Murder trial begins after eight years for retired Florida police captain, 79, who killed an unarmed man following argument about texting in a movie theater

Curtis Reeves, 79, Reeves faces life in prison if convicted on charges of second-degree murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon

On Monday Reeves’ trial finally opened up after a series of delays over the years, much of which has been attributed to pre-trial hearings and COVID-19

Case has been delayed for years as Reeves sought protection under Florida’s ‘stand your ground’ law, but a judge ruled against him 

In 2014, Curtis Reeves shot Chad Oulson during a screening of Lone Survivor in a Wesley Chapel movie theater outside Tampa

‘I see his eyes were just glazed over and I knew at that moment,’ Nicole Oulson, the victim’s widow, testified Monday

The bullet that killed Chad passed through Nicole’s hand, she described what it was like to watch her husband die  

Prosecutors say the triggering event was Oulson’s tossing of a bag of popcorn at Reeves – as they argued over texting in theater, and that’s not enough to claim self-defense 

The defense, however, contends that Reeves, then 71, was in declining health and feared the 43-year-old, larger Oulson would punch or otherwise assault him

An off-duty officer attending a movie at the same Florida theater where a retired cop killed a man in front of his wife while texting testified about the confrontation that led to the shooting Tuesday.
Sumter County Deputy Alan Hamilton said 79-year-old Curtis Reeves barked at Chad Oulson to put away the phone before the dad of a young girl replied: ‘I was just texting my f**cking daughter.’
Oulson was with his wife and checking in with a baby-sitter when Reeves shot him dead during a matinee screening of Lone Survivor at a Tampa-area theater in 2014.
Hamilton, who was off duty at the time, was in the theater at the time with his wife, who told him ‘you probably need to pay attention to this’ when Oulson and Reeves were arguing, he testified. 
He said he witnessed Oulsen propped up against his seat and tell Reeves ‘I was just texting my f**cking daughter’ before he flicked popcorn at Reeves and then saw a muzzle blast and a sound of a firearm.   During a Monday matinee showing of the Mark Wahlberg film Lone Survivor at Wesley Chapel’s Cobb Grove 16 Theater in Tampa, Florida on Jan. 13, 2014.
Both men were with their wives, the Oulsons seated one row ahead, when Reeves noticed the man in front of him was texting during the film’s previews. He told Oulson to stop and the two argued, prompting Reeves to leave the theater to complain to the management, grunting and kicking the backs of seats as he left

On Monday, Reeves’ trial finally opened up after a series of delays over the years, much of which has been attributed to pre-trial hearings, various motions, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the court system. 
Chad Oulson was a father-of-one. One poignant moment at Monday’s trial was when the his wife, Nicole Oulson, testified about what it was like to watch her husband die. ‘I see his eyes were just glazed over and I knew at that moment,’ she said
‘I felt like my hand was blown off,’ Nicole Oulson said, regarding the bullet that struck her and her husband.
‘He took a couple of steps and then collapsed. I knew he was way worse than me.’

On Monday, Reeves’ trial finally opened up after a series of delays over the years, much of which has been attributed to pre-trial hearings, various motions, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the court system. 
Reeves is a U.S. Navy veteran and former Tampa police captain and former lead of the department’s s first SWAT team before retiring in 1993, the Tampa Bay Times reported.  He went on to worked as director of security for the Tampa Busch Gardens amusement park and was an active member of his neighborhood’s Crime Stoppers organization. 
Reeves faces life in prison if convicted on charges of second-degree murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

In his defense the accused killer, a former police captain claims he shot the unarmed Oulson with a .380-caliber handgun in self-defense because he feared for his life after the two argued over Oulson’s
Nicole Oulson, was struck in the hand by the same bullet that killed her husband.  
She testified on Monday about what it was like to watch her husband die.
‘I see his eyes were just glazed over and I knew at that moment,’ she said. ‘I told him, ‘Chad, we need you, please hang in there, we need you.’
According to Oulson, the two men bickered over the cellphone dispute and at one point Chad Oulson stood up, causing her to put her left hand near his chest to guide him back to his seat.
That’s when the shot was fired, she testified, nearly severing a finger.
‘I felt like my hand was blown off,’ Nicole Oulson said. ‘He took a couple of steps and then collapsed. I knew he was way worse than me.’

