WARNING: The following story contains graphic content

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) — The first indication there was a problem at the attempted murder trial of Brandon K. Williams was when the viewing of body camera footage from a responding officer was halted.

Then, just before the second responding officer was brought in to testify, defense attorney Marcia Linsky asked Allen Superior Court Judge Fran Gull for a mistrial.

Gull had dismissed the jury for the day in order to work out the problems the trial was facing. She ordered both sides to reconvene at 9 a.m. and is taking the request for a mistrial under advisement.

Linsky’s request was based on how she received discovery. Discovery is evidence presented to the opposite side before a trial, although there’s leeway in what can be included in a criminal trial, according to Law 101 published by Sphinx Publishing.

Linsky said it was difficult to proceed with the trial not knowing what part of the lengthy body cam video of the two responding officers had been redacted for jury viewing.

Earlier, Linsky had tried to pinpoint when exactly Williams was read his Miranda rights as officers worked the fractious, bloody and dangerous scene.

Williams, 42, was charged almost immediately after the July 31, 2022 incident with attempted murder, aggravated battery, domestic battery with bodily injury to a pregnant woman, domestic battery by means of a deadly weapon, strangulation where the victim is pregnant and intimidation.

Attempted murder is a Level 1 felony and carries the same sentence as murder in the state of Indiana – 45 to 65 years. The other charges range from a Level 3 felony to Level 6 felony.

Responding officers Christopher McBride and Collin Bundy responded to the scene after the victim’s friend and a downstairs neighbor both called 911. The downstairs neighbor testified he heard hysterical sobbing, arguments and loud thuds, besides a woman screaming “help.”

When the officers arrived, McBride, the only officer to take the witness stand Tuesday, said he and Bundy ran up to the apartment and could hear for themselves a woman “screaming for help and gasping for air.”  After announcing they were Fort Wayne police, Bundy kicked in the door to a bloody scene and Williams “appearing to be coming off of on top of her.”

The officers told Williams to keep his hands up and drop to his knees while, at the same time, trying to render medical aid to the victim, identified in court as Rodrika. A bloody screwdriver was found next to her and she told the officers Williams had stabbed her more than 40 times in the head. She believed she would die and asked the officers this: “Tell my family I love them.”

Meanwhile, Williams removed a bloody white T-shirt he was wearing while he remained in the apartment and other officers started to arrive. Williams was also making comment like “she’s toxic as ****.”

McBride said Rodricka’s face was “unrecognizable” she’d been stabbed so many times and Williams “was trying to choke her to death when they (officers) arrived.” Worried that she would lose consciousness, they tried to keep the victim talking and awake. Bundy had run out to grab his medical bag and they had to cut away her shirt to make sure there were no stab wounds in her torso, specifically her heart. Blood was on the floor, the couch, a rug and spattered on the walls.

Linsky, on cross testimony, asked if the victim was possibly under the influence of anything to which McBride said he didn’t know. She also wanted to know when Williams’ rights were read to him. McBride said he was “Mirandized” after he started making his comments.

Linsky then said as the defense attorney, she shouldn’t have been put in the position she was in, asking for discovery as the trial was already started.  

Allen County deputy prosecutor Tasha Lee said they’d supplied Linsky the hourslong body camera footage of the officers and McBride’s in-car camera but had redacted the footage to shorten the trial.

“We didn’t take anything substantial out of it,” Lee said. Deputy prosecutor Shannon White presented the opening arguments for the state.