The intersection of 5th and Cumberland streets, near where Ndeko Mutijima was killed in May 2012, for which Daysean Brock is charged. Credit: Google Maps
A judge is currently weighing whether to throw out a statement to police that Daysean Brock, 28, charged with a May 2012 murder, claims he only signed because he was high — off drugs cops allegedly gave him.
Brock testified today at a pretrial hearing that a homicide detective brought him to a bathroom at the 8th and Race street headquarters, then gave him a joint.
“He said, ‘What’s this gonna do for you?'” Brock said of the detective.
Brock said he smoked the joint — and then the detective grabbed his face and shoved a yellow pill into his mouth, holding his jaw shut until it dissolved.
“He said ‘Just calm down, it’s to make you feel better,” Brock said.
Brock’s attorney Thomas Malone is moving to block from trial the statement that Brock claims he did not make and only signed under the influence of drugs.
“What really happened is nowhere near what’s in that statement,” Malone said.
In addition to the drugs, Brock testified that detectives shoved him, punched him and kicked him while he sat in an interrogation room, asking for a lawyer, he claims.
After Brock was drugged, he claims, detectives presented him with a statement which he initialed and signed without reading it, he testified.
“I didn’t pay attention to what was written on it. I just signed,” Brock said.
A prison drug test of Brock taken days after the interrogation and introduced into evidence today was positive for THC.
Photographs taken at the prison purportedly showing injuries to Brock on his arm, knee and lips were expected to be produced as evidence when the hearing continues tomorrow.
The murder charges stem from the death of Ndeko Mutijima, 33, of Allentown, who was shot to death near Reese and Cumberland streets on May 19, 2012.
Brock, who was arrested in July for other matters, was questioned by homicide detectives in August 2012, then charged with the murder.
Brock admits frequenting the area where the slaying took place, but denies pulling the trigger.
