The pretrial hearings for Brian T. Shaw concluded Friday afternoon as the testimony of a final Syracuse Police officer involved in the investigation and the cross-examination of Shaw were heard.

The purpose of the recent hearings were for Shaw’s defense attorney, Tom Ryan, to argue that his client’s Miranda rights were violated when he gave his oral confession to police on March 23, the night of his arrest.

Another piece of evidence Ryan questioned was the photograph of Shaw and his 4-year-old daughter, Essence, found by Syracuse Police in Seals’ home. The photograph’s caption contained the name of one of Shaw’s fraternity brothers, who eventually helped Shaw get in touch with police.

Judge Joseph E. Fahey set a trial date for the case for Jan. 30, 2006, and said he would come to his decision Nov. 16 about whether or not the oral confession given by Shaw will be allowed to be used as evidence.

Before Shaw was called to continue his testimony from his hearing on Sept. 15, Chief Assistant District Attorney Pat Quinn, the prosecutor of the case, called Syracuse Police officer Michael Bates to the stand. Bates was one of the two officers who arrived at the apartment of Chiarra Seals the afternoon a neighbor reported her missing, and was also the officer who found the photograph of Shaw and Essence.

Bates was called to Seals’ home at 160 Jasper St. around 5 p.m. on March 23 for a burglary complaint, he said in his testimony to Quinn. When he and the officer accompanying him arrived, they noticed a large screen removed from one of the windows of Seals’ apartment, Bates said. The two entered and Bates found Essence and Omari Jr., Seals’ 18-month-old son, alone in the apartment.

Bates took Essence into one of the bedrooms, he said, and asked her where her mother was. Essence told Bates that her mom was taken by her ‘daddy’ Brian. Bates said he asked Essence if there was a photo of Brian in the house, but after she searched for a while, she could not find one.

Ryan objected to Bates’ testimony at this point, saying the statements Essence gave to police were not relevant to the photograph of Shaw and Essence that Bates found. Although Fahey said he thought Ryan’s objection could have merit, Quinn said the conversation between Bates and Essence laid the foreground for finding the photograph.

The three debated for a few minutes about the issue, and Fahey eventually allowed Bates to continue his testimony about his talk with Essence.

Bates said after speaking with Essence, he went into the kitchen in order to find anything with a name or phone number on it with someone he could call to find out where Seals was. He said after searching the kitchen, he found a photograph of a black male and Essence among a stack of papers on top of Seals’ refrigerator.

Bates said he asked Essence if the man with her in the photo was Brian, and she said yes.

During Ryan’s cross-examination of Bates, a lot of the questioning focused on Bates’ questioning of Essence, especially the reason why he took her into the bedroom alone to speak with her.

‘The reason I took her alone was because I wanted to speak with her without any distraction,’ Bates said, adding that Essence seemed distracted by the other Syracuse Police officer searching her home.

Ryan then asked Bates why Essence would seem distracted if only a few people were present in the apartment at the time, especially since the woman who called the police was still in the hall.

Before Bates answered, however, he said he wanted to restate something Essence had told him when they began to speak.

‘When I first began talking to her she said Brian was her daddy, and after she said that she said, ‘Daddy killed Mommy,” Bates said.

Ryan immediately objected to this statement on the grounds that Bates did not directly answer the question. Fahey agreed, and the statement was stricken from the record.

Bates then restated he questioned Essence alone because she still seemed distracted from the commotion in the apartment.

Ryan also asked Bates to detail his search of the apartment after speaking with Essence, and what in particular he was looking for.

‘We didn’t know anything. We were looking for a name or any number we could use to try and find Ms. Seals,’ Bates said.

After Ryan ended his questioning, Shaw was called back to the stand to resume giving his testimony from last month.

Shaw was led to the stand in handcuffs, occasionally blinking tears out of his eyes. Ryan asked Fahey if Shaw had to remain handcuffed during his testimony, and the judge asked the bailiff to remove the cuffs.

Shaw rubbed the soreness from his wrists as he sat at the bench, while Fahey reminded him that he was still under oath.

Shaw held a puzzled look on his face as Quinn began his questioning.

‘Do you remember what happened the night of March 23?’ Quinn asked.

‘I can remember portions when I close my eyes,’ Shaw said, his voice breaking.

‘It looks like you’re having a problem,’ Quinn said, referring to Shaw’s trouble speaking.

‘Tears,’ Shaw said.

Shaw took a few seconds to regain his composure, and then Quinn began his questioning again.

Shaw reiterated much of the testimony he gave last month, saying his fraternity brother who took the photo police found of he and Essence called him and said the police wanted to speak with him. He then said he was taken to the interrogation room at the police station where the detectives asked him questions about his day.

‘They were rude,’ Shaw said. ‘They said, like, OK, she was your girlfriend and you got in a fight with her.’

Quinn asked Shaw if he knew if he had a right not to speak to the detectives.

‘You see on TV you have the right to a lawyer, but you still get dealt with by any means,’ Shaw said. ‘I never knew what was required. I kept talking. They forced the conversation, even though I asked for a lawyer.’

‘But you continued to speak with them?’ Quinn asked.

‘Yes. There’s no reason why I wouldn’t cooperate,’ Shaw said.

Shaw repeated much of the same testimony he gave to Ryan last month, including how he asked Sgt. Joel Cordone for a phone call to his godmother after he gave his confession.

‘Why didn’t you call a lawyer?’ Quinn asked.

‘I didn’t know a lawyer,’ Shaw said.

Published on October 9, 2005 at 12:00 pm