OREGON STANDOFF FBI AGENT TRIAL:  ACCUSED AGENT ON THE STAND INSISTS HE DID NOT FIRE

Defense Attorney Rob Cary:    "Do you recall hearing any shots at the roadblock that day"

Accused FBI Agent W. Joseph Astarita:   "No, I do not"

"His favorite things to say were 'I just don't recall', 'I don't know',  'I don't remember',  'I don't know where or when  that happened'....."

LaVoy Finicum's widow Jeanette Finicum reports on FBI Agent W. Joseph Astarita's testimony 8/8/2018

FBI Hostage Rescue Team Agent W. Joseph Astarita went on the stand for the second day at his trial in Portland today on charges of lying about firing two shots at a roadblock.   The report from Maxine Bernstein of "OregonLive" is that he actually stood next to the stand this morning.

He said twice when asked about firing his weapon when LaVoy Finicum exited his pickup truck on January 26, 2016:

"No, I did not"

Astarita said he considered firing at Finicum but "could not apply effective fire on the driver".  When the command was given to "Bail Out" from the highway he saw his fellow agent John Neidert move in the wrong direction and thought at one point Neidert was dead because he was on the side that Finicum's truck went into the snow on.

Astarita said he went to help the other agent and was relieved to seem come out of the snow.

Astartia said that with his rifle in a ready position.

"I began scanning my sector for threats"

The FBI Agent recalls seeing motion on the driver's side of LaVoy Finicum's truck, believing that Finicum was exiting.

While Astarita recalls seeing Finicum reach towards his pocket, he doesn't know who shot Finicum or hearing any shots at the time.

On cross-examination prosecutor Gary Sussman said that Astarita as a member of the Hostage Rescue Team and firearms instructor was trained in situational awarenesss,

to be aware of his position and the position of his teammates in a situation like the one on January 26, 2016.

Sussman presented in his questioning the location that his HRT team supervisor, only named "BM" in court, placed Astarita.   It was next to an Oregon State Police truck and within a cone of trajectory for the bullet that hit the top of LaVoy Finicum's truck moments before Finicum was killed nearby by the Oregon State Police.

Astarita answered when asked to specify his position.

"That's where I believed I was"

When the aerial video was presented later, Sussman again asked Astarita to pinpoint himself in it. He said:

"I believe that's my position, yes"

In the end, based on the screenshot image in the courtroom, Astarita placed himself just outside the cone of trajectory that was established as the one of the bullet that ended up hitting the roof of LaVoy Finicum's truck.

In the cross-examination, the prosecution has Astarita come down off the stand and demonstrate the position he said he was in at the time the shooting was going using his own Colt AR-15 rifle.

Astarita tried to brush off notions that he was angry and or aggressive at the scene and afterwards claiming he did not knock the injured Ryan Bundy's cowboy hat off during his arrest, but that he tossed it after it fell off because it prevented him from handcuffing Bundy.

The FBI agent said he did recall some about Bundy (who was injured by a gunshot):

"I did hear out there that Mr. Bundy had a cut"

Astarita talked about a flippant remark that a supervisor recalled hearing shortly afterwards along the lines of perhaps:  "You don't have to ask me that bro?" or "I've got you covered".

Astarita answered his lawyers questions by saying he doesn't recall his exact words at that moment but it was something like:  "Don't ask me, I don't know" but he did recall telling supervisor Ian McConnell as some point in that exchange that he did not shoot.

Cross examination is set for later today (Wednesday August 8th).

Its been the contention of the defense even before the trial that Agent Astarita did not fire the two unaccounted for shots.   They said someone else did with the strongest possibility being "Trooper 1-Officer 1", the Oregon State Police Captain who fired fatal shots into LaVoy Finicum's back.

Meanwhile, in Tuesday's testimony a defense expert witness text to one of the FBI agent's lawyers was brought up.

Eugene Liscio said that the accused Agent Astarita:

"seems like an 'honest bloke'"

"in any case, seems like such a waster of resources for shots that didn't impact anyone"

When federal prosecutor Paul Maloney noted that Ryan Bundy was injured by one of the shots US District Judge Robert E. Jones cut him off saying:

"That's enough of that"

Toby Terpstra, the man who created a 3D model of the scene incorporating a two second time frame and 73 images, was called back to the stand as a rebuttal witness by the prosection.   The defense has worked hard to create doubt and questions about his work.

The trial will now move onto closing arguments Thursday (August 9th) with the jury getting the case perhaps before the end of the day.

Links below:


Jeanette Finicum Video Report 8/8/2018


Oregon Live-Maxine Bernstein Second Report 8/8/2018

(UPDATED EARLY THURSDAY AM)