MAGGIE BELL'S TESTIMONY:
Maggie Bell is a 69 year-old grandmother who lives at 378 Roxborough Rd, directly across the street from McNair's home at 375 Roxborough Rd. She tells the court that she remembers the events of March 14, 2012 very well because it was the day her daughter's father died. She states that she was at church all day and returned home around 8 p.m. Her testimony begins with questions from McNair's lawyer Christopher Rodeman.
Q. When you went back home, did you notice anything at 375 Roxborough Road?
A. Well, on my way home I saw all the police cars down there and I was wondering if anything had happened to one of my kids or something. Then as I approached the house, I saw the police walking around the house and then they went inside of the house and I went on in my house.
Q. And they went inside the house. Was that 375 Roxborough Road?
A. Yes.
Q. And did you see how they went through the house?
A. They went through the front door.
Q. When they went through the front door, did you know if they actually went into the house through the front porch?
A. They went in the front porch and then in the house.
Q. Through the front door that's on the house?
A. Yes.
Q. So, they actually went into the physical house itself?
A. Yes.
Q. After you observed this, what did you do?
A. I went on inside my house.
Q. Did you have occasion to go back outside on the front porch at some point?
A. Yes, I went back outside and they was in the house with the flashlights.
Q. You could see flashlights in the house?
A. Uh-huh.
Q. Is that a yes?
A. That's a yes.
Q. You observed flashlights across the street at 375 Roxborough Road?
A. Yes.
Q. You saw policemen enter the house, right?
A. Yes.
Q. And do you recall approximately how many?
A. No, I don't. I don't know exactly how many because there was some outside and some in the house.
Q. But you definitely saw police officers with flashlights inside the house?
A. Yes.
Maggie Bell's testimony on cross-examination from Assistant District Attorney Peter Lewis later continues:
Bell: The door was opened and you can see the flashlights. You can see the light from the flashlights.
Q. Okay. And where was the light coming out of? Was it these windows here, the windows themselves? There's four
windows.
A. The reflection from the flashlights was coming from the door and the windows.
Maggie Bell later answers direct questions from Judge Randall that reveal she wears glasses but had them on that night and that she was standing in her driveway with a clear and unobstructed view of 375 Roxborough Road.
The Locust Club Police Union, and D.A. Doorley, point to consistencies in Bell’s testimony that support Officer Hartley’s “knock and announce” approach to the door as Bell does testify that she heard that from across the street. However, the Locust Club raises additional questions about her seeing more than one police car on the scene when she returned home as they know of only one marked patrol car assigned to that address at 8 p.m.
