"Be careful what you want. You won't be the first client I made disappear."

During his testimony on direct examination by Ms. Andrea Sullivan, Michael Black said he had never seen Mrs. Russ Clanton before May 8. He said he tried to record his conversation with Russ Clanton but Clanton "kicked his phone and broke it."

Black claims that Clanton said to him, "Be careful what you want. You won't be the first client I made disappear."

"I said, go ahead, shoot me," said Black.

Correcting a phrase mentioned in the People's opening and People's witnesses, what Black said to Clanton on May 8 was, "If this was Texas, I'd be dead."

Black said he felt threatened. He said Clanton was "going to shoot him and cover it up."

"I didn't have any weapons."What was I going to do? Throw rocks at him?"

Black said he tried to get off the ground "2-3 times. I just wanted to sit there and have a conversation with him."

Black said he never told Clanton he had a gun. He never said he would shoot Clanton.

Black said the statements Deputy Shane Steele said he made were accurate. This actually speaks to his credibility because he did not deny those spontaneous utterances.

Deputy District Attorney A.J. Kamada started his cross examination of Black on Friday. The cross examination included an audio phone call Black made from the jail to his girlfriend at that time. Before it was played, Black said he did not recall making that statement. He had been drinking and hadn't slept. The comment he made to his girlfriend was that his cell phone was broken while he was in handcuffs.

During cross examination, Black denied making certain statements Russ Clanton said he did; he said the statements that Deputy Steele said he made were accurate and others he did not recall.
At points, he did ramble on and had to be told by Judge Kaleb Cockrum to only answer what was asked. Despite aggressive questioning by Mr. Kamada, he remained calm but frustrated sometimes when Mr. Kamada would repeatedly ask him questions he answered. At one point, Judge Cockrum even said to Mr. Kamada that Black had answered the question.

After cross examination of Black this morning, a brief rebuttal witness was called by the People. That was Bruce Taylor, Jr, a neighbor of friend of Black's.

Closing arguments expected to start at 2:30 today.

Previous post:
https://johnchiv.blogspot.com/2019/01/russ-clanton-admits-he-did-not-return.html?m=1