Colorado jury still working on verdict for former Clear Creek County deputy in death of Christian Glass
Wednesday brought about the end of the trial portion for former Clear Creek County Sheriff's Deputy Andrew Buen and placed the verdict decision into the hands of the jurors to find him on three charges involving the death of Christian Glass.
5th District Attorney Heidi McCollum and Defense Attorney Carrie Slinkard took turns addressing the jury in the morning with their closing arguments, McCollum focusing on what she said was a carefully crafted trap Glass found himself in the second he refused to leave his car after calling 911 for help that night in 2022.
Slinkard's focus was more on the prosecution's investigation, stating they did not do enough to research this case, and the evidence presented did not reach the threshold to find Buen guilty.
"Christian offered to throw the weapons, the knives, the hammer, mallet, Mr. Buen said 'don't,' and Christian didn't. He did what he was told!" McCollum told the jury.
She insinuated that a single decision was what led to Christian holding the knife in his hand after being shot by bean bag rounds and a taser, and having the windows broken out of his car. She says Christian was doomed, no matter what he did.
"Mr. Kliem talked about how they (officers) were concerned how he might get out of the car and use the knife, but they...wanted him out of the car, so did they want him out of the car, or did they not want him out of the car? How could Christian win that night?"
"Maybe the better question is how could Christain live that night?"
Slinkard's approach to break apart that argument focused on speculation of Glass being DUI that evening, that Buen followed protocol, and while it was tragic, his actions that night were what a peace officer is supposed to do in that situation. All of this compounded by their critiques of the DA's argument.
"The DA has completely taken this case out of context, they have not listened to the evidence, they haven't watched the body cameras very closely, they clearly don't know the charges, because in jury selection and now they put the wrong charges on the board!" Slinkard said. (This is true, the DA's office did have '1st' degree murder instead of 2nd, which they stated was a typo.) She argued the police laid out what would happen to Glass, and because he did not comply with demands Buen made for him to get out of the car that night, it was only natural what happened.
"The police responded with the real-life consequences that they had been warning him about multiple times over and over," Slinkard said. "As he assumes a violent posture, prepares to attack anyone who makes entry into that car, illegally, by the way."
The prosecution said it was clear Glass was terrified, even said so in the body cam video, and the tactics then-officer Buen took only made the situation worse, like yelling at him to get out of the car, when they say there was no reason to get him out as he was not going anywhere in a stuck car, and not a danger to anyone, himself included. They paint a picture of a Buen hellbent on getting Glass out of the car, regardless of if it's the right thing to do, and only waiting an hour before escalating things to the point of shooting him five times through the windshield.
"Call it tunnel vision, call it hyper focused, maybe even a goal he had that night," mused McCollum. "But within minutes of showing up on scene, literally under 10 mins he made a comment to dispatch 'we are going to have to get this guy out of the car' and that was it! He never faltered, never waivered."
The jury will reconvene Thursday to continue working on the verdict, we will keep you posted when that is delivered.
