DETROIT – Who is not telling the truth: officer Joseph Weekley or Mertilla Jones, the grandmother of 7-year-old Aiyana Jones?
Weekley said the grandmother grabbed his submachine gun, causing the shot that killed the girl. Prosecutor Robert Moran said Mertilla Jones was on the floor by the far end of the couch on which Aiyana was sleeping.
"Unless she had 8-feet arms and could reach across the couch and interfere with the gun, that didn't happen," said Moran.
Moran says had the grandmother grabbed Weekley's gun, Weekley would have ordered her to stop and would have immediately arrested her.
"Aiyana's death could have been avoided by one simple thing: the defendant using reasonable care," said Moran. "It means relying on your training."
Defense attorney Steve Fishman said training cannot prepare officers for every situation. This was an accident.
"If training was everything, (Miguel) Cabrera would hit 1,000," said Fishman. "They did the best they could, and so did (Weekley), and something happened between him and Mertilla Jones."
Fishman said Mertilla Jones made a claim contrary to all evidence that Weekley put the gun to the girl's head.
"You know there's no way officer Weekley would have stopped if he hadn't encountered something or someone," said Fishman.
Moran asked the jury to look at the event as it appeared to Mertilla Jones. She was next to the flash grenade when it detonated.
"She looks up in stunned amazement and sees someone standing in her door dressed in all black and a gun, and within a second or two pulls the trigger with the gun pointed in the direction of Aiyana's head," said Moran.
Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway refused to change her position and reinstate a manslaughter charge against Weekley. She said last week there wasn't enough evidence to support the charge.
The only charge remaining against Weekley is careless discharge of a firearm causing death, a two-year misdemeanor.
Jury deliberations are underway.