New Video Released of Police Beating Kelly Thomas to Death
2 Officers Ordered to Stand Trial in Fatal Beating of Kelly Thomas
KTLA News
4:40 a.m. PDT, May 10, 2012
SANTA ANA, Calif. (KTLA) -- Two Fullerton police officers have been ordered to stand trial in the fatal beating of mentally ill homeless man Kelly Thomas.
Cpl. Jay Cicinelli is charged with involuntary manslaughter, as well as use of excessive force, while Officer Manuel Ramos faces second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter charges.
During the preliminary hearing, video of the violent confrontation
between officers and 37-year-old Kelly Thomas last summer was shown in
court.
Prosecutors maintain that Ramos escalated what should have been a
routine police encounter into a deadly beating by threatening Thomas.
Ramos' attorney, John Barnett, said on Wednesday that Ramos was right to threaten Thomas because he wasn't cooperating.
He said he thinks the case won't go to trial because the ruling will be overturned.
"What else is he going to say?" Kelly Thomas' father Ron said when asked about Barnett's comments. "Ramos is absolutely guilty."
The graphic surveillance video of the encounter begins with Thomas
sitting and being told by Ramos to put his feet out and hands on his
knees.
Thomas -- who suffered from schizophrenia -- is initially slow to cooperate.
Ramos then tells him: "You see my fists? They're getting ready to f--- you up."
A short time later, Ramos can be seen hitting Thomas with his baton and heard saying, "Get on the ground."
Thomas repeatedly apologizes to Ramos and a second officer, saying, "I am sorry, dude. I can't breathe, dude."
Cicinelli can be seen on the video striking Thomas several times in the
face with the butt of a Taser as officers pin him on the ground.
Some of the struggle is hidden by a tree, but a Taser can be heard, apparently stunning Thomas, whose legs appear to wiggle.
Thomas cries out for help and toward the end of the beating, for his father: "Dad, they're killing me," he says.
By the time the confrontation ends, Thomas is lying in a pool of blood.
Officers then examine their own wounds as they stand over Thomas, who is handcuffed and on the ground.
"We ran out of options so I got to the end of my Taser and I ... smashed his face to hell," Cicinelli tells a fellow officer.
A coroner's pathologist testified that the officers caused Thomas' death
by cutting off the flow of oxygen to his brain when the fight
intensified and they piled on him.
http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-kelly-thomas-trial,0,6561961.story
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