photo by: Mackenzie Clark

Tommy May sits at the witness stand during his own trial Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2019 in Douglas County District Court.

Evidence wrapped up Wednesday in a Lawrence shooting trial that has been, at times, a bit heated since it began Dec. 9.

Judge James McCabria had readied a video conference in another courtroom if the defendant, Tommy May, was unable to heed the court’s orders not to talk about certain subjects, including his military service and diagnoses of post-traumatic stress disorder and cancer. May had violated such orders while he was on the stand Tuesday, and if he did so again, he would have to testify from the next room, where the judge could blank the screen.

May, 60, is charged with 10 felonies in connection with a series of events prosecutors allege occurred July 2, 2018. Chiefly, he is accused of shooting a woman in the face and injuring her, shooting a man and paralyzing him, then fleeing the scene and attempting to run over an officer with his vehicle.

May did follow the judge’s order for the remainder of the day, but Deputy District Attorney David Melton called him out during his second cross-examination. Melton asked May whether he was wearing any medical equipment when he was arrested — specifically a back brace, which he’s worn throughout his trial, or an arm brace, which he wore for part of last week.

“I just had a heart attack,” May said from the witness stand. He explained he’d had a pacemaker put in his chest, and the arm brace was to keep him from pulling the wires out of his heart.

Melton said that wasn’t his question, and he asked May, “You had to slip that in about a heart attack, because you want to appeal to the sympathies of the jury, don’t you?”

May responded that no, he wasn’t looking for sympathy.

“You’ve certainly talked about your problems a lot,” Melton said.

“I have them,” May replied.

photo by: Mackenzie Clark

Defense attorney Gary Conwell, standing, addresses the judge during trial for his client, Tommy May, seated in the background, on Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2019.

During his testimony Tuesday, May had given his version of the events in the shootings, stating that the woman, Marzetta Yarbrough, had tried to rob him at gunpoint and the gun had gone off on accident; then he said he shot the man, Jeremy Jones, in self-defense. He said he’d had “tunnel vision” from that point on.

As he continued testifying Wednesday, May said he was trying to drive himself to the hospital because the woman had shot him in the arm. When he turned to go northbound on Louisiana Street — which jurors had seen on dashcam video from Lawrence Police Sgt. Robert Neff’s patrol vehicle — he sped up to get there. May said he didn’t see any lights or hear sirens behind him.

May hit a fire hydrant at 21st Street, and his GMC Jimmy ended up high-centered on top. May said he couldn’t see what was behind him, which was Neff’s vehicle. He said he’d been thrown onto the floor of the passenger’s side, and he was using one hand to operate the accelerator and switch gears back and forth from drive to reverse to try to get the vehicle unstuck.

The Jimmy did eventually accelerate backward, hitting Neff’s patrol vehicle. May said the steering column was stuck going toward the left, broken by the collision. He said he put the vehicle back in drive and when he heard gunshots — which Neff testified that he’d fired at May because he feared for his life — he got below the plane of the dashboard and accelerated again to get away from the situation. He couldn’t see what was in front of him because “everything was vague at that point,” but he said that Neff never was, and that he didn’t hit him.

Steering the vehicle became difficult, though, May said, and “it drove itself into the garage” of a home at 22nd and Louisiana streets. That resulted in one of three charges of criminal damage to property that May faces.

During Neff’s testimony, jurors saw photos of road rash he said he received as a result of slamming onto the Jimmy’s hood and rolling off to the side instead of winding up under it. He was not seriously injured.

Melton also asked May about having nearly a year and a half to look over all of the witness interviews and police reports from the case.

Prosecutors called one rebuttal witness, Sgt. Alex Kliem of the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, who provided security at the hospital when May was brought in after his arrest. Kliem said May had told medical personnel that he did not know how he got the injury to his arm.

Officers took May to the hospital because he was having trouble breathing and he’d just recovered from pneumonia, May said Wednesday. The injury was closed with sutures.

Each side is expected to have an hour Thursday for closing arguments, and then the case will go to the jury for deliberations.