BELTON, Texas — In day nine of the Carmen DeCruz trial, the defense rested their case and the state brought numerous Temple police law enforcement witnesses to the stand.
DeCruz is accused of killing Michael Dean during a traffic stop in 2019. If convicted, DeCruz faces 20 years in prison.
Body camera footage from an officer who arrived to the scene after the shooting was played for the jury .
DeCruz could be seen kneeling down feet away from where the shooting occurred and could be heard crying profusely. He could also be heard saying "Oh my God, I'm so done."
After that, the state brought in two Temple PD training coordinators to explain how they trained DeCruz to become an officer with the department.
One of the things they referred to was the 'Limited Pursuit Policy', which was put in place by Temple PD in 2016. The policy states that an officer must have good judgement when choosing to pursue a vehicle and know when to stop pursuing a vehicle, if the pursuit looks to be a danger to the officer, suspect, and/or the public.
Temple PD Lieutenant Paul Newby took the stand, he was another officer that trained DeCruz at the start of his policing career. The state attorney questioned him on how DeCruz handled the pursuit from the beginning to when DeCruz pulled the trigger.
He came to a conclusion that in his opinion, DeCruz did things contrary to the training he got from Temple PD and DeCruz did not use good judgment in this incident.
Some tactics Newby referred to include the blocking maneuver, pursuing Dean's car when not seeming to be an immediate threat and extending a gun into Dean's car.
On the other side of this, Defense Attorney Robert McCabe says it was Dean's choice to go over the speed limit, drive while intoxicated and fail to follow the demands DeCruz told him once he got to Dean's car.
McCabe believes the training DeCruz received from Temple PD is not relevant to this case. He says what's important is if DeCruz's finger was on the trigger prior to reaching into Dean's car for his keys.
Trial continues Tuesday, Feb. 7 at 9 a.m. at the Bell County Justice Complex with more witnesses from the state expected to take the stand.