Prosecutors rested their case Tuesday in the same way they started it ? with a graphic description of inmate Raymond Smoot?s beating death at the Baltimore Central Booking and Intake Center in 2005.
For their last witness, prosecutors called in medical examiner Dr. Susan Hogan, who examined Smoot in the hours afterhis death.
Smoot “was struck with sufficient force that he fractured a bone in his skull,” Hogan told the Baltimore City Circuit Court jury hearing the trial of Dameon Woods, James Hatcher and Nathan Colbert, the three former correctional officers who charged with second-degree murder in Smoot?s death May 14, 2005.
Prosecutors showed the jury pictures of a bloodied Smoot after he was beaten, while Hogan told jurors: “We normally see this type of injury in someone who went off the road driving 50 miles per hour and hit a tree.”
Hogan also described the multiple “blunt force” injuries to Smoot?s head, neck and torso caused by the beating.
Defense attorneys have maintained that their clients are innocent, and say the correctional officers who beat Smoot have conspired against the three men to shift blame in Smoot?s death.
Immediately after prosecutors rested their case, Colbert?s lawyer, Robert Cole Jr., produced three witnesses ? all current Central Booking employees ? who provided Colbert with alibis for the time of Smoot?s death.
Two testified that Colbert was with them on an elevator at the time Smoot?s injuries were inflicted and another said Colbert had gone to the elevator to take diabetic inmates to get their medication.
During the trial, prosecutors produced no physical evidence, such as blood or human tissue, on the clothing of the accused. Several other correctional officers, however, did have blood on their clothing.
But prosecutors did produce several witnesses who said they saw Woods, Hatcher and Colbert strike Smoot.
Closing arguments in the trial are expected Thursday.
