The prosecution rested its case and the defense began theirs on Friday in the trial of a former Clear Creek County Sheriff’s Office deputy accused of the 2022 killing of a Boulder man who had called 911 for help on a remote mountain road.

In a clear and deep voice, Andrew Buen, 30, told 5th Judicial District Judge Catherine Cheroutes that he is considering taking the stand in his own defense.  Cheroutes said that she would give him until Monday to decide.

After a long day of testimony from a prosecution use-of-force expert Thursday, there was talk of bringing in a toxicologist to give official scientific readings from Christian Glass’ autopsy report, but that never happened.

Instead, District Attorney Heidi McCollum rested her case and the defense started theirs with a forensic video analyst to explain the limits of police body-worn camera video.

Michael Albin, police chief of Bristol, Ind., and a body-worn camera footage expert, said that because the view is angled from the chest and fixed, it’s not the same as what the officer is seeing.

“Officers turn their heads and gain additional stimuli,” Albin said.

The 15-person jury spent the second and third day of trial viewing footage from three different officers’ body worn cameras. All three were on scene that night — Clear Creek Sheriff deputies Buen and his partner Tim Collins and Idaho Springs police officer Brittany Morrow. Morrow and Collins, along with four other officers, have been charged with failing to step in and stop the shooting from happening. 

The 70-minute footage is arguably the most compelling evidence in the case, but defense attorney Carrie Slinkard said that it’s hard to tell exact distances because of the fish eye lens.

Glass, 22, called 911 when his car got stuck on rocks near Silver Plume just before midnight June 10, 2022. He said he was scared and locked himself in his car. Seven officers from various mountain agencies who responded tried for more than an hour to get him to step out. Body-worn camera footage shows him forming a heart with his hands and making praying motions through the window.

Eventually, Buen broke the SUV’s window, fired several bean bag rounds at Glass, shot him with a Taser and then shot him five times in the chest, killing him. Former Georgetown Police Marshall Randy Williams also deployed a Taser after he reached through a broken window to try opening a door.

Day six of Buen’s trial was short.

Jurors who have concentrated on complex concepts of police procedure, viewed disturbing autopsy photos and heard from Glass’ mother, Sally, appeared to be ready for a break. Sally Glass and her husband, Simon, sit in the front row of the courtroom ducking their heads during any testimony of gunfire. They left the room when their son’s autopsy photos were shown on a huge screen above the defense table.

The prosecution theorizes that Buen’s behavior was excessive and deadly the night of June 10-11th, 2022. The defense countered that the then-28-year-old was just doing his job with a driver who may have been under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol with potential weapons in the car.

Glass, an amateur geologist, was driving home to Boulder from a three-day art trip to Moab, Utah. In his 2007 Honda Pilot were large, jagged rocks, sharp hammers and a couple of knives that police could see from the car windows.

Before Glass was shot, he was agitated and started waving a knife toward Williams.

Albin said that when he corrected Morrow’s body camera video, he could see that Glass made three stabbing motions, which defense attorney Slinkard said prompted Buen to shoot Glass five times through the windshield.

Slinkard was just about to show another angle from Morrow’s body-cam video that she said would give an accurate representation of how close Glass arm and knife were to Williams, but Albin testified that though Glass’ arms are extended, “it’s impossible to tell how close he was.”

It’s up to the jury to decide whether Glass was an imminent threat to Buen that night. Buen, who remains free on bond,  faces up to 48 years in prison for the second-degree murder charge. He has also been charged with one count of reckless endangerment and another of professional misconduct. 

The trial resumes Monday.