POUGHKEEPSIE – The jury in the case of the man accused of trying to kill a City of Poughkeepsie police officer in November 2020 heard summations from both sides Wednesday morning and was expected to begin deliberations before noon. Thirty-five-year-old Jalil Smith is on trial for several felonies, including the top charge of attempted murder of a police officer.
Smith testified in his own defense on Tuesday. A recap of the trial and the circumstances in which he stabbed Sergeant Edwin Acken in the neck with a screwdriver, missing his carotid artery and jugular vein by one-half inch, can be found here.
Under state law, Smith’s attorney, Alex Rosen of the Dutchess County Public Defender’s Office addressed the jury first in County Court Judge Edward McLoughlin’s courtroom Wednesday morning. Asking the jury if they thought Smith was defending his home when he stabbed Acken in the neck, he said “Was my client, Jalil Smith, justified in his actions?” The defense has never denied the actual stabbing but has argued that Smith believed the two uniformed officers were home invaders. “It’s easy to see that Jalil was wrong,” Rosen pleaded, saying that his client demonstrated a “reasonable response to a perceived threat.”
Dutchess County District Attorney Bureau Chief Frank Petramale followed Rosen and replayed portions of the bodyworn camera footage from both Acken and Officer Devon Zanin, who was also injured in the violent struggle in Smith’s apartment. “Fortunately for us, they were wearing body cameras,” he said, speaking of Acken and Zanin, following with “Fortunately for them, they were wearing radios to call for help,” he told the jury.
Arguing that Smith’s attack was intentional after his mother brought the officers into the apartment and announced their presence to Smith. “There’s no way, based on the evidence, that the defendant could think that these officers were intruders.” Refuting the defense that…
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