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Judge Rules No Selfies of Porch Shooting Victim at Trial

Jurors in the upcoming trial of a man who shot a young, drunken woman on his porch won't see selfies of the victim with a gun, marijuana and cash.
Image: In a case involving a shooting on the porch of his Dearborn Heights home, Theodore Wafer sits through the continuation of motion hearing in the court of Judge Dana Hathaway at the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice in Detroit, Mich., on June 30.
In a case involving a shooting on the porch of his Dearborn Heights home, Theodore Wafer sits through the continuation of motion hearing in the court of Judge Dana Hathaway at the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice in Detroit, Mich., on June 30.Daniel Mears / AP

Jurors in the upcoming trial of a Detroit-area man who shot a young, drunken woman on his porch won't see selfies of the victim with a gun, marijuana and cash, a judge said Monday in another defeat for the defense. Theodore Wafer's attorneys want to show the photos from Renisha McBride's cellphone to demonstrate that she had an aggressive side. But Wayne County Judge Dana Hathaway said there could be a "million reasons" why the 19-year-old posed that way.

Wafer, 55, of Dearborn Heights is charged with second-degree murder. He says he shot her in self-defense in response to pounding at his door last November.

In court filings and arguments, Wafer's attorneys have clearly signaled their strategy: He lives alone in a neighborhood on the edge of Detroit and was afraid of what he was hearing about 4:30 a.m. McBride was shot in the face. More than three hours earlier, she crashed her car about a half-mile away in Detroit but walked away before an ambulance arrived. It's not known what she did between the crash and the shooting. She wasn't armed.

Image: In a case involving a shooting on the porch of his Dearborn Heights home, Theodore Wafer sits through the continuation of motion hearing in the court of Judge Dana Hathaway at the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice in Detroit, Mich., on June 30.
In a case involving a shooting on the porch of his Dearborn Heights home, Theodore Wafer sits through the continuation of motion hearing in the court of Judge Dana Hathaway at the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice in Detroit, Mich., on June 30.Daniel Mears / AP

IN DEPTH

- The Associated Press