: Sean Bell Cops Trial: Not a Case of Who or How, But Why

It’s a cool, damp Sunday morning in Jamaica, and the dismal sky has cast a threatening gray pall on Liverpool Street just off 94th Avenue. The small block stands just a pebble’s skip from the Van Wyck Expressway or Sutphin Boulevard, and is a microcosm of the surrounding area – industry-heavy, with a mix of one- and two-family homes.

Cars dot both sides of the two-way street, as do the trees and tracts of grass that hug the curbs toward the south end near 95th Avenue. The AirTrain station runs parallel to 94th Avenue, towering in the distance with windows facing south down Liverpool. It is quiet here; eerily silent as the clock inches toward noon.

And there is a somber message mapped out in weathered masking tape near the middle of the block on a quad-colored building that covers half of the east side of Liverpool.
“R.I.P. SEAN B” rests in a rectangular frame and several tiny tape-crosses kiss the wall around the invocation.
This is a few feet from where five NYPD police officers unloaded 50 rounds at three unarmed men on Nov. 25, 2006, killing 23-year-old Sean Bell hours before his wedding and wounding two of his friends.

And as the trial of three detectives indicted in the shooting concludes its fourth week at Queens Supreme Court in Kew Gardens, the examination into why Liverpool Street became a crime scene 16 months ago continues to unfold.

Science on the Stand

Expert witnesses for the prosecution took the stand this week inside of courtroom 190. Peter Pizzola, Ph.D, director of the NYPD forensic lab, said Monday that he was directed by NYPD Deputy Chief Denis McCarthy to lead the task force charged with scientifically investigating the incident.

Pizzola’s testimony focused mainly on the processing of Bell’s silver 1999 Nissan Altima on a loading dock at the lab. Pizzola said he and his team received the bullet-riddled sedan with part of the front bumper inside the vehicle and the driver’s side rear door missing.
“I would definitely not prefer to receive it in this manner,” he explained during direct examination from Assistant District Attorney Charles Testagrossa. “As a general rule, these kinds of objects, if they have evidentiary value, should not be packaged in this manner.”

Throughout the course of the trial, defense attorneys have attacked the crime scene investigation, characterizing it as disorganized with sloppy evidence handling and retrieval.

As diagrams and photos were displayed, Pizzola detailed the dozens of bullet holes in the vehicle and the “reconstructed trajectories” of each. Multi-colored ballistic rods created a porcupine effect on the exterior of the passenger side of the Altima, with most of the rods concentrated on the front passenger door. Bell’s friend Joseph Guzman sat in that seat and was shot at least 16 times. He survived.

Pizzola said they were able to determine that all of the shots that passed through the Altima originated from outside the vehicle.

“We were not able to detect evidence of a firearm discharge from within the vehicle,” he said, adding the caveat that the finding was “mitigated somewhat by the way the car was handled.”

Defense attorneys have claimed the cops fired on the vehicle because they had reason to believe one of the occupants had a gun and was reaching for it. No weapon was found in the Altima or near the scene.

But, as Pizzola later pointed out, “depending on the lighting conditions, it’s difficult to tell where the muzzle blasts were coming from.”

Pizzola testified that he and his team also looked at the front and rear bumpers of the Altima, and the front bumper of the cops’ unmarked Ford Freestar with which the Altima collided that morning.

Pizzola said paint-transfer analysis revealed there were two collisions between the two vehicles.

He explained that based on the forensic investigation, the Altima, driven by Bell, initially collided with the Freestar, backed up, mounted the east sidewalk and struck the frame of a roll gate. It then advanced forward and struck the Freestar again, with both of the front passenger quarter-panels ultimately resting against each other.

Pizzola also noted a fabric impression on the Altima’s front bumper near the passenger side. Analysis indicated the source of this to be the jeans worn by Det. Gescard “Jesse” Isnora, and the impression, Pizzola said, was the result of “more than casual” contact between Isnora’s leg and the Altima.

Cops have said they felt Bell was using the vehicle as a weapon against them. All air bags in both vehicles remained intact.

Graphic Evidence

NYPD criminalist Michelle Miranda delivered riveting testimony Tuesday morning.

She processed and tested the interior of the Altima, and echoed Pizzola’s assertion that there was no evidence indicating a gun was fired from within the vehicle.

Considered an expert in gunshot residue, Miranda also was responsible for testing for the presence of gunpowder or lead residue on the outermost articles of clothing of victims Bell, Guzman and Trent Benefield, who was seated behind Guzman in the Altima at the time of the shooting.
With the help of Assistant District Attorney Peter Reese, Miranda donned latex gloves and removed Benefield’s black jeans from a brown evidence bag. She pointed out the five bullet holes from the three shots scattered about the leg areas.

Miranda moved on to Guzman’s black vest, long-sleeve gray T-shirt and blue jeans. As the five-year criminalist held them up for Judge Arthur Cooperman to see, the condition of the articles – torn and tattered, with aged blood stains on the T-shirt and jeans that made it look as if both were dipped in rusty water – shocked the gallery. A quick scan of the courtroom revealed quizzical expressions, with people possibly dumbfounded as to how the person that once occupied those items could’ve survived.

After Bell’s brown leather jacket with a fur-trimmed hood was pulled out from its own evidence bag, his fiancée, Nicole Paultre Bell, grew noticeably anxious, fidgeting and concentrating her gaze on the floor at her feet. William and Valerie Bell, Sean’s parents, wept.

Miranda then pointed to the documented 14 holes in the jacket. As she was explaining the four holes located on the right shoulder where the hood meets the sleeve, Paultre Bell, an enduring picture of public composure and grace, had enough. She dropped something on the bench, bolted from her seat and stormed out of the courtroom in anger and tears.

The Bells and members of her family quickly followed Paultre Bell through both sets of double-doors as Cooperman instructed the witness to cease talking for a moment.
Miranda testified she found chemical evidence of lead on parts of all the articles of clothing, but no gunpowder residue, which supported the conclusion that no gun was fired from inside the Altima.

Miranda also conceded that the way the vehicle was handled prior to the lab’s analysis could have affected the outcome.
Meanwhile, Fabio Coicou, the infamous man in black who several witnesses, including Det. Hispolito Sanchez, said was jawing with Bell and his friends outside the Kalua Cabaret where they were celebrating Bell’s bachelor party, testified Wednesday. According to published reports, Coicou claimed he never had words with Bell nor did he hear anyone say “Go get my gun.”

This contradicts Sanchez’s testimony where he stated he heard Guzman utter the phrase after the heated exchange with Coicou. Defense attorneys also pointed out Wednesday that Coicou’s testimony disaffirms the account he delivered to the grand jury more than a year ago.

Historic Case Continues
More than half of the witnesses set to testify in the case against Isnora and Detectives Michael Oliver and Marc Cooper have taken the stand. Isnora and Oliver are charged with manslaughter, assault and reckless endangerment. Cooper is facing two counts of reckless endangerment.

With each witness, the public learns more. Forensic experts this week shed empirical light on the vehicle collisions, the illustrative damage to the Altima and the reconstructed paths of the bullets through the cabin.

And with each witness, the central thread of this tragedy is reinforced. An unarmed man was killed by police officers on the day he was to wed his high school sweetheart.

William and Valerie Bell’s son died on a cool night on quiet Liverpool Street in Jamaica because those entrusted with the responsibility to make life and death decisions in the matter of seconds thought someone was reaching for a gun that ultimately never existed.

Sean Bell and friends celebrated his bachelor party at Kalua on 94th Avenue.