Hacker To Take Witness Stand; Defense Says He Is Victim

Steven Hacker said he will testify in court on Thursday. His attorney, Robin Flores, said his client is the victim. He said that though “the state claims that (Hacker) came at (officers) with a knife,”The evidence is very clear that “there was no weapon.”

“The testimony now from all the witnesses involved is that he came out with his hands up,” said attorney Flores.

He also told Judge Don Poole that there is a “tremendous problem with the chain of custody” concerning blood samples taken from the defendant at Erlanger Hospital, as well as with a terminated lab technician at the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation who tested those samples.

After two days of witness testimony, the defense rested Wednesday afternoon. Defense will begin calling witnesses on Thursday, attorneys said, starting with the defendant.

Hacker is facing seven charges, including aggravated assault, evading arrest, driving under the influence, and possession of drug paraphernalia. The conditions of Hacker’s arrest in 2013 led to his filing a lawsuit against the city seeking $600,000. The litigation is pending.

When attorney Flores spoke to Officer Cornelius Gaines of the Chattanooga Police Department, a state witness and one of the defendants in the lawsuit, he pointed out that Officer Gaines didn’t Mirandize the suspect. He said the officer was trying to get the defendant to answer questions “in a severely injured state,” since Hacker had just fallen through a window.

The officer insisted he was only asking Hacker questions “about the substances he had been using,” so that he could give that information to EMS workers.

Earlier, Officer Gaines had testified that Hacker had told him and other officers on the scene multiple times that if they came inside his house, he would kill them. He also said he saw “a serrated blade” in Hacker’s right hand before he came out on the front porch.

“I told Mr. Hacker to drop the knife and drew my weapon,” he said. “Mr. Hacker then slams the main door in our face. He tells us to shoot him through the door.”

Officer Gaines said Officer John Watkins drew his taser when the defendant came out onto the porch with his hands up, one open and one clenched closed. He told attorney Flores it was possible the suspect could have had a phone in his hand.

It was after this that Hacker was tased, he said, falling through a window and becoming impaled by a large piece of glass.

A recording from Officer Gaines’s vehicle camera and body microphone was played in the courtroom. A woman, identified as Hacker’s grandmother, can be heard sobbing, “What did he do? What did he do? Just tell me!”

Another voice later says, “What’s in my back? … I came outside. I put my hands up. You still tased me. … I got blood everywhere. I just cut my whole ******* back.”

The same voice later says, “I’m fixing to pass out. I can’t breathe.”

Officer Gaines said he and the other officers on scene applied pressure to the suspect’s wounds and tried to keep his heart rate down to slow the bleeding.

“It was a large amount of blood loss,” he told the jury.

He said their goal shifted to preserving Hacker’s life. The witness also said Officer Watkins’s only options were his taser or firearm because the suspect had “an object in his hand.” He said the Taser was the safest option for everyone.

He told prosecutor Charles Minor that in a response to a statement he makes in the recording, the defendant can be heard acknowledging that he had a knife. He also agreed with attorney Flores that according to the tape, he had dealt with Hacker in the past and knew him by his first name, even though the incident stemmed from officers simply trying to identify the suspect.

Officer Watkins said he saw an object in the defendant’s hand, but has never testified that he thought it was a knife and that was why he tased him.