Ted Wafer’s Testimony – Aug. 4, 2014
Today, Ted Wafer took the stand in his murder trial. The videos below consist of 18 minutes of his testimony, and a news recap that includes a portion of cross-examination by the prosecution.
What I find strange is that Ted does not raise his eyes while testifying. I don’t know how the jury might see that, but it’s body language I would question.
Posted on 08/04/2014, in Cases, Renisha McBride and tagged Renisha McBride, Ted Wafer, testimony, trial, Wafer takes the stand. Bookmark the permalink. 43 Comments.
We Hold These Truths To Be Self-Evident 
Here’s another video where Wafer is asked why he first said that he shot by accident.
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Timestamp 0:20 to timestamp 0:55
Defense: “What did you mean by the term ‘accident,’ and why did you use that term?”
Wafer: “I can’t expla, I can’t explain it. (sighs) I went to sleep that evening. I didn’t expect I’d have to fight for my life…end up shooting and killing someone.”
Oh, this is unbelievable how his attorney attempts to COMBINE his first explanation of accidental shooting and ramping it up to a case of self defense!!
Um, Mr. Wafer, there was no fight. Renisha was not a threat! She was an unarmed, helpless girl knocking hard on your front door!
You can’t even explain the word “accident” here!
Mr. Wafer, that loud banging on your door was NOT “violent.” If you have to use a strong word, try the word “desperate.” A helpless girl was desperately trying to be heard over the volume of your TV. And, then for you to use the word “escalating.” All of those “catch” words you are using are nonsense! You want a door knocking to be interpreted by the jury as an “attack”??? Good luck with that one!
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I raised the gun and shot.”
Sounds intentional.
But, didn’t you say you did not know the gun was loaded? If that is the case, that would certainly be a poor way to defend yourself to avoid being a “victim.”
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Timestamp 1:49 to timestamp 2:14
News reporter: “He says he was scared, and he was also mad.” – – ->
Wafer: “I had to find out what was going on. I wanted to investigate this. I wasn’t going to cower in my house. I didn’t want to be a victim. I opened the door all the way as much as I could. And, as soon as I did that, this person came out from the side of my house fast. I raised the gun and shot.”
Look what his lawyer tried to accomplish in this:
1. Oh my, gotta investigate! He could have talked to Renisha through the door and asked her what she wanted…why she was banging on his door. Oh, no, impossible!…. because she was not at the door (uh huh) She was way to the side of his house and then ran fast to the front porch!
2. Heck, that is some story…got shoot then, right?? crazy!
3. Oh, and to answer everyone’s question that they have on their minds…”If you were so scared, why did you open the door?” Well, he says, gotta stop that cowering stuff and go into my mad mode (of course, it is obvious he was annoyed and angry about all that noise but….).
4. But folks, that’s not all! He didn’t want to be a victim! Victim of what…broken eardrums from all that noise??
5. Now, he says, “He raised his gun and shot.” And there you have it, forget any thoughts of it being an accidental shot as he said intimately to police! It was definitely INTENTIONAL…can’t be a victim of all that banging on the door!
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should be “initially” not “intimately”
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I imagine the jurors are going to have some of these questions bouncing around in their heads. How will they make sense of it all……does it make any sense?
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Nevertheless, I don’t think they will completely resolve those questions, and I predict that their verdict will be manslaughter.
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This guy had made three or four different versions of what happen. These versions range from the weapon automatically discharging, to he did not know a round was in the chamber, to whatever else he decided what sounds good at the moment. My thing is, there is more evidence in this case than Zimmerman. Even in the Bible it says “thou shalt not bear false witnesses.”
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It’s very telling, his body language.
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Did it never occur to him to ask ”who’s there?”
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From beginning of first video (the 18 minute 15 second video) up to timestamp 1:52:
Defense: “4:30 in the morning, what happened?”
Wafer: ” I heard this noise on the side of my house. I’m not sure what it is.”
Defense: Okay. What did the noise sound like?”
Wafer: “Loud…uh..knocking…banging. I’m in my recliner.”
Defense: “Okay, so what happened? What did you do?”
Wafer: “I just kind of sat..lay there for a minute.”
Defense: “Then what happened?”
Wafer: “It starts up again at the front door. Now it’s louder.”
Defense: “What do you do?”
Wafer: “That got me up. And, first thing I did was turn off the TV.”
Defense: “Why?”
Wafer:”I don’t know who’s out there. I don’t know what’s going on.”
