Ellis lift Collins in the air. Several of the witnesses said they saw Ellis get hit with the patrol car door.
Burbank and Collins both describe a violent scene after that. They said Ellis punched and kicked at them as they tried to restrain him. Collins said he repeatedly hit Ellis with his elbows and put him in a chokehold while Burbank Tasered Ellis in the chest.
"I believe he had no pain threshold, it appeared that he wasn't affected by any thing," Burbank said.
In audio and video footage, Ellis can be heard screaming and struggling with the officers and saying he couldn't breathe several times.
Neither Burbank nor Collins recalled hearing Ellis say he couldn't breathe. Collins said he sat on Ellis.
"He's just swinging wildly at me. Grabbing at me. He's like growling and just making like kind of animal noises, not saying anything," Collins said in the recording.
Burbank, Collins, Officer Timothy Rankine are all charged with first-degree manslaughter in Ellis' death. Burbank and Collins are also charged with second-degree murder. Jurors heard Rankine's recorded statement last week.
Correction: An earlier version of this story stated officers Burbank, Collins, and Rankine are all charged with second-degree manslaughter. They are charged with first-degree manslaughter.
Officer interviews featured in 'The Walk Home' podcast
On March 6, 2020, the Pierce County Sheriff’s department started interviewing the officers involved in Manuel Ellis' death. These interviews are now a major focus of Lt. Bryon Brockway's testimony.
Jurors watched Officer Timothy Rankine's interview Thursday. Officers Matthew Collins and Christopher Burbank's interviews are being reviewed Monday.
Hear more about their statements in the third episode of The Walk Home, a podcast about the life and death of Manny Ellis from KNKX and The Seattle Times.
Trial enters its seventh week, Pierce County Sheriff's lieutenant continues testimony
The trial of the Tacoma police officers charged with killing Manny Ellis enters its seventh week Monday.
The only criminal investigator to question the Tacoma police charged with killing Ellis was Pierce County Sheriff’s Lt. Byron Brockway. Brockway led the initial investigation into Ellis’ death.
And after that Officers Matthew Collins, Christopher “Shane” Burbank and Timothy Rankine declined further interviews.
In court last week, Brockway’s interview with Rankine was played for the jury. Rankine said he got on Ellis’ back to restrain him face down.
Brockway is also expected to testify this week about his interviews with Collins and Burbank. They allege Ellis attacked them before they Tasered and wrestled him into handcuffs on the ground.
The judge has limited what the prosecution can ask Brockway about handing the county investigation over to the Washington State Patrol.
Gov. Jay Inslee ordered WSP to step in after the county sheriff disclosed that a deputy from his department had helped restrain Ellis, violating state law meant to limit conflicts of interest in deadly force investigations.
Brockway testified last week that he learned a deputy was involved the night Ellis died.
Watch a livestream of the proceedings on the Pierce County website.