By Tamara Lush
A Florida judge has denied bail
for a former Tampa Police officer charged in the fatal shooting of a man inside
a movie theater.
Judge Pat Siracusa watched a
grainy video of the shooting and heard police interviews of witnesses before
making his decision Friday.
Earlier the bail hearing for
Curtis Reeves, who fatally shot a man inside a movie theater during an argument
over texting, took a dramatic turn. Prosecutors played video of the shooting
and a recording of the defendant's police interview.
"If I had it to do over
again, it would have never happened," Reeves told detectives. "But
you don't get do-overs."
Reeves, 71, is charged with
second-degree murder in the Jan. 13 killing of Chad Oulson, 43.
The bail hearing began
Wednesday. Attorneys for Reeves urged the judge to release him before the
trial. Siracusa heard from Reeves' family, friends and former colleagues who
testified he didn't have any anger problems and wasn't a flight risk.
But prosecutors sought to have
Reeves jailed until his trial, and the judge agreed.
The bail hearing provided
glimpses of the strengths and weaknesses of the prosecution's case.
According to the police
interview, Reeves said Oulson hit him in the face, possibly with a cell phone,
and he shot in self-defense. Yet other witnesses, including Reeves' wife, told
authorities they never saw Oulson strike Reeves.
Vivian Reeves did tell police
that Oulson stood up and leaned over toward her husband just before the
shooting, and the video appears to show some contact between the two men.
Reeves pleaded not guilty
Wednesday. If convicted, he could face a mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years
in prison.
Prosecutors also played a
recording of a police interview with Oulson's widow, Nicole, who authorities
said was shot in the hand by the same bullet that killed her husband.
"He kept saying stuff to
my husband," Nicole Oulson said of Reeves. "Immediately it didn't
even register with me, I just saw a spark and saw him go down."
She said after the shooting
Reeves "just sat in his chair, he just kind of leaned back and just sat
there, didn't try to help."
"As all the chaos was
going on, he was just sitting there," she said.
Authorities said Reeves became
upset when Oulson was texting during the previews before the matinee. The Oulsons
were sitting in front of Reeves and his wife.
Witnesses said they didn't see
Oulson hit Reeves, but some saw popcorn flying toward him.
"This happened so damn
fast," Reeves told Det. Allen Proctor in the recording. Reeves also said a
woman with Oulson, later identified as Nicole Oulson, was "holding"
her husband back. Reeves faces an aggravated battery charge in that injury.
Reeves told the detective that
Oulson hit him in the face and that his glasses became crooked.
"It scared the hell out of
me," said Reeves, adding that had he been younger, he would have
"wrassled" Oulson to the ground. "The guy was very
aggressive."
Reeves' wife told a detective
she didn't see Oulson strike her husband, but he told her he had been hit in
the moments after the shooting.
Vivian Reeves also told
detectives that Oulson used expletives, but didn't make any threats. She cried
during the interview with detectives and said she didn't know why her husband
fired the single shot.
"He was in law enforcement
20 years, and he never shot anybody," she said. "He's never
threatened anybody with a gun."
In an interview this week on
ABC's "The View," Nicole Oulson said her husband was texting with
their daughter's babysitter.
Reeves "had confronted my
husband several times, which my husband ignored and ignored and ignored. And it
just got to a point where my husband spoke up," she said.