Defense: Was there a purpose of turning off the TV? Were you trying to uh conceal yourself?
Wafer: “Yes.”
Okay, right there. With prompting, he says he turned off the TV in an attempt to conceal himself. NOT to listen better to what was going on outside!
It’s a strong possibility that Renisha realized the TV was on and that is why she knocked louder, banging on the door so that she could be heard over the TV.
Defense: “What happened..get out of the recliner?”
Wafer: “Well, first I reached for my phone on the right.”
Defense: “Show us how you reached for it. Let’s pretend that’s a recliner. How are you reaching for your cellphone?”
Wafer: “Kneel down here…kneel down on the right. I can’t feel nothing but my charger.”
Defense: “Okay. What do you do?”
Wafer: “I get out of the recliner, and I crawl out of the room into the hallway and turn my light off also..hallway light.”
Obviously, Renisha thought that not only was a person home at Wafer’s house but also thought that the resident was awake because the light was on as was the TV.
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yahtzee, Didn’t TW say he changed into something more comfortable at about 1;30? If so, it would seem strange that he did not intend to go back to sleep in the recliner and part of that would normally be turning off the light? Another strange action from this man…
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I think (could be wrong) that I read somewhere that he was in the habit of leaving a light on at night.
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Sorry TW, I think your original story to the PD is much more revealing of your mindset that morning. I wonder which one of the various accounts that he has used up to now the jury will accept as true? Personally I would have a little bit more respect for this man if he would now after telling all these incredible fables, simply! But that will never happen, he is too much of a coward..
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Yes, he should simply tell the truth. I feel his testimony is contrived.
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‘True Crime’ is a favorite genre of mine. Takes my mind away from my own life, I guess. I wasn’t aware of this trial. Love to catch-up on it. They fascinate me. 🙂
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Thanks for joining us here, kcg1974. Sounds as if you have a detective interest and like to dig to solve crimes. 🙂
I have been following cases (Trayvon, Renisha, Jordan and others) because I want unjust stereotyping and profiling of my fellow Black citizens to come to STOP.
In this clip of a program that is going to be shown on Sunday (I think), Cicely Tyson addresses the problem:
Cicely Tyson:
I never dreamed in 2014 we would still be running against racism. After the debts that were paid with lives to assure us or insure us of recognition just as human beings
When we were going through the whole Civil Rights, I though, well our children won’t have to go through this.
But our children are being shot down for no reason whatsoever and stopped and frisked simply because of the color of their skin.
Those kinds of things are what makes me determined, through my work, to change it.
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I would also question how little Wafer looked up, Xena.
I am sure the jury was hoping to get a read on him by his facial expressions and gestures as he spoke. I think their interpretations of his body language will be all over the place, though. It will imply different things to different people. Is it the shyness and nervousness of a hermit-like man? Is it a cover up of a liar not confident enough of being able to hold his facial expressions to a convincing level? Is it a man simply in a posture of recalling events digging into memory? Is it a person who has studied his script so well that he doesn’t want to seem like an actor?
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yahtzee,
I’ll go with….Is it a person who has studied his script so well that he doesn’t want to seem like an actor?
His emotions don’t look to genuine to me.
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Butterflydreamer,
They don’t look genuine to me either. He’s hoping for sympathy.
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butterflydreamer2,
I think if he is really sad and regretful that he killed Renisha, then he should not be playing around and weaving all his different, contradictory stories together.
He needs to own up truthfully to what he did.
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Viewing him, I think Wafter is dealing with some legit emotion but I also sense he’s exaggerating for dramatic effect.
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I am glad you are weighing in on this with your viewpoint twosides 🙂
I like how faux weighed in on it on the page before this.
My feeling is that he should never have opened the door if he was scared.
What are your expanded thoughts?
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It appears to me that Wafer was impulsive, more angry than afraid. He wanted to display his firearm. He wanted to intimidate. And of course no one opens a door if they’re afraid. They might have a weapon of choice at hand, but they stay inside and call 911. He pulled a GZ-like maneuver.
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I do think he has more of a conscience than GZ though. I don’t think the man is a sociopath but he’s weaving this way and that, trying to get his actions to fit the self-defense mode.
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Wow, I so agree with you twosides and have the same gut feeling/interpretation that you have on EVERYTHING you have written in both of your replies.
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I suspect he is sad he is sitting right there on trial. I suspect he is sad he is facing a prison term if he is found guilty. Maybe he regrets taking a life, it is hard to tell. The stories don’t line up, he can’t explain the differences.
