The second day of the prosecution’s testimony in The People of the State of New York v. Brian T. Shaw slowed to a crawl Wednesday when only four witnesses took the stand.

Shaw, a former Syracuse University student, has been charged with the second-degree murder of Chiarra Seals, the mother of his daughter, and child endangerment. Judge Joseph E. Fahey is presiding over the trial.

Throughout the day, Assistant District Attorney Michael Spano introduced several exhibits that surprised Defense Attorney Thomas Ryan, such as documented text messages from Shaw’s cellular phone and a videotape chronicling the three crime scenes.

As the first witness of the day, Donna Williams, who lived in another apartment in Seals’ building at 160 Jasper St., testified to what she saw on March 23, 2005.

Williams said she didn’t know Seals personally, but had met her and testified that she was aware Seals had two children – Essence, 4, and Omari, 18 months, at the time of Seals’ death.

Williams said she came home from work between 4:30 and 5 p.m. and noticed several strange things around her residence – a white car parked close to the house, a screen from a back window placed on the ground next to the window and the back door left open.

The open back door to the house was visibly mangled, Williams said. She noted the door’s window was partially open, but the door was still locked. Seals’ apartment door was closed when Williams entered the building.

At that point, Williams said she went upstairs to her apartment and called her landlord to fix the back door. She stayed in her apartment until one of the two landlords came to the residence and found Seals’ children alone in her apartment. It was when Williams was walking down the stairs to Seals’ apartment that she called police, she said.

The second witness called to the stand was Stanley Weidman, an investigator with the District Attorney’s Office, who was assigned to Seals’ homicide case within the past month.

Spano presented Weidman with Exhibit 22, a cellular phone, which Weidman confirmed belonged to Shaw.

About a week ago, Weidman said he reviewed Shaw’s text messages from March 23 and 24, and had his secretary transcribe them. Weidman presented Exhibit 23, a three-page typed document of Shaw’s conversations from those two days, the latter of which he was in police custody.

‘I don’t know why I was never provided this information,’ Ryan said. ‘This is the first I’ve ever seen of it.’

Ryan objected to Exhibit 23 based on improper foundation, and because the March 24 messages were sent while Shaw was already in police custody.

‘He’s never asked to look at any of the exhibits,’ Spano replied, gesturing toward the evidence cart.

Ryan said he felt some of the text messages could be considered ‘some form of an admission (of guilt),’ including ones from March 24, which Spano described as ‘apologies.’

Fahey called a five-minute morning recess to discuss Exhibit 23 with the prosecution and defense, which lasted nearly an hour.

When court resumed, Fahey ruled to keep the exhibit, but only the messages from March 23.

Spano asked Weidman to read the text messages aloud from the inbox and outbox of Shaw’s phone, including the following exchange, which occurred during Shaw’s 6 p.m. class:

7 p.m. – Rachel Q. to Shaw: You should come by after class, you know you want to

7:01 p.m. – Shaw to Rachel Q.: LOL, oh do I?

7:02 p.m. – Rachel Q. to Shaw: I guess I’ll have to wait and see…

7:03 p.m. – Shaw to Rachel Q.: Y should I?

7:03 p.m. – Rachel Q. to Shaw: Wow, how many questions just to hang out

Rachel Q. sent a text message, again asking Shaw to stop by after class.

7:19 p.m. – Shaw to Rachel Q.: LOL, I would but I have to go home I have a test for calc so I have to study, but I send hugs in my place.

Several text messages between Shaw and someone known as ‘Big Ronnie’ asked what each was doing that night. The final text message Shaw sent Big Ronnie at 10:10 p.m. stated: ‘Do you know what’s going on?’

When asked, Weidman said the department did not follow up on the text messages as to their origins or the contact those people may have had with Shaw.

Spano next called Eric Carr, a criminal investigation detective with the Syracuse Police Department. Carr works the 4 p.m. to midnight shift and said he became involved with the case at around 8 p.m. on March 23.

Carr was initially looking for Blair Seals, a relative of Chiarra, because he assumed Blair could help identify the ‘Brian’ police were looking for. When Blair could not be located, Carr responded to 545 Columbus Ave. to meet with Shaw, who had called in to the station.

After speaking with officers at his home, Shaw was taken to the investigation division of the police department in an unmarked car. Shaw was not handcuffed, Carr said, because at this point he had not been arrested.

Between 10:15 and 10:20 p.m., Carr and his partner took Shaw upstairs to the ‘blue room,’ which contained a large desk, chairs and a two-way mirror.

Carr testified Shaw began detailing his relationship with Seals, whom he said he met in high school and then again in his freshman year of college. The two had a one-night stand and some time later, Shaw heard that Seals had given birth. Shaw was required to pay 60 percent of his wages in child support to Seals.

At this point, Carr said he and his partner left the room to advise their superiors that Shaw was in fact the ‘Brian’ they were looking for. When they returned at 11:20 p.m., they advised Shaw he was no longer free to leave, and read him his Miranda rights.

‘There’s some things I want you to be aware of,’ Carr said he told Shaw. ‘I want you to know what your rights are.’

Carr testified Shaw then recounted another version of the story, and 45 minutes later, detectives took another break. While outside the room, they found Shaw had in fact borrowed a car from a friend and had not taken the bus as he originally claimed.

Upon confronting Shaw about this detail, Carr said he admitted that it was true. He then changed several more pieces of information within the next hour. Carr and his partner were about to leave for another break when Shaw pulled Carr aside, saying, ‘I need to tell you something.’

Carr said Shaw then described an altercation between himself and Seals, ending when he left the car at Comstock Avenue and went to class. Seals was unresponsive in the backseat of the car at that time, Carr said Shaw told him.

‘He didn’t see any movement when he looked at her in the rearview mirror,’ Carr said.

In Ryan’s cross-examination, he questioned the clarity of the reading of Shaw’s Miranda rights and whether Shaw would have been forthcoming with details if he had not been prompted by police.

Carr testified he was skeptical about the truth and statements Shaw made regarding the evening’s events.

‘I can’t say why people lie; they just do,’ Carr said. ‘Everyone has their own reasons for not telling the truth.’

Ryan also questioned Carr’s observations of Shaw’s behavior during the interview.

‘Bearing in mind I’m not a mental health expert in any way, he seemed fine,’ Carr said. ‘He wasn’t highly agitated, and didn’t seem out of sorts.’

The final witness of the day, Terrence McGinn, an evidence technician with the Syracuse Police Department’s Major Incident Crime Scene Unit, discussed the systematic approach to processing a crime scene.

He then narrated the most emotionally charged evidence of the day: a videotape examining the three crime scenes, including Seals’ body as found in a suitcase at Avondale Place.

The video prompted an emotional outburst throughout the courtroom, and Judge Fahey called a short recess while the gallery composed itself. McGinn talked the jury through the final shot of video: Shaw’s Sigma Phi Epsilon sweatshirt and a gold chain necklace.

The trial will reconvene today at 9 a.m. with more witnesses for the prosecution.

Staff writer Julianne Pepitone and design editor Tim Gorman contributed to this report.

Published on February 1, 2006 at 12:00 pm