Prosecution, defense differ on who pulled trigger
Details in Zachary Cooper slaying emerge as Jeremy Williams' trial begins
By Michele Linck Journal staff writer | Posted: Friday, July 25, 2008
SIOUX CITY -- Except for whom to blame for the shooting and a few details, the prosecution and defense attorneys painted a similar picture of events Thursday in the trial of Jeremy Edward Williams, who is accused of killing a 23-year-old whose body was found on a dirt road in January.
Williams, 24, of Sioux City, is charged with first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping and first-degree robbery in the Jan. 15 shooting death of Zachary Paul Cooper, also of Sioux City.
A coyote hunter found Cooper's shirtless body two days later in rural Lawton, Iowa.
In opening statements Thursday, Assistant Woodbury County Attorney Terry Ganzel told the jury Williams was one of two men who each shot Cooper once as he kneeled in front of Williams' car just off 170th Street near Franklin Avenue. The other, he alleged, was Samuel Montez Wright, 31, of Sioux City. Wright has been charged with the same three felonies as Williams.
Williams' attorney, Priscilla Forsyth, said she would show that Williams did not murder, rob or kidnap Cooper. She said Wright told her client on the threat of harm to his girlfriend and child not to talk about the killing.
Ganzel said Cooper was without a shirt because men at the Sioux City apartment of Nicholas Daniel Perez, 20, where Cooper went to sell marijuana, had stripped him of it and his jacket to see if he was wearing a police surveillance wire. Then, he said, Wright took out a .38-caliber handgun and hit Cooper with it after becoming incensed over an anarchy symbol tattooed on his chest, mistaking it for an anti-Christ symbol.
Ganzel described for the jury of seven women and five men how Cooper did not die in front of the car. Instead, he said, after Williams, Wright, and the other men left in Williams' car, Cooper began a long walk toward a house. He said Cooper stopped, removed one of his socks and used it to slow the blood flowing from his bullet wounds. Later he dropped that sock, took off his other sock to use it the same way, walking farther before collapsing and dying.
Forsyth told the jury that her client owned the only car among the five men at the apartment, including Ray Kelvin Dukes. She said Williams had left but returned to the apartment after seeing Cooper walk toward it and hoped to buy marijuana. Instead, she said, Wright forced Williams at gunpoint to drive the group to the country. There, Forsyth alleged, Wright and Dukes shot Cooper.
She told the jury they would see her client tell police 183 times in one interrogation video that he did not shoot Cooper.
The state's first witness was Norm Custer, the coyote hunter, who testified that he had found Cooper's body on 170th Street the morning of Jan. 17.
Woodbury County Sheriff's Deputy Scott Lanagan, a senior crime scene analyst who worked the case, took the stand next. He explained dozens of photos he took along 170th Street, which were entered into evidence by the state. Many showed small spots or clusters of blood he said Cooper left along the snow-covered road as he walked. One aerial photo of the road was labeled showing where each of the bloody socks was found. Lanagan identified the socks, each sealed in a separate plastic bag, as being the same ones he found on the road.
Ganzel introduced many pictures showing where Cooper was shot, a driveway to a farm field off 170th Street near Franklin Avenue that was flanked by gateposts but had no gate.
Lanagan testified that a number of other photos were taken at the shooting scene, including two .38-caliber casings he testified were fired from a handgun, and of one projectile from the same gun.
Forsyth objected when a photo taken in the spring from 70 feet above the scene was entered into evidence. She agreed to it on condition that Judge John Ackerman make it clear the jury was to regard it only as a means of showing where different evidence was found, not as a photo of the actual scene at the time of the crime.
The prosecution also introduced police photographs of Perez's apartment, in a house at 710 18th St., along with a computer-generated graphic of the apartment and the furniture inside. Lanagan testified that some of the photos showed where wood paneling had been cleaned and that spots remaining near the baseboard appeared to be blood.
He is scheduled to resume his testimony at 9 a.m today. Dukes and Perez also are scheduled to testify in the trial.
Williams, 24, of Sioux City, is charged with first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping and first-degree robbery in the Jan. 15 shooting death of Zachary Paul Cooper, also of Sioux City.
A coyote hunter found Cooper's shirtless body two days later in rural Lawton, Iowa.
In opening statements Thursday, Assistant Woodbury County Attorney Terry Ganzel told the jury Williams was one of two men who each shot Cooper once as he kneeled in front of Williams' car just off 170th Street near Franklin Avenue. The other, he alleged, was Samuel Montez Wright, 31, of Sioux City. Wright has been charged with the same three felonies as Williams.
Williams' attorney, Priscilla Forsyth, said she would show that Williams did not murder, rob or kidnap Cooper. She said Wright told her client on the threat of harm to his girlfriend and child not to talk about the killing.
Ganzel said Cooper was without a shirt because men at the Sioux City apartment of Nicholas Daniel Perez, 20, where Cooper went to sell marijuana, had stripped him of it and his jacket to see if he was wearing a police surveillance wire. Then, he said, Wright took out a .38-caliber handgun and hit Cooper with it after becoming incensed over an anarchy symbol tattooed on his chest, mistaking it for an anti-Christ symbol.
Ganzel described for the jury of seven women and five men how Cooper did not die in front of the car. Instead, he said, after Williams, Wright, and the other men left in Williams' car, Cooper began a long walk toward a house. He said Cooper stopped, removed one of his socks and used it to slow the blood flowing from his bullet wounds. Later he dropped that sock, took off his other sock to use it the same way, walking farther before collapsing and dying.
Forsyth told the jury that her client owned the only car among the five men at the apartment, including Ray Kelvin Dukes. She said Williams had left but returned to the apartment after seeing Cooper walk toward it and hoped to buy marijuana. Instead, she said, Wright forced Williams at gunpoint to drive the group to the country. There, Forsyth alleged, Wright and Dukes shot Cooper.
She told the jury they would see her client tell police 183 times in one interrogation video that he did not shoot Cooper.
The state's first witness was Norm Custer, the coyote hunter, who testified that he had found Cooper's body on 170th Street the morning of Jan. 17.
Woodbury County Sheriff's Deputy Scott Lanagan, a senior crime scene analyst who worked the case, took the stand next. He explained dozens of photos he took along 170th Street, which were entered into evidence by the state. Many showed small spots or clusters of blood he said Cooper left along the snow-covered road as he walked. One aerial photo of the road was labeled showing where each of the bloody socks was found. Lanagan identified the socks, each sealed in a separate plastic bag, as being the same ones he found on the road.
Ganzel introduced many pictures showing where Cooper was shot, a driveway to a farm field off 170th Street near Franklin Avenue that was flanked by gateposts but had no gate.
Lanagan testified that a number of other photos were taken at the shooting scene, including two .38-caliber casings he testified were fired from a handgun, and of one projectile from the same gun.
Forsyth objected when a photo taken in the spring from 70 feet above the scene was entered into evidence. She agreed to it on condition that Judge John Ackerman make it clear the jury was to regard it only as a means of showing where different evidence was found, not as a photo of the actual scene at the time of the crime.
The prosecution also introduced police photographs of Perez's apartment, in a house at 710 18th St., along with a computer-generated graphic of the apartment and the furniture inside. Lanagan testified that some of the photos showed where wood paneling had been cleaned and that spots remaining near the baseboard appeared to be blood.
He is scheduled to resume his testimony at 9 a.m today. Dukes and Perez also are scheduled to testify in the trial.
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