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Valentine, I would say sad for himself and fearful. I don’t know of anyone who would voluntarily want to be caged like an animal, told when to eat, when to shower, and have to use the toilet in front of others without any privacy. Worst yet, if he does have a drinking problem, not being able to throw down 3 beers whenever he wants can be a terrifying thought.
Still, he took an action that took the life of another person — a person who was injured and was no threat to him. He might very well regret taking a life, but should have said so when he was questioned and told the truth rather than change his story numerous times.
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I was afraid. There was knocking on my door. The floors were shaking. (Gotta remember; I should have called a carpenter a long time ago about those loose floors.) The windows were shaking. Then there was knocking again.
I figured that I didn’t want to be a victim in my own house, so I communicated back by returning a tap on my window for every knock on my door. It was kinda like Morse code.
knock, knock, knock
tap, tap, rattle-tat-tat
Soon, we had rhythm going. I recorded it.
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About those floors vibrating……Looks like a pretty sturdy brick house he’s got there, not one made of straw or sticks. It sounds as though he may have had more than three beers.
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butterflydreamer,
Exactly! For the floor to vibrate from an outside affect, the house would have to vibrate. Maybe Ted had drank so much that he thought the floor was moving around.
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Great video, Xena,
ratta tat ratta tat ratta tat tat…..uh huh…..boom tapity tap…
Nail those floorboards down, boys,
Turn those screws ’round.
The only song that I can sing
Is nail those floorboards down.
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I half-expected radio program sound effects to start as he testified. That part was definitely over the top.
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Two Sides,
LOL! Yeah, like the old television shows like the Twilight Zone, when a burst of music came in at certain times for effect.
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Reblogged this on The ObamaCrat™.
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Annoyed. That’s how I felt. I stopped watching the first video because I didn’t feel a connection with TW’s exaggerated pensive expressions, the furrowed brow the hangdog gazing down. So I listened…to his annoying verbal exasperated breaths, whispers, a change in a word mid-sentence…about his activity from one room to another, crawling, standing frozen, as the floors shook.The baseball bat (a thought), the gun, the shot, the cell phone. The half whimper for taking an innocent life from a person who never tried the door knobs of either door, who never broke a window to enter the premises. Why to tell the truth…at times I thought I was listening to TW’s plea for leniency after sentencing.
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Pilcherje,
EXACTLY!
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Thanks for having this Xena. I haven’t been able to see the trial, but not looking at him when he’s testifying and just listening, he sounds so phony. Someone banging on your door is not usually going to hurt you. She didn’t try to break in and wasn’t trying to hide. When someone
is banging on the door and I’m sure she was also yelling she needed help. He had plenty of time to call 911 and chose a bat, then a gun instead. All he had to do was go to the door and try to find out something from her and then IF he didn’t want to open the door just let her know he was going to call 911 to get help for her. I’m getting tired of people killing someone so quick. IT’s everyday now. People used to try and help each other, now they are so damn gun ho,
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Lolypop!!!! So happy to see you.
Excellent comment and I agree.
Your comment reminded me of something. It was a report I heard some years ago about the police at a house to conduct a welfare check. Whomever called them made a false report that the homeowner threatened to kill herself and children. The woman doesn’t have children and had neither threatened to kill herself. But the police didn’t know it was a false report. The woman whose house they went to described banging on her door, shaking of her garage door and back gate, in the middle of the night. It took her some time to get to the front door and she was yelling “Just a minute” as she approached.
Now, what if it had been the police at Wafer’s house trying to get his attention or thinking he was inside dying or dead, and he shot a cop instead?
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Hi Xena,
I’m always happy to get your new messages, it’s just been a little crazy around here. : )
If this ass would have killed a cop, I’m sure he wouldn’t even think of testifying for himself.
He just sounds like he wants people to feel sorry for him. WHY? He’s still alive. He wasn’t even threatened with a weapon. Also, didn’t it used to be against the law to shoot unless they were in your home?
This is another example of idiots with guns.
Wasn’t there a story this week about a 12 year old that heard omeone in her house, locked herself in the bathroom with a knife, called 911 and then her parents?
She was smarter than this “supposedly” mature man.
Oh, He feared for his life, Zimmerman feared for his life! That is I’m sorry to say bullshit.
Sorry, there’s just not a decent word to use for them.
They are both free and happy while families grief for the rest of their lives. Their children are gone and all that they wanted was help.
I love you Xena, : )
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Lolypop,
Love you too.
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