Son of Sam in hosp for heart woe
THE MURDER case against a veteran Bronx police sergeant could hinge on how hard his 66-yearold schizophrenic victim could swing a 32-inch baseball bat.
Judge Robert Neary, presiding over the trial of Sgt. Hugh Barry, agreed Tuesday to hear expert testimony on whether the bat wielded by Deborah Danner qualified as a lethal weapon.
A biomechanical engineer will be allowed to testify about testing that defense lawyers assert will prove Barry’s life was in danger before he fired the two fatal shots on Oct. 18, 2016, Neary ruled.
“(This object) is more than enough to crack the skull,” defense attorney Daniel Quinn said on the fifth day of the murder trial. “Had Ms. Danner took that swing . . . she would have fractured (Barry’s) skull.”
According to Quinn, the study documents the impact of blows on crash test dummies produced by women of the same age brandishing the same model of bat as Danner did.
Neary must decide in the bench trial whether Barry’s gunshots were justified or the veteran sergeant erred during the confrontation in Danner’s Bronx bedroom.
Prosecutors charge Barry ignored his training on the evening of his fatal encounter with Danner, and failed to grasp the situation when he opted to pull his gun.
“Did Sgt. Barry honestly believe Deborah Danner (posed a threat), and was that belief reasonable?” prosecutor Newton Mendys asked in his opening statement. “If Sgt. Barry is not justified, he is guilty.”
Quinn argued that prosecutors, by making that statement, alleged a baseball bat is not a deadly weapon when wielded by a 66-year-old woman.
This study, he insisted, would prove otherwise.
Mendys argued in vain that replicating the tense bedroom showdown was impossible.
“The study itself is flawed inherently by virtue of the fact that Ms. Danner wasn’t able to participate in it,” he said.
Barry, now 31, stands about 6 feet tall and weighs 225 pounds compared with the disabled 5-foot-6 Danner. Witnesses have testified that she was outnumbered by five police officers inside her bedroom.
Officer Camilo Rosario took the witness stand for a second day Tuesday to recount his version of the fatal showdown in the seventh-floor apartment.
Rosario, the officer closest to Barry when the sergeant fired his weapon, recalled how Danner drew the bat back over her shoulder.
Barry, who had just entered the room, immediately began shouting at the emotionally disturbed woman, according to Rosario.
“Drop the bat! Ma’am, please, drop it!” Rosario recalled Barry yelling to Danner.
Rosario, for the second time in as many days, demonstrated the arc of the baseball bat in front of the Bronx courtroom.
The reenactment used the same bat clutched on the night of the shooting by the mentally ill woman. On cross-examination, Rosario said he believed Danner was going to swing the bat at his superior.
One day earlier, he testified that Danner never took the bat off her shoulder. “SON OF SAM” killer David Berkowitz was recently rehospitalized following a heart procedure but is on the mend and “confident God is watching over him,” his attorney said Tuesday.
Berkowitz’s murderous reign shook the city in 1976 and 1977. He is serving six consecutive life sentences for late-night shootings that killed six people and wounded seven.
In December, Berkowitz, 64, was transferred to an Albany hospital for emergency heart surgery.
His attorney, Mark Heller, said that complications required an additional procedure on Jan. 21 to “drain his legs” and treat circulation problems.
Berkowitz returned to Shawangunk Correctional Facility five days later. “He seems to be doing well,” Heller said.
The killer became a born again Christian behind bars and refers to himself as Son of Hope.
“He’s very hopeful and confident God is watching over him and will protect him from any maladies in the future,” Heller said.