Brian T. Shaw, the former Syracuse University student arrested in March in connection with the death of Chiarra Seals, was called to testify Thursday about his interrogation with police the night of his arrest.

Shaw’s testimony concluded the second straight day of pretrial hearings which focused primarily on whether or not he received proper notification by police interrogators about his Miranda rights.

Tom Ryan, Shaw’s defense attorney, called him to the stand after the testimony of the final two police officers involved in his interrogation. At about 3:10 p.m. Shaw was led to the witness stand in handcuffs, leaving his copy of the Bible at the defense table where he sat throughout the bulk of the hearings.

As Shaw sat at the bench, his eyes wandered around the courtroom, failing to make contact with any one person. He wore a blank expression and stared at his feet when he wasn’t talking or being asked a question.

Ryan began his questioning by asking Shaw to tell his account of his interactions with the police the night of March 23 and morning of March 24. Many of Shaw’s statements conflicted with those of the six Syracuse Police officers who testified Wednesday and Thursday.

Shaw said he was showering on the afternoon of March 23 when his roommate told him a Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity brother called, saying police were looking for him. Shaw then called his fraternity brother back to get the number of Detective Eric Carr, who had called.

When he talked to Carr, Shaw said he was informed that his 4-year-old daughter and her little brother were left alone in Seals’ house. After asking where his daughter was, Shaw said he was told by Carr that he would be taken in for questioning.

Shaw said within minutes after contacting them, Detectives Carr and Kevin Hamberger arrived at his home on Columbus Avenue along with two other officers. The detectives asked him to get his shoes and coat and come to the Criminal Investigations Division to answer a few questions.

During the car ride, Shaw said he repeatedly asked Detectives Carr and Hamberger what was going on and where his daughter was, but did not receive a straight answer. On Wednesday, Carr testified Shaw did not speak on the car ride to the CID.

‘I asked why my daughter was home alone,’ Shaw said about the car ride. ‘I asked where’s her mother, is she missing? And they said, ‘Why would you ask that?”

Upon arrival at the CID, Shaw said he was taken to the ‘blue room,’ an interrogation room used by detectives, where he immediately asked where his daughter was. Carr and Hamberger said his daughter was in another room, Shaw said, but he would have to answer a few questions first.

Shaw then said that he, Carr and Hamberger began a conversation about the history of his day, and his connection to Seals and his daughter. The detectives then took a short break from their questioning, Shaw said, and locked him in the blue room. A few of the officers who testified before Shaw said that the door to the blue room could not lock because the lock was broken.

‘When I asked them why they locked the door, they said, ‘For your safety,” Shaw said.

At this time, Shaw said he asked for a lawyer, but was refused. Carr and Hamberger then began to ask more detail about Shaw’s background with Seals.

Shaw said the testimony the police gave about his history with Seals was inaccurate, saying the two did not attend the same high school. Instead, Shaw said he and Seals met when they both were living in the South Side of Syracuse.

He also said he did not find out about his daughter through papers in the mail, as a few of the officers testified, but rather by a phone call from Seals his freshman year at SU.

Since the phone call, Shaw said he told police he lost touch with Seals after the summer of 2002 and since then received notice in the mail regarding the custody of his daughter. He then tried to locate Seals and his daughter by looking through records at the courthouse.

It wasn’t until August of last year that Shaw said he met with Seals again when he ran into her by chance downtown. He called the reunion a ‘pleasant greeting,’ and said he asked Seals about his daughter, and exchanged phone numbers with Seals.

Shaw said he told the detectives that he had a good relationship with Seals and his daughter since the meeting in August.

‘I told them I loved that little girl since the first time I saw her face,’ Shaw said, his voice choked with emotion and eyes beginning to tear up.

It was then that Judge Joseph E. Fahey asked Ryan to stop his questioning and called both Ryan and Chief Assistant District Attorney Pat Quinn, the prosecutor in the case, to approach. The trio held a brief conference as Shaw sat on the stand, silently weeping.

In an interview after Thursday’s hearing, Ryan said the reason Fahey suspended the questioning was because he wanted to discuss the ‘scope of the area of questioning.’ However, Ryan said, by that time he had concluded with questions about Shaw’s daughter.

After about a five-minute recess following the halt in questioning, Ryan resumed questioning Shaw, turning his focus to the procedures detectives followed in the interrogation room.

‘Have you become familiar with the Miranda warnings after your discussions with me?’ Ryan asked.

‘Yes,’ Shaw answered, still crying slightly.

Shaw said he did not have any conversation with Carr or Hamberger about his Miranda rights. On Wednesday, Carr testified that he read Shaw his Miranda rights from a yellow card that he always carries with him. It wasn’t until Sgt. Joel Cordone came to interrogate him at about 4:30 a.m., Shaw said, that he was offered his Miranda rights.

The focus of Ryan’s questioning briefly diverted from the subject of the Miranda rights when he asked how Shaw was treated during questioning. During the several hours he was in the interrogation room, Shaw said he was allowed to go to the bathroom and was also offered food and water, but all he wanted was to know where his daughter was.

‘I constantly asked about my daughter and where she was,’ Shaw said.

Shaw said the detectives told him he could not see his daughter until after they finished speaking with him and continued to interrogate him.

‘They were asking me questions constantly and over and over said what I was telling them was inconsistent with what they knew,’ Shaw said.

It was around this time, Shaw said, that Detectives Patrick Boynton and Brian Fougnier entered the room and began to take over the interrogation. He said that Boynton and Fougnier treated him differently than Carr and Hamberger.

‘From the moment they came in to the moment they left they had smiles on their faces,’ Shaw said. ‘They kept putting me down and calling me a liar repeatedly.’

Shaw said neither Boynton nor Fougnier discussed his Miranda rights with him, even after he requested to speak with an attorney.

‘I said I wanted a lawyer and they just laughed in my face,’ he said.

Finally, Shaw described his discussion with Cordone and Detective Steve Kilburn, who relieved Boynton and Fougnier from questioning. He said that he initially asked the two to see a lawyer, but Cordone just read him his rights from the yellow Miranda card before continuing the discussion.

‘He read me my rights and I told him, ‘I want to call my mom. I’m not talking to you anymore. I want to call my mother. I want to call my godmother,” Shaw said.

Shaw said he and Cordone went back and forth until Cordone finally said he could make his two phone calls to his mother and godmother. It was then that Shaw requested that Boynton and Fougnier be brought back into the interrogation room so he could tell them the entire story. Shaw said he was then allowed to make his phone calls and was then placed under arrest.

Shaw’s testimony commenced when Fahey called an end to questioning due to an appointment he had scheduled. The hearing is slated to resume on Oct. 7. Fahey also mentioned Shaw’s trial should begin no later than Jan. 30, 2006.

Published on September 15, 2005 at 12:00 pm