PASCO COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) – Attorneys gave their opening statements Monday morning in the high-profile murder trial of 79-year-old Curtis Reeves.
Reeves is charged with murder in the shooting death of 43-year-old Chad Oulson.
The retired police captain fatally shot Oulson during the previews of a movie at a Wesley Chapel theater on Jan. 13, 2014. Court records show Reeves was angry at Oulson for using his cell phone.
As the two argued, Oulson threw popcorn in Reeves’ face. That’s when the ex-officer pulled out a handgun and opened fire, killing Oulson. A bullet also hit Oulson’s wife, Nicole, in the hand.
It’s taken eight years for the case to enter the trial phase.
After Reeves’ “stand your ground” defense was rejected by a judge, there were numerous appeals and delays brought on by the pandemic.
Reeves is now 79-years-old. For the past eight years, he’s been on house arrest and not in jail. The judge has set aside two weeks for the trial. Six jurors and four alternates were chosen during the four-day jury selection process last week.
“Please don’t get in our way, thank you,” Reeves told an 8 On Your Side crew as he entered the Robert D. Sumner Judicial Center before the trial started Monday morning.
During his opening statements, Assistant State Attorney Scott Rosenwasser told jurors they would see video and hear from witnesses that Curtis Reeves seemed angry at the time of the shooting.
“You are going to learn from a witness that the defendant’s tone was kind of demanding. Turn your cell phone off,” said Rosenwasser who says Reeves was aggressive in the way he addressed Chad Oulson, “Here is what you are going to learn, that the defendant leans all the way forward and tells Chad Oulson to turn his phone off. Chad Oulson doesn’t turn his phone off right away,”
The two men argued and Reeves shot and killed Oulson. The defense maintains it was an act of self-defense.
“That evidence has to measure up beyond the exclusion of reasonable doubt that Curtis Reeves did not act justifiably,” said Defense Attorney Dino Michaels.
The first witness called in the case was Nicole Oulson, Chad Oulson’s wife.
She told the jury how Reeves spoke to her husband as the movie previews were playing.
“It was rude. It was demanding. It was just you need to do this,” said Nicole Oulson.
She was shot in the hand as she tried to protect her husband when he was shot.
Nicole Oulson spent more than three hours on the witness stand telling jurors about the incident moment by moment.
The trial is expected to take up to two weeks.