Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Jurors see truck in fatal shooting
Panel also considering role of alcohol in late-night confrontation that ended in Seth Adams’ death
The glass mug in Seth Adams’ front-seat console served as a reminder for jurors Tuesday that he had been drinking alcohol before he was shot and killed by an undercover officer.
Adams’ blood-alcohol level was above the legal driving limit the night Sgt. Michael Custer shot him at the Loxahatchee Groves nursery where he lived and worked.
Adams’ family is in court seeking millions in an excessive force and wrongful death lawsuit filed against the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office and Custer.
Jurors in the ongoing federal trial in West Palm Beach got a first-hand look Tuesday at the faded blue Ford Ranger truck Adams drove that night to the A One Stop Garden Shop nursery at 1950 A Road.
Beside the driver seat of the truck remains a glass mug that contained a tan-colored liquid, photos from the night of the shooting show.
The surgeon who tried to
save Adams’ life and a witness who talked to Adams before he left a restaurant and headed home have both testified that the 24-year-old didn’t appear intoxicated.
Custer said he could smell alcohol on Adams’ breath during the encounter.
Adams’ family attorneys dispute Custer’s account of a late-night face-off with someone who was out of control and violent.
“He had been drinking that evening ... but he was not inebriated,” the Adams family attorney Wallace McCall told jurors early in the trial. “He was totally in control of his faculties.”About 11:40 p.m. on May 16, 2012, Adams arrived at the darkened nursery and found Custer parked there in an unmarked SUV while leading a burglary surveillance patrol.
Custer, who was wearing plain clothes, has said he identified himself as an undercover officer, but that Adams started screaming at him, rushed him and grabbed his neck “hard as a man could grab you.”
Custer said he broke away, punched Adams in the sternum and soon after fired four shots because he feared Adams was reaching into the cab of the Ford Ranger for a weapon. Later no weapon was found in the cab of Adams’ truck.
The Adams family attorneys contend the blood trail Adams left and the location of a smashed bullet and shell casings show he was shot toward the rear of the truck.
Attorneys for Custer and the Sheriff’s Office have argued that the effects of consuming too much alcohol could explain why Adams had a violent reaction to finding Custer on his family’s property.
Testing on Adams’ body showed his alcohol level ranged from .128 to .131, testified the medical examiner who conducted his autopsy. The legal limit for driving is .08.
“Seth Adams was coming back from drinking beer at a bar,” attorney Summer Barranco, who represents Custer and the Sheriff’s Office, told jurors during her opening statement. “Perhaps because he had been drinking, he didn’t think it through well enough.”
The surgeon who operated on Adams after the shooting testified that the blood of heavily intoxicated people smells different than other patients — enough so that doctors and nurses in an operating room will notice a strong, pungent smell.
Dr. Robert Borrego said he is “100 percent” sure that he didn’t smell that alcohol smell while operating on Adams.
Adams played one round of beer pong for a fundraiser at Boonies restaurant on Southern Boulevard that night, the former manager testified. John Duemig said Adams didn’t seem intoxicated when he left.
The game involves bouncing or throwing ping pong balls into plastic cups partially filled with beer. Two teams of two tried to get balls into 10 cups before their opponents did, Duemig said.
Participants paid $12 each and got free refills of light beer in a 10-ounce mug while they were playing, Duemig said. Players typically took a drink from their mug when they missed, he said.
Duemig said he didn’t notice slurred speech, bloodshot eyes, an unsteady walk or other signs of intoxication when he talked to Adams after the game.
“He was a gentlemen to me,” Duemig said.
When shown a picture of the mug in Adams’ truck, Duemig said he couldn’t tell if it was from the restaurant.
The trial before Senior U.S. District Judge Daniel T. K. Hurley started Feb. 13 and is now expected to last five weeks.