Trial begins for man accused of shooting detective

TAMPA -- Detective Christopher Baumann went to Progress Village on April 28, 2007, to teach fellow detectives how to make undercover drug buys.

He ended up with bullets in his chest and back, shot by a man at close range.

Prosecutor Jay Pruner told jurors Tuesday morning that the shooter was DeAndre Jamal Wallace, 18 years old at the time. Wallace is on trial this week for attempted first-degree murder of a law enforcement officer.

But defense attorney Ronald Kurpiers says the Hillsborough