A state supreme court judge overruled defense lawyers this morning and allowed the jury in a Brooklyn murder trial to watch a surveillance video of the moments before and after the victim was shot twice in the head.
Zalmai Anwari, 24, was shot Dec. 29, 2008, after he observed two men robbing the cell phone store next to where he worked, a car service company on Avenue Z in Sheepshead Bay.
The video was taken from a camera inside the front waiting area of the car service company. It shows Anwari standing on the sidewalk as the door to the neighboring business, David’s Closeout, swings open. Anwari can be seen stumbling backwards as two figures rush out of the store.
Asked about the video’s relevance, Assistant District Attorney Robert Walsh said, “it shows the last 10 minutes of the victim’s life.”
“It doesn’t seem to show anything,” said Adrian Ellis, the attorney for Donald Michel, who is charged with first-degree murder. Michel was 21 when he allegedly shot the victim.
Ellis argued against the tape’s relevance, saying that, “because of the vantage point of the camera, you unfortunately can’t see anything.”
He also argued that showing it would prejudice the jury.
Judge Joel M. Goldberg of State Supreme Court in Brooklyn said the video “shows in real time things that the jury might find helpful,” and questioned the prejudicial effect of a silent surveillance video.
The tape was shown during the testimony of Moisey Goltseker, a co-worker of Anwari who was sitting in the car company’s waiting area when the victim was shot.
Goltseker said Anwari was standing, facing the front of David’s Closeout when two people ran from the store. At the same time, he said he heard two pops “like fireworks.” After two “silhouettes” ran past the window he was sitting in front of, Goltseker said he saw Anwari stumble and fall on the sidewalk. And that was about as much detail as the state’s witness could offer.
“There was no room, no time to see who it was,” he said under direct examination. Asked about the timing of the popping noise relative to the commotion on the sidewalk, Goltseker said, “I cannot differentiate before and after because it happened at the same time.”
The witness said it appeared Anwari was pushed backward when the door opened. “I didn’t understand what happened,” he said.
Goltseker was unable to identify suspects during two police lineups days after the shooting and after Michel had been arrested.
Asked again about the timing of events under cross examination, Goltseker said, “It all just happened at the same time. [Anwari] was flying back, the door opened and I heard the sounds.”
According to Detective Yero of the Brooklyn South Homicide unit, Michel told investigators that he was present and participated in the robbery of the cell phone store but that an accomplice was the one who shot Anwari when the pair fled.
Michel was arrested in Springfield Gardens, Queens, a day after the shooting and after police found his fingerprints on a glass display case in the cell phone store that was robbed, Det. Yero said under direct examination.
At least one witness identified Michel during police lineups as the man who entered the store with the gun and as the one who shot Anwari, according to Walsh.
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