Sally Glass took the witness stand of a Clear Creek County courtroom Wednesday and waved off a bailiff with a Kleenex box. Though she’s been emotional from her front row trial seat, she was determined to testify as a strong voice for her son, Christian, who was shot and killed by a former Clear Creek sheriff deputy nearly two years ago.

Andy Buen, 30, has been charged with second-degree murder, reckless endangerment and professional misconduct for shooting Glass five times through the front windshield of his car. For the murder charge, Buen could face up to 48 years in prison.

His trial is in its fourth day.

Mrs. Glass has been emotional in court, especially when there’s talk of gunshots, but on the stand, her voice only broke when she remembered how her son loved to climb rocks to bring home the prettiest ones. 

It was the large, jagged rocks and geology tools investigators found in Christian Glass’ car which raised concerns to officers who responded to his 911 call the night of June 10-11, 2022.

The 22-year-old also had an switchblade knife with a bent tip in the driver’s side door, a pocket knife, a rubber mallet and a metal-tipped rock hammer, all items which defense attorneys have implied are potential weapons and a possible reason Buen chose to use force against Glass.

When questioned about them, Sally Glass explained that her son had all of those items in his car either for his rock-collecting hobby or for safety.

Colorado Bureau of Investigation crime scene experts collected a huge piece of bloodied amethyst as forensic evidence, but left other big rocks in the car, which drew criticism from Buen’s attorney, Carrie Slinkard.

“We’ll never know the size they were because we all we have is a picture, correct?” Slinkard asked Colorado Bureau of Investigation Agent Clint Thomason. “Correct,” he said and added: “There’s quite a lot of evidence in the car that was not collected.”

Prosecutors countered that argument, in that the case is about an officer-involved shooting and not Glass’ behavior or rock collections.

“Were you involved in a DUI,” 5th Judicial District Attorney Heidi McCollum asked Thomason.

“No,” he replied.

“A DUI with drugs?”

“No.”

“A car crash?”

“No.”

Slinkard has also pointed out that Glass had three bongs and a bottle of pills in his cluttered 2007 Honda Pilot. She has questioned whether he was illegally driving high that night.

The autopsy found that Glass’ blood alcohol level was 0.010 along with some Delta-9 TCH in his system and evidence of amphetamines. 

“Did your son have addiction issues?” Slinkard asked Sally Glass, who first pushed back: “What do you meant?”  But she then responded: “I wouldn’t say that he’s an addict.”

A juror later questioned whether Christian knew not to drive while under the influence.

“We talked to him about safe driving — how to be careful,” Glass said. “That included not driving under the influence.”

Buen is the first of eight officers involved in the 70-minute police call June 10-11, 2022 to face trial.

In November 2022, a Clear Creek County grand jury indicted Buen, along with his supervisor, former Clear Creek deputy Kyle Gould — who wasn’t at the scene that night.

Gould was sentenced to two years’ unsupervised probation and was ordered to pay a $1,000 fine. As part of the plea agreement, Gould withdrew his POST certification and cannot work as a police officer or security guard in Colorado.

Not much is known about Glass except for his very last moments, which have been played thousands of times on police body-worn camera and received national attention.

Glass was returning from a three-day art trip to Moab when he thought he was being followed. In a perceived panic, he turned off of I-70 westbound to get away and got stuck on a dirt road outside of Silverthorne.

He told the 911 operator that he was afraid of “skin walkers” and that he had recently had a spiritual awakening.

Buen and six other officers who responded to the call cajoled him with beef jerky and encouraging words to get out of his car, but he refused and after more than an hour of confusing and at times intense negotiation, Gould gave the order to breach Glass’ driver side window.

The shatter startled Glass and when he started waving a knife around Buen shot six “non-lethal” bean bag rounds into the car and tased him, but Buen’s taser did not work. Within seconds, former Georgetown Police Chief Randy Williams’ taser did hit Glass.

“There may have been pain, but not to the point of incapacitating him,” testified taser expert Kevin Sailor in court Wednesday.

Buen then shot Glass five times with his handgun through the front windshield. Crime scene photos showed an pattern of of two bullets together, then one below and another. couple below that in a tight pattern. 

Mrs. Glass and her husband, Simon, often plug their ears and look away from such photos but Wednesday morning, she appeared to be on a mission to remain calm. Between her British accent and soft voice,  5th Judicial District Judge Catherine Cheroutes asked for her to speak more loudly into the microphone so that jurors could understand what she was saying.

“Christian had a hard time when we moved to America,” she said, explaining that he was “a sporty boy” but had a hard time fitting in because he only knew how to play cricket and soccer. Kids made fun of his accent.

She told the 15-person jury that to Christian, rocks were not a weapon, but rather a fascination.

The final witness of the day, Seth Stoughton, is a former police officer and use of force expert who testified in former Minnesota police officer Derek Chauvin’s trial, where he was convicted of killing George Floyd.

The University of South Carolina School of Law professor testified that Floyd did not present a threat to officers. 

Buen’s trial is expected to last at least another week.