An eyewitness, Steven Woodard, testified that during the struggle, he went over and picked up the knife after it fell from Nelson’s vest.

Sarey reached for or grabbed for Nelson’s gun, Woodard said during a series of interviews after the shooting and testimony during the trial. He described a violent encounter that Sarey at one point seemed to be winning, then Nelson repeatedly punching Sarey in the face, pinning him up against an ice machine outside the store’s entrance, pulling his .45 caliber handgun and shooting Sarey the first time.

Woodard said Sarey fell to the ground and evidence showed that Nelson cycled his handgun to clear the malfunction. According to Woodard and enhanced surveillance video shown to jurors, Nelson looked around after the first shot, caught Woodard’s eye, then turned back to Sarey and fired a bullet into his head nearly four seconds after the first shot.

Nelson was released on $500,000 bond and has been subject to an ankle monitor since he was charged in 2020. He has been on paid administrative leave from the department since then, earning a $100,000-plus annual salary.

Jury selection began in mid-April and the trial began May 16 with the testimony of the county’s video expert, Grant Fredericks, and the introduction of the grainy surveillance video that has been shown to the jury dozens of times and is key to the prosecution’s case.

During five weeks of testimony, the jury was repeatedly asked to leave the courtroom while the lawyers scrapped over admissibility and evidentiary issues, testing the patience of King County Superior Court Judge Nicole Gaines Phelps, who at one point threatened financial sanctions if the interruptions didn’t stop.

While the trial was held in the largest courtroom at the Maleng Regional Justice Center, its benches remained mostly empty. Elaine Simons, Sarey’s foster mother, was there every day and has been joined by other activists from police accountability circles, including Olympia attorney Leslie Cushman, the author of I-940, and Sonia Joseph, whose son, Giovonn Joseph-McDade, was killed by Kent police in 2017.

Nelson’s courtroom gallery has included a number of recognizable Auburn police officers, including Chief Mark Caillier, who sat behind Nelson in full uniform during closing arguments, and Cmdr. Cristian Adams, who had been listed as a defense witness.

Prosecutors have complained to the judge that the Auburn Police Department has obstructed and hindered the prosecution, which had to subpoena Caillier for five minutes of testimony to verify Nelson’s training records after the department’s training and designated records officer, Douglas Koch, stubbornly sidestepped questions about the records’ authenticity.

Over the years of delays, which included the pandemic, the judge has focused the trial on the interactions between Sarey and Nelson, to the exclusion of evidence that shows Nelson has a long and questionable history of using force, including two prior fatal shootings.

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