Retrial for man who allegedly shot at Uniontown police during a chase goes into second day
Day two in the retrial of a Fijian man who allegedly fired a gun at police during a 2014 car chase continued with a focus on gunshot residue and the man’s statements.
Tuesday’s proceedings continued with the defense for Sevanaia Bainimarama, 41, cross examining state police Trooper Timothy Kirsch, the arresting officer in the case.
Kirsch and others in law enforcement testified on Monday about the incident in the early-morning hours of April 20, 2014, where two Uniontown City Police officers observed Bainimarama’s white Nissan Pathfinder drive through a stop sign.
When the police activated their lights, the Pathfinder didn’t stop and continued to lead them on an 18-minute, high-speed pursuit through Uniontown and into Smithfield at a local fire-department parking lot, police said.
There, the Pathfinder backed into a parking spot, then accelerated toward the police officers, who both shot at the Pathfinder, wounding Bainimarama’s hands with three bullets.
Prosecutors alleged that during the chase, Bainimarama fired shots from inside the vehicle, causing glass from a passenger-side window to be blown out.
“There’s no doubt in my mind it was a muzzle flash,” said Uniontown police Patrolmen Kurtis Defoor, who testified he saw two muzzle flashes from inside the Pathfinder during the chase as he was familiar with similar muzzle flashes in firefights in his tours of duty with the military.
While glass from the Pathfinder’s window was found by police, Bainimarama’s attorney, Stanton D. Levenson, asked about the search for the gun and any shell casings.
Kirsch testified neither a gun nor shell casings were found.
Assistant District Attorney Brent Peck asked if any shell casings could be found in a vehicle if the shots came from a revolver, which Kirsch said it didn’t.
The evidence the prosecution presented was gunshot residue that was tested on Bainimarama’s fingers as well as the interior of the Pathfinder, and the commonwealth placed three witnesses on the stand to testify to it.
James Pierce, a retired trooper with the Pennsylvania State Police, testified that he went to Ruby Memorial Hospital to perform a gunshot residue kit on Bainimarama, finding that he could only test the man’s fingers because he was bandaged from his forearms to his knuckles after surgery.
“He asked me why I was getting gunshot residue from his hands because he didn’t fire a weapon,” Pierce said. “He said he was speeding, and the cops chased him and shot him.”
Susan Atwood, the trace evidence supervisor with the state police, testified that her inspection concluded that Bainimarama may have recently handled or shot a firearm or a firearm was shot around him as various degrees of gunshot-residue particles were found on his left hand and in the vehicle.
When asked by Levenson if he went to the hospital expected to get evidence of gunshot residue from Bainimarama, Pierce testified he didn’t expect to find any because of his hands being bandaged.
Trooper Charles Morrison, a forensic service technician, testified that there are no exact distances of an area where gunshot residue is spread after someone fires a gun, but said an average distance is three to five feet.
Morrison said beyond that, the amount of residue becomes less and less. When Peck asked if it could go across an area the size of the courtroom, Morrison said more than likely, it would not.
Peck also asked if gunshot residue would travel on a fired bullet. Morrison testified it does, but a bullet travelling 3,000 feet per second would cause much of the residue to come off and even more so when the bullet strikes something like the windshield of a vehicle.
Morrison, who was involved in the search for the alleged gun, said he wasn’t surprised that a gun wasn’t found as there were wooded areas and patches that were too difficult to reach.
The prosecution rested after testimony from other police officers who interacted with Bainimarama following the incident where Bainimarama reportedly made statements including asking officers if he went on a high-speed chase, if he could have a drink, how much time was he looking at, stating that he “really screwed the pooch on this one” and commenting that he wasn’t going to stop his vehicle for anyone.
Bainimarama previously stood trial in January 2015 when a jury found him not guilty of attempted homicide, in this case, and convicted him of fleeing and eluding police, reckless endangerment and driving under the influence. That jury deadlocked on the counts of aggravated and simple assault, which are the charges for which he is on trial.
He has been living in the United States since 1999 on a work visa and is employed as a truck driver.
He is free on bail.
The retrial will continue on Wednesday with the defense presenting its witnesses to testify.