In his closing remarks, Attorney for the Defense James Hinman told the jury, "This is not a matter of who did it; it's a matter of what he did." Hinman told the jury that all the evidence - ballistics reports, DNA samples - does not prove the most important issue in this case: the issue of intent.
Instead, Hinman argued that Thomas Johnson did not set out to kill a cop on the night of September 3, 2014. He did not take his gun out with the intention of using it, but that he instead made a tragicly reckless mistake that cost Officer Daryl Pierson his life.
District Attorney Sandra Doorley predictably disagreed. In her closing statement, Doorley called Johnson's actions that night "intentional," "callous," and "purposeful." Doorley says the task force to which Pierson was assigned is charged with being proactive in the prevention of crime, and that he and Officer Michael DiPaola were well within official guidelines in searching for Johnson to question him, and pursuing him when he fled.
Both the defense and prosecution relied heavily on the dark and grainy video surveillance footage collected at the scene to reinforce their arguments. The defense used frame-by-frame analysis; the prosecution played the videos in half-time slow-motion. Some of that video included the the moments after the shooting, showing Pierson laying in the street while DiPaola stood over Johnson. The courtroom was silent watching the seconds before a back up police car came to take Pierson to the hospital.
Now, it's in the hands of the jury. The question of intent is a big factor in the outcome of this case. The most serious charge against Johnson is the charge of aggravated murder, which Justice Moran defined for the jury as: intending to cause the death of, and thereby causing the death of a police officer engaging in his/her official duties.
For the first time since the start of the trial, a member of Johnson's family came to watch the proceedings. Shaine Johnson is Thomas Johnson's cousin, and she says the two were really close. Thomas Johnson seemed visibly moved by her arrival in court, mouthing the words "I love you" across the room.
Shaine Johnson says this case has been hard for her family, and that they haven't been coming to court out of respect for the Piersons. She described her cousin as a good person who made bad choices, as opposed to the animal she says he's been made out to be by the media, but says she doesn't want to make excuses for him.
"It's just so hard," she says, "They lost somebody; we lost somebody."
