The list of witnesses called in Jeffrey Basil's murder trial Monday included off-duty Buffalo police officer Adam O'Shei, who was working security at Molly's Pub the night William Sager Jr. was fatally injured.
O'Shei was the fourth and final witness of the second day of Basil's trial. Basil, 35, faces first-degree manslaughter, second-degree murder and tampering with evidence charges relating to the death of Air National Guardsman William Sager, Jr. on May 11, 2014.
Sager, 28, suffered a severe brain injury after prosecutors say he was pushed down a flight of stairs at Molly's Pub on Main Street in Buffalo. He died more than two months later.
O'Shei testified that he was standing near the top of stairs inside Molly's when Basil "came off my shoulder and gave Sager a two-handed shove and Sager went flying down the stairs."
The officer said he immediately went down to check on Sager and instructed bouncers and fellow officer Robert Eloff to pick Sager up and drag him outside. O'Shei, a 15-year police veteran, says he knew he had to get Sager out of the bar to protect him from Basil and the crowd of bar patrons who would trample him as they came down the stairs.
O'Shei says he also told security and Eloff to call 9-1-1 and it seemed like an hour before an ambulance arrived. During that time, he says Basil was yelling that he had been assaulted and that he wanted Sager arrested. O'Shei says since he nor Eloff saw the assault they went with Basil to the bar's office to watch the surveillance video, but Basil was "so intoxicated he could not get the video to play."
O'Shei is scheduled to be cross examined by the defense Tuesday.
Earlier in the day the jury heard from Molly's Pub bartender Blake Lamagna, who testified that she had never seen Basil so drunk as he was that night. Lamagna says after the incident with Sager, Basil took her down the street to another bar where they did a shot. Lamagna says on the short walk, Basil seemed very anxious and she said Basil told her, “I just [expletive] killed a kid.”
The first of two witnesses called Monday morning said they were downstairs at Molly’s Pub when they heard William Sager’s body land at the bottom of the staircase inside the bar, over loud music. The same two witnesses also said they were outside the bar shortly after it was shut down by police and said they saw Basil walking out the back of the bar with the bar’s video recorder.
