A furniture mover who narrowly survived being shot in the home of a high-ranking Prince George’s law enforcement official testified Wednesday that he played dead to save his life.
In the first day of testimony in the trial of Keith Washington, who is facing murder charges for the death of Brandon Clark, jurors heard from Robert White, the surviving member of the furniture delivery team that visited Washington’s home on Jan. 24, 2007.
In his opening arguments, Washington’s attorney, Vincent Cohen, said Washington was acting in self-defense. Cohen said he and co-counsel Mike Starr will show how Washington shot the two delivery men, who were considerably bigger than him, after he spotted White exiting the bedroom of his 6-year-old daughter. Cohen claimed the two men attacked his client after a confrontation.
But according to White’s testimony, Washington fired at Clark as he backed out of Washington’s upstairs master bedroom after Washington had ordered them to leave. The men were delivering a metal bed frame.
White said that as he rushed to Clark’s aid, he was shot, too. He then stepped over Clark’s body into the hallway, where he said Washington, seeing him still on his feet, shot him in the knee.
In his opening statement Assistant State’s Attorney William Moomau said Washington viewed the delivery men as “something less than human,” noting that when Washington called 911, the most important thing to him was “the fact they were bleeding all over his carpet.”
In cross-examination, White’s story didn’t always match what he had told a grand jury in June, as he continued to say he never used cocaine, despite a positive test taken the day he was shot.
And when Starr questioned White on a $400 million lawsuit he and Clark’s family filed against the county last month for mismanaging the investigation, White said he didn’t know the lawsuit had been filed, although he admitted the lawyer signing the filing was his.
