"You don't get to blame officers for escalating a situation that Mr. Nelson escalated"; ADA Neel counters defense assertions

Ms. Neel countered the defense's closing those in her rebuttal closing argument this morning. "The notion that in hindsight, it would have been awesome to have a whole crew go up is not reasonable; imagine if HCSO had an armored car to serve civil papers; that's not reasonable."

"You hope for the best, you prepare for the worst," said ADA Neel. "That's what they did. They didn't think their life was at risk. They approached the house, checked for safety and did it tactically."

Yesterday in her closing using photos of the property and house, Ms. Neel had given details about how the officers approached the house.

"The notion that they were derelict in their duties is unfair and not true."

"They serve 90% of the civil papers in Southern Humboldt. They did what they do every single day as a part of their job. You don't get to balme officers for escalating a situation that Mr. Nelson escalated."

"It is not in dispute that they are officers and Mr. Nelson knew that; it is not in dispute that they were serving papers; it is not in dispute that Mr. Nelson shot Deputy Cao."

ADA neel said that "nobody could have foreseen that Mr. Nelson would retreat into the house and then attack the officers but that is what he did."

"Sgt. Swithenbank never said they were friends," this was in response to defense asking why Deputy cao went to the door and not the Sgt. She reminded the jury that she asked Sgt. Swithenbank if he had a grudge against Nelson and he said no. In fact he responded with, "Mr. Nelson has a grudge against me."

Ms. Neel showed photos and bullet trajectories answering and countering Mr. Elvine-Kreis' assertions. She also said that if Nelson wanted to scare someone off his property, he had other options. She brought up the two DOJ experts and what they said, which was not what Mr. Elvine-Kreis presented. She asked the jury to get readback of testimony, if neccessary.

He could have opened the door and shot in the air but he did not.

Addressing reasonable doubt, ADA neel said, "Can every possible question be answered? This is not a movie. We do not get to go back and rewind and watch or film it over again. What is the reasonable question and conclusion you can reach?"