CHESAPEAKE, Va. — Wednesday, attorneys with the Office of the Commonwealth's Attorney rested their case against Norfolk Police Officer Edmund Hoyt in the case involving the shooting death of Kelvin White.
On January 19, 2020, Hoyt received a call from his wife in distress informing him of a dispute between her and White in the South Norfolk neighborhood of Chesapeake. Hoyt rushed to the scene from his nearby home, before an ensuing physical altercation led to Hoyt shooting White several times.
Hoyt's attorney Mario Lorello, with Zoby & Brocoletti, P.C., has argued throughout the trial White's possession of a knife that day made him a threat to Hoyt's family after he allegedly verbally threatened Hoyt's wife before his arrival to the scene.
On the second day of trial, Lorello called several witnesses to the stand who have reportedly had run-ins with White before. One individual who lives nearby where the shooting took place encountered White when he allegedly threw an object into the road that hit his car. White was observed walking to his car with a knife before the driver signaled he was carrying a firearm.
Another witness's testimony revealed a moment of disorderly conduct at a nearby grocery store, in which White allegedly yelled threats to store workers.
In opening statements, Lorello told jurors White's previous history of confrontations made him not just a hypothetical, but a credible threat, which warranted Hoyt's actions that day as self-defense.
However, the Office of the Commonwealth's Attorney maintained Hoyt's deliberate actions that day escalated the situation.
When Hoyt first made contact with White, he ordered him to get on the ground with his weapon drawn but holstered it again once he did not see White holding a knife. He told police investigators he declared himself a law enforcement officer, but did not have a badge and was dressed in civilian clothes.
In cross-examination, none of the witnesses who'd run into White before said he physically attacked them. A law enforcement officer also testified during an arrest for disorderly conduct that White did not physically attack the officer and he did not have a reason to go "hands-on" to contain White.
White battled paranoid Schizophrenia, as noted by a local mental health expert who testified.
Neither Hoyt nor Hoyt's wife have testified yet in the retrial, two months after jurors couldn't come to an agreement on a verdict.
The trial resumes at 9:30 a.m., Thursday.