The State continues its witnesses by calling Nathan Neese to the stand. Agent Neese has worked for the TBI since 2016 and recovered the body camera from the crime scene.
At this point, Judge Wolfe warned the jury that the body camera video was about to be played. The body camera video displayed every single event that occurred between Sgt. Baker and Steven Wiggins in 2018.
The video reveled Sgt. Baker warning all potential backup of Wiggins been armed through his final words, “shots fired, officer down” on his radio. The video then clearly shows and displays the audio of how brutal and fatal the gun shots were. Additionally, the jury sees Wiggins’ face over Sgt. Bakers’ deceased body.
The video continued to show Wiggins dragging the body to Bakers’ patrol car, loading him into it, driving off, and setting fire to the body before taking off into the woods.
After the jury witnesses the full body camera video, they also view the interrogation video. However, one word, “doping” was supposed to be redacted, yet wasn’t.
The defense then asks for a mistrial, and Judge Wolfe takes a recess to study case law. Judge Wolfe comes back to deny the motion for a mistrial due to the fact that one word should not be able to justify causing the whole trial to end.
The prosecution then moved to their next witness, Dr. Feng Li. Dr. Li is the chief medical examiner for Metro Nashville. He then testified and explained the autopsy pictures of Sgt. Baker.
Dr. Li testified to Sgt. Baker having first and second degree burns on his body, yet not finding any soot or carbon monoxide in his lungs. Therefore, this provides information to the jury that Wiggins mutilated the body through the use of setting a fire in the patrol car.
