The jury in the Anthony Oddone murder trial continues deliberations today—the defendant’s 27th birthday—and it is unclear if jurors will render a verdict before the weekend.
Jurors may declare Mr. Oddone innocent or may find him guilty of second-degree murder, or of a less serious charge, related to the death of Andrew Reister of Hampton Bays.
The two men had an altercation at the Southampton Publick House in August 2008 after Mr. Reister, an off-duty corrections officer who was moonlighting as a bouncer, asked Mr. Oddone to stop dancing on a table. According to witnesses, Mr. Oddone refused, Mr. Reister pushed him off the table, and a scuffle ensued, with Mr. Oddone putting Mr. Reister in a choke hold from behind. Mr. Reister fell unconscious and died two days later, having never regained consciousness.
Mr. Oddone was 25 at the time of the struggle at the Publick House. Mr. Reister was 40.
Defense attorney Sarita Kedia has maintained that Mr. Oddone was defending himself from an attack by a much larger man. The prosecution charged him with intentionally causing the death of Mr. Reister, but several lesser charges are also options available to the jury.
At around 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, the jury asked Judge C. Randall Hinrichs to repeat instructions related to “justification,” the legal term that means acting in self-defense. Jurors also asked to hear the 911 tape again—it was played for the first time in court during the prosecution’s closing argument on Wednesday—and to review some of the photos submitted into evidence.
The photos were of the tap room and bar at the Publick House, as well as photos taken on the camera of Mr. Oddone’s friend who was with him that night. A contact sheet shows the time each photo was taken.
Ms. Kedia maintains that the photo times are not accurate. She said the jury members should be asked if they want the testimony that talks about the discrepancy in the time stamp and what the detective “understood” to be the real times the photos were taken.
Ms. Kedia objected to some of the photos that show items on the ground that belonged to Mr. Reister, but those are close-ups and not photos of the room in general, which seems to be what the jury was asking for.
The jury also asked to again hear the song that witnesses said was playing at the time of the incident, “Calabria 2007 (club mix)” by Enur, which was used by some witnesses to estimate the length of time Mr. Oddone held Mr. Reister in a choke hold. The judge agreed and sent a CD player into the jury room with a compact disc.
Before ending Thursday’s deliberations, the jury asked to review several of the medical documents in the case, including records from both Southampton Hospital and Stony Brook University Hospital, related to Mr. Reister’s injuries, which proved fatal. They also sought a copy of the report from Mr. Reister’s autopsy.
Judge Hinrichs agreed to all the requests, except the autopsy report. “That was marked for identification but not received, so that is not something you can have in the jury deliberation room,” he said. It had never been entered into evidence.
After releasing the jury back to the deliberation room, Judge Hinrichs asked to speak with both attorneys, “off the record,” in his chambers.
The jury was dismissed at 6:30 p.m. and continued deliberations Friday morning.
On both Thursday and Friday, the jury asked Judge Hinrichs to read the criteria of all the charges, with “emphasis on intent and justification.”
The jury on Friday also asked for copies of three articles from medical journals that defense attorney Sarita Kedia had submitted during her cross examination of the county medical examiner. One had to do with causes of hemorrhages around the eyes, and the other two were related to law enforcement’s use of choke holds. But the judge denied the request, since those articles were never submitted as evidence in the case, only for identification.
Based on reporting by staff writer Michael Wright and web editor Brendan O’Reilly
on Dec 4, 2009