CLEVELAND — As the trial of the Warrensville Heights man accused of murdering his fiancée continued Thursday, the jury got to watch video of police taking a statement from the defendant the day after the killing.
Jurors watched as Warrensville Heights officers questioned Tirrell Edwards about his killing of his fiancée, 46-year-old Amanda Williams, at their home in October. The prosecution spent most of Thursday playing and dissecting this video in the courtroom, as Lieutenant Parris Johnson sat on the stand.
In the video, Johnson (as lead investigator) and another detective ask Edwards about what led to him shooting and killing Williams on Oct. 9. Edwards told officials they had been fighting all day about her not responding to a text he sent her, and also her suspending his cell phone service.
The prosecution asserts that later that night, while the couple was arguing in their bedroom, Edwards murdered Williams with six gunshots. Edwards and his attorneys claim Williams attacked him with a knife first, and he shot her in self-defense with a gun that Williams kept underneath the mattress.
But Edwards said before the shooting and before Williams had gotten a knife, he had taken two guns that he owns out of his dresser and put them in his car because Williams had made a motion as if she was going to possibly pull one of his guns out.
"So that's when she reached for the drawer," he's heard saying in the police statement video. "That's where I keep my personal gun. That's how the guns got in my car."
Footage from inside a police cruiser was played in the courtroom earlier this week, in which Edwards told an officer in the hours after the shooting that he took his guns out because he was afraid he would use them on her.
"What I was worried about is that I was about to use the guns," he said in that video.
On Thursday, the prosecution suggested that Edwards' explanations of events are inconsistent, and that while giving a statement to police he day after the shooting he denied his first remark about the weapons.
Kevin Filiatraut of the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office asked Johnson about this while he was testifying.
"Is that what the defendant told officer told Officer Videc? 'I moved my guns so I wouldn't use them'?" Filiatraut inquired.
"Correct," Johnson answered.
"And Detective [Gregory] Curry is asking him about that right now [in the statement video], isn't he?"
"Yes."
Filiatraut then played the footage of Curry asking Edwards about that night.
"That you may have told that you put guns in your car because you were afraid that you might shoot because of the way she was acting?" Curry said to Edwards.
"No," Edwards was heard responding. "I just said I went to put them in the car because she told me that, 'you're going to have to sleep with one eye open tonight.' So no, I never told the officer that last night."
The prosecutor then paused the video to emphasize this point with Johnson.
"Did he admit to telling that to Officer Videc or deny it?" he asked.
"He denied it." Johnson admitted.
"Is this where he says, again, she told him to 'sleep with one eye open'?"
"Yes."
Filiatraut continued, "Let me ask you, did he tell that to Officer Videc, that she told me to sleep with one eye open?
"No," Johnson said.
Later in the video of Edwards' statement to police, he said that he would have run out of the bedroom while he was being attacked if the knife had been small, but claimed Williams held him hostage with a big knife, and things moved faster than he could comprehend.
During the argument between Edwards and Williams in their bedroom that October night, Edwards had recorded multiple videos on his cell phone. The prosecution showed those videos in court Thursday.
In one of the played videos, Williams appears to be holding a knife while arguing with Edwards, before putting the knife down and then walks towards her fiancé.
"You going to stab me?" Edwards asked her.
"I'm going to defend myself," Williams answered.
"Defend yourself from what?"
"I'm going to defend myself."
"You['re] acting violent."
Williams then put the apparent knife down and approached Edwards.
"There you go," he told her. "See?"
In another one of the videos, Williams grabbed the recording phone out of Edwards' hands. A lot of commotion is then heard before Edwards is seen near the headboard of the bed around where he said Williams kept her gun under the mattress. Next, Edwards is heard shooting Williams multiple times.
"Dude. Chill out, dude," Edwards is heard saying. "Ow. Chill out. Chill out, man! Chill out!"
"You know what?" Williams asks.
"Chill out!" Edwards said again. "Why are you trying to cut me with — ?"
"You know what? You know what?" Williams continued.
Then, six gunshots rang out in what was a highly emotional moment for the courtroom to hear.
The prosecution next played the video of the shooting in slow motion, for easier viewing. They stressed that in the footage, Edwards never asked Williams to put down the knife, never told her he had a gun, and didn't warn her that he was going to shoot her. They also said that while Edwards was near the headboard of the bed grabbing the gun from under the mattress, Williams was several feet away towards the foot of the bed, and was not near or approaching Edwards.
The prosecution also expressed that no apparent negative emotion could be heard from Edwards in the video after the gunshots before the video turns off.
At the end of the court session on Thursday, the state said it had wrapped up its presentation of evidence. The judge remarked that trial will continue Friday morning.
3News asked the defense team if they'll be bringing anyone in to testify. They only answered, "Maybe."