it s time for the justice files. the big criminal justice stories making headlines today. joining me now, criminal defense attorney eric guster and former prosecutor and msnbc legal analyst faith jenkins. thank you both for being here. thank you. we start tonight in detroit, and the fatal shooting of relisha mcbride. last november the 19-year-old was intoxicated and crashed a car into a parked vehicle around 1:00 a.m. she walked to theodore wafer s house. her family says to seek help. but the 55-year-old shot mcbride in the face after she went on his porch. he is charged with second-degree murder, but he claims self-defense, saying mcbride was trying to break into his house. today, the associated press reports his defense lawyers are planning to question mcbride s
call so i could let them know that she had been in an accident and inform them of where she was so that someone would know where she was. i know at that point no one knew she had been in an accident. the witness said that mcbride appeared drunk and that she told mcbride to stay in her car while she dialed 911. but she wandered off. and about three hours later, she reached the home of theodore wafer, about a half a mile away. her family believes she was knocking on his door for help. but he says she thought she was trying to break in. and he shot her out of fear for his life. one witness said mcbride was less than two feet away when the defendant pulled the trigger. today the judge argued he couldn t use a bad choice defense to shield himself from prosecution. the defendant came to the
decent amount of evidence that shows that wrongdoing may have occurred and prosecutors clearly did their homework and clearly met that bar and that this case is going to trial. okay. jamel, let s just remind everybody, this was an incident where this young woman had been involved in an accident after a night of drinking so she was allegedly drunk, had stumbled on to this man s porch. the man being theodore wafer who approached her with a shotgun. she had knocked on the door repeatedly asking for help. as far as what we know, wafer shot through his screen door at her, killing her, and i believe the blast hit her in the face. it s actually quite similar to a case earlier this year in september, north carolina with jonathan farrell, a young man who also got into a car accident and gone to a nearby house. in that case, the woman at the house called the police and
reported a robbery in progress and called the police. those are the basic details of this and as with the farrell case, i think this galvanized a lot of people, and raised questions or forced questions about the the relationship, young african-american people have to strangers and the ambiguous circumstances. this happened on november 2 rnd. renisha was only 19 years old. the man in question here, theodore wafer will be tried on murder 2 and manslaughter charges. do you think the the district attorney s office is setting the bar too high? i actually don t think so. this particular district attorney has a reputation for taking her time, for getting cases right and locking up the facts. so i think the charges, i think in this case, they really have met this right at its point of need. this young woman s face, the
what she saw. let s play that, please. just the confused state of not knowing where she was or not being able to give me a phone number or anything to help me out to get her help. did she ever give you a phone number of her home? no, that s what i was trying to get. did she ever fight with you? no. become blij raent? not at all. testy in any way? no. lisa, explain the rationale with this testimony, at least this being the beginning. we should note as well, mcbride s blood alcohol level was three times the legal limit and traces of marijuana in her system. we re hearing a description of her behavior prior to this encounter with theodore wafer. one of the key questions is going to be whether mr. wafer s conduct was reasonable answering the door with a shotgun and