GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — The jury will now decide the fate of former Gwinnett County officer Robert McDonald. On Wednesday, the closing arguments concluded and the jury started deliberations.
Taking the stand to testify on his own behalf on Tuesday, McDonald attempted to explain his version of events in a 2017 traffic stop, during which video captured him stomping the head of Demetrius Hollins as he was cuffed and on the ground.
He said he could not tell Hollins was cuffed as he immediately ran to him and his former supervising officer, Sgt. Michael Bongiovanni, who was conducting the stop. He said Hollins was rolling back upward, and could be trying to kick Bongiovanni, or pull something from his waistband, or twist out of the taser cords, which the other officer had just deployed.
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McDonald said ultimately the reason he kicked Hollins' face into the ground was because he was going for his shoulder, and the man moved in that moment.
He wanted, he said, to "push his shoulder back down on the ground, place him in a position of disadvantage and so we could prone handcuff him."
Video of the incident is below.
Later, taking questions from a prosecutor, McDonald went over his training across multiple manuals from different stages of his career.
"Where in any of this training... is any training about kicking somebody in the head?" he was asked. "None as far as I know."
Asked to repeat that, speaking into the microphone to project it louder for the court, he said: "None as far as I can remember."
McDonald is charged with aggravated assault and battery, as well as a felony violation of oath by public officer charge. A conviction on all three charges and a max sentence would send him to prison for 26 years.
His testimony Tuesday could have a pivotal effect on whether a jury rules he was within the bounds of lawful use of force.
His former superior, Bongiovanni, has already testified against him, part of a plea deal the ex-sergeant and nearly 20-year veteran of the force took last year in order to avoid jail time for his own role in the stop.
Both officers were fired following the incident, which then-Gwinnett Police Chief Butch Ayers said was "disturbing"at the time. Hollins was left with what his attorney told 11Alive last summer were multiple lingering issues - "with his family, finding and keeping jobs ... people recognize him for all the wrong reasons."
In his testimony, McDonald maintained Tuesday he "acted to the best of my abilities."
He described how he had heard over the radio as he responded from another site that the sergeant was calling in a 29, or a fight, and that he didn't know what sort of situation he was approaching - how many potential subjects involved, what weapons he might have to watch out for, what, if any, kind of distress Bongiovanni might be in.
"His voice sounded heightened ... 'Oh man, like, this guy he's in a fight,'" McDonald said. "Honestly like I've never heard his voice before."
He said it took four or five steps to reach Hollins, and that he reacted in a split second.
Bongiovanni stopped Demetrius Hollins in April 2017 for not having a license plate on his car, according to an incident report from the time. As the young man stood with his hands up, video captured Bongiovanni hitting him and taking him to the ground before cuffing him.
A moment later, as Hollins angled backward to look at Bongiovanni, video shows McDonald ran up to him and stomped his head into the ground.
The ex-officer said that as Hollins angled back, or rolled over, as he put it, he was continuing to resist arrest and presented a potential threat.
"Yes, by rolling up on his side, absolutely," he answered.
In the video, Hollins appears to be stationary as he angles back to look at Bongiovanni, and remains largely flat otherwise for the three or four seconds it takes for McDonald to run up to him.
After, as the men subdued Hollins - who was said to be distressed and asking for his mother during the stop, according to Bongiovanni - McDonald kept his weapon pointed down at him.
He denied statements attributed to him in prior testimony:
- "Now did you ever say to Mr. Hollins when he was on the ground, 'Don't f****** move, I'll blow your f****** head off?'" "No sir."
- "Did you ever say words to the effect, 'I will f****** shoot you?'" "No sir."
- "Did you ever say, 'Move another inch I'll splash your brains into the pavement?'" "No sir."
Later, the prosecution pressed him on the kicking.
"So just so we're clear, you weren't taught that?" she asked, referring to a kick in the head. "No ma'am," McDonald responded.
"Were you taught ground fighting?" "Yes ma'am."
"Were you taught that if you're in a life or death situation, you can use whatever is in your grasp?" "Yes ma'am."
"Like a rock?" "Like a rock."
"But that would be a life and death situation," the prosecutor reiterated.
"When you come up, did you think Sergeant Bongiovanni was in a life or death situation?"
He said in that moment, he didn't know.
On Wednesday, the jury worked through lunch and asked the judge a few questions as they deliberated. They went home for the day without reaching a verdict.
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