LOUISIVLLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The defense rested their case in the Brett Hankison trial Tuesday, wrapping up with Hankison defending his reasoning for shooting 10 times into Breonna Taylor's apartment without being able to see a target during the March 2020 raid.

Closing arguments in the civil rights violation trial are set for Wednesday before the jury gets the case to deliberate.

The only other testimony Tuesday came from Detective Mike Nobles, who testified that he heard a "blood-curdling" scream from what he believed was a woman inside Breonna Taylor's apartment after all of the shooting had stopped. 

This is important because the defense has argued that there is no evidence Taylor was alive at the time Hankison was shooting, meaning her civil rights could not have been violated, which is one of the charges in the case. 

However, both sides stipulated to jurors that none of the other officers heard a woman scream. And Nobles acknowledged it could have been a man he heard.

Kenneth Walker, Taylor boyfriend, told investigators Taylor was alive for minutes after the shooting. 

The Jefferson County coroner told The Courier-Journal in 2020 that Taylor likely died within a minute of being shot.

Hankison started testifying Monday and finished Tuesday with prosecutors grilling him on his claims that he was sure someone in Taylor's apartment had an assault rifle and was executing his fellow officers.

Prosecutor Mike Songer pointed out that much of what Hankison believed was happening that night turned out to be wrong, as Taylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, fired one shot from a handgun and did not advance on officers.  

"I do know that now," Hankison testified. "I made that conclusion based on" a "reasonable assumption" given his perception of the situation at the time.

Hankison had told jurors Tuesday he had no doubt officers were in danger as he had already seen former Sgt. John Mattingly shot when police burst through Taylor's door to serve a warrant and he saw a "large muzzle flash" he believed was coming from an assault rifle.

"When I saw the shooter with a rifle, that's what I believed to be true," Hankison said.

"It turned out to be wrong, you agree with that?" Songer asked.

"Thank God it did," Hankison responded. "I had a split-second decision to do something or let people die."

But Songer told him while that might have been his perception, "you were wrong and you came within inches of killing" both a neighbor and a police officer. And Songer questioned Hankison's testimony from Monday that there was "zero" risk of him shooting a fellow officer.

"If (former Detective Myles Cosgrove) had taken another step" further into the home, "he would have been hit by one of your shots," Songer said.

Hankison disputed how close the bullet came to hitting Cosgrove and testified police training is to retreat from gun fire and "there's no reason why a police officer ... is taking automatic gunfire and running into it."

Songer countered that Cosgrove was still in the hallway of the home because he was shielding Mattingly.

"I know that now," Hankison said, still maintaining that the risk was very low. "I didn't know that then."

The former detective fired five shots into Taylor's living room from outside through blinded sliding glass door during the March 13, 2020, raid. He fired five more shots through a bedroom window that was covered by curtains. Three of the bullets flew into an adjacent apartment where Cody Etherton, Chelsey Napper and her then-5-year-old child lived.

Prosecutors have hammered away that Hankison could not see anything he was shooting at, and other officers have criticized Hankison for putting their lives and those of citizens at risk.

But Hankison has testified he saw lights and believed he knew where the shooter was by the sound of the shots and where he was when police first entered the apartment. 

When police burst into Taylor's home, Hankison said it was "pure darkness" before there was a muzzle flash and he saw the silhouette of a large man holding a weapon in a shooting stance at the end of a hallway. 

After Mattingly was shot, Hankison retreated and heard what sounded like a "gun battle." The bullet missed Hankison by only 12 to 18 inches, he said. 

He believed the shots were getting closer to police and the gunman was walking down the hallway toward the officers, who he believed were outgunned. He said he heard Mattingly say, "I'm down." 

"I fired five rounds" through the sliding glass doors where he believed the shooter was, Hankison said.

But the shooting continued so Hankison fired five more rounds through Taylor's bedroom window. The shooting stopped, Hankison said.

"Those five rounds appeared to be effective," he said.

In actuality, Walker had fired one shot from a handgun. Walker has said he believed the couple were being robbed. 

The charges stem from the botched raid of Taylor's home in the middle of the night in which police officers busted down her door to serve a search warrant related to a drug dealer who lived 10 miles away.

When police burst in, Walker fired a shot that hit Mattingly in the leg. Multiple LMPD officers returned fire, shooting 32 times, killing Taylor, 26. No drugs were found in her home.

The jury is currently made up of eight men and seven women. There is one Black juror. Three alternates will be removed at random before the jury begins deliberations. 

In 2020, police sought out a search warrant for Taylor's home as part of a broader investigation that focused on drug suspect Jamarcus Glover. Police believed Glover may have been using Taylor's apartment to receive drugs and store money.

This is Hankison's third trial related to his actions the night of the raid. A federal jury in November 2023 deadlocked on two counts of civil rights violations and using excessive force.

A state Jefferson Circuit Court jury in March 2022 found Hankison not guilty on three counts of wanton endangerment.

Walker fired one shot with a handgun. There was no rifle found in the home.

Hankison was indicted in August 2022 on two charges of deprivation of rights for firing into a bedroom window in Taylor's apartment that was covered with blinds and a blackout curtain after "there was no longer a lawful objective justifying the use of deadly force," according to the indictment.

If convicted, Hankison faces a possible maximum sentence of life in prison.

This story may be updated.

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