Oulson was using his cellphone during previews before the movie began, prosecutors say, in part to check on his young daughter at a local daycare. Reeves demanded that Oulson stop using the phone and was met with a curse-filled response, Michaels told the jury.
‘Chad Oulson was annoyed when Curtis Reeves tells him to put his phone away. He stays annoyed,’ Michaels said.
Nicole Oulson testified she did not hear any profanity from her husband in the exchange.
‘He said, ‘What’s your problem? The movie hasn’t even started yet,” she said, quoting her husband. Reeves went to theater management about Oulson’s phone use, returned to his seat and that’s when the arguing escalated.
Oulson stood up to face the man behind him, threw a bag of popcorn in his face.
Reeves reached into his pocket, pulled out a .380-caliber handgun and shot Oulson in the chest. On its way, the bullet hit Nicole Oulson’s hand as she attempted to stop her husband from standing up

To prosecutors, the triggering event in the argument was Oulson’s tossing of a bag of popcorn at Reeves – and that’s not enough to claim self-defense.
‘What the evidence will show you is that Chad Oulson was shot and killed over tossing popcorn,’ Assistant State Attorney Scott Rosenwasser told jurors in an opening statement. ‘That’s no reason to kill another person.’
The defense, however, contends that Reeves, then 71, was in declining health and feared the 43-year-old, larger Oulson would punch or otherwise assault him – and may have thrown his cellphone at the older man. 
Defense attorney Richard Escobar told the Tampa Bay Times he’s confident a jury will acquit Reeves on all charges because the 79-year-old ‘truly believed’ he was in danger when he shot Oulson.
‘It may not be what I would have done or what you would have done, but you have to realize how Mr. Reeves was at that time,’ Escobar said.
‘He was 71, in declining health and a decorated officer. He had all that body of knowledge to determine whether he was in a predicament that could have led to him being harmed. At that moment, his perception was that he was in serious danger.’

Defense attorney Dino Michaels said Reeves also understood risk and sensed danger from his 27 years with the Tampa Police Department.
‘This isn’t about popcorn,’ Michaels told the jury. ‘You’re going to see there was an attack before the popcorn was thrown.’ 
*But attorney T.J. Grimaldi, who represented Oulson’s widow in a lawsuit against the cinema, said Reeves’ history as an officer, which included SWAT training make his actions inexcusable. 
‘This man used to train SWAT teams, so he knows how to de-escalate a situation and he should have then,’ Grimaldi told the Times.
‘The claim that he was standing his ground is asinine, to say the least,’ he said. ‘Is there ever a good reason to shoot someone for popcorn being thrown in their face?’
The trial, expected to last about three weeks, is being heard by a jury of four men and two women with four alternates.
The case has been delayed for eight years as Reeves sought protection under Florida’s ‘stand your ground’ law that allows use of deadly force in the face of mortal danger or fear of serious injury.
While frantic moviegoers performed CPR and called 911, Reeves sat back down in his seat with his gun in his lap, court records said. Oulson was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead later that day.
Reeves says he acted out of fear for his life, an argument that bolstered his request for immunity under Florida’s controversial stand your ground law. When a circuit judge ruled against him, Reeves appealed.
Florida Lawmakers meanwhile changed the law to shift the burden of proof to prosecutors, but the Florida Supreme Court ruled that the changes didn´t affect cases such as Reeves’ retroactively.
Reeves however, has been on house arrest during most of that time, tethered to a GPS-tracking ankle monitor.

The shooting happened after Reeves and Oulson, and their wives, went to a matinee showing of the Mark Wahlberg film ‘Lone Survivor’ at a theater complex in Wesley Chapel, a suburb of Tampa.
Much of the confrontation was captured on grainy theater camera video, but it has no sound. Dozens of witnesses have been listed for trial but it’s not clear how many will actually testify.
Rosenwasser, the prosecutor, said the evidence will prove that Reeves was incensed by Oulson’s cellphone use and couldn’t let it go.
‘He appeared to be agitated and angry,’ Rosenwasser said. ‘This was an intentional and purposeful shooting.’

Transcripts of jailhouse phone calls between Reeves and his family released in 2014 revealed the retired Florida police captain was confident of his acquittal.
Other evidence that was made public by the Pinellas-Pasco attorneys office, including photographs taken from inside the Wesley Chapel movie theater where Reeves shot dead Oulson and injured his wife over a text messaging dispute shed light on the case.
‘When all the facts come out, we all should be in good shape,’ Reeves told his family on January 16 – three days after the shooting, reports the Tampa Bay Times.
In the recordings released by the Pasco-Pinellas State Attorney’s Office, Reeves is heard telling his wife Vivian his son and daughter to sell his motorbike or kayak if they are in need of money.
‘You all need to know that you’re all the love of my life. And if it need be, y’all plan on me not being there so you plan whatever you have to do to make your life easy, okay,’ he said.
‘My life will be easy if your all’s is. Plan the future and don’t spend all the money on me.’