The April beating of the transgender woman went viral after a video was posted on Facebook.
Updated at 6 p.m.: Revised to include additional testimony.
The defense made its case Friday in the third day of testimony in the trial for a man accused of beating up Muhlaysia Booker this spring.
Edward Thomas, 29, is on trial for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon stemming from the April 12 beating at the Royal Crest Apartments in east Oak Cliff. The prosecution says the deadly weapon was Thomas’ fists, and the 6-7 Thomas could have killed Booker with them.
The 22-year-old transgender woman was killed about a month after the beating in an unrelated attack. Another man, Kendrell Lavar Lyles, is charged with murder in her death.
The April beating was recorded on video and went viral after it was was posted on Facebook.
Defense attorney Michael Campbell, in his opening statements to the jury, repeated the argument that the defense has made throughout the trial: that the beating was a fight provoked by Booker.
“You know what’s going on here,” Campbell told the jury. “It was a fight. It was a fight invited by — the evidence will show it was a fight invited by … Booker.”
The defense has used only male pronouns when referring to Booker, who was a transgender woman. They also refuse to call her Muhlaysia, instead using only her birth name.
Campbell said Booker consented to the fight and that it was “mutual combat” after she had been talking smack to a crowd in the apartment complex following a fender-bender. In video of the beating, Thomas is seen punching Booker repeatedly, who has her arms over her head in an attempt to block the blows.
The defense has also called attention to other people seen in the video kicking and stomping on Booker, saying it’s impossible to know who caused her injuries. She suffered a concussion and a broken wrist.
They called Dr. Jelani Ingram as an expert witness. He did not treat Booker, but he reviewed her medical records and watched video of the beating, he testified.
Ingram counted Thomas take about 20 swings at Booker, and six punches landed, he said.
Campbell asked if, in Ingram’s opinion, Thomas used his hands in a way that was capable of causing serious bodily injury to Booker, or her death.
Ingram said no. He testified that without training, it’s very difficult for a person to seriously injure or kill someone with just a punch.
“Looking at the video you can tell that the force was not there. The punches were very short,” the doctor testified. “He tired very very quickly because of no training.”
During cross-examination, prosecutor Robert Withers asked Ingram whether a punch could cause a broken orbital bone or a concussion.
The doctor testified that was possible — and that it was possible for someone to die from a broken orbital bone or to face long-term loss of vision or blurred vision from a concussion.
While Ingram was on the stand, the defense tried again to call attention to the sex Booker was assigned at birth, asking whether Booker had “male anatomy.”
The prosecution objected, saying it was irrelevant, and the judge did not allow the doctor to answer.
The first defense witness Friday was Jaguy Allison, who testified that before the crowd gathered and Booker was beaten up, she had backed into his car, crushing the hood and damaging the front bumper, then sped away.
Allison said he drove off after Booker and eventually maneuvered his car to block hers, pushing the car she was driving into an apartment gate. When she got out of the car, Booker still tried to get away without exchanging information, Allison testified.
He took two cellphones from Booker’s car to try to prevent her and other people who were in the car from leaving, but he said he later gave them back.
After Allison prevented Booker from leaving, Booker began cursing at a crowd gathering in the parking lot, saying anyone could come fight her, Allison testified.
In cross-examination of Allison, lead prosecutor Robert Withers asked him whether it was true that “Muhlaysia never once got violent with anybody?”
He disagreed.
“You’d agree that she was only using her words, right?” Withers asked. Allison said that was correct.
Withers, in response to the defense’s idea that the attack was mutual, asked Allison whether Booker could’ve fought back if she wanted to.
Allison testified that she couldn’t.
On Thursday, the lead defense attorney for Thomas, Andrew Wilkerson, was jailed after state District Judge Hector Garza found him in contempt for what he called “continued outbursts” in front of the jury.
Garza gave Wilkerson 14 days in jail and a $500 fine.
Wilkerson was granted a personal recognizance bond of $500 in lieu of his contempt punishment, according to the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department. He was back in the courtroom and representing Thomas on Friday after bonding out of jail about 2 a.m.
Before Friday’s testimony got under way, prosecutor Jason Hermus asked to put it on the record that following Thursday’s contempt ruling, Wilkerson called someone on the prosecution’s team a “slimeball or a sleazebag.”
Hermus said that moment was captured on video — though the judge has a rule against cellphones and any audio recording in the courtroom, someone was filming.
“I did indeed call him a slimeball and a scumbag, and I apologize,” Wilkerson said in response.
The judge chided the defense for the name calling.
The defense rested its case just before the judge sent the jury home for the weekend. Closing arguments are set to begin at 9 a.m. Monday.
CORRECTION, 1 p.m., Oct. 19, 2019: A previous version of this story said Muhlaysia Booker was 23 when she died. She was 22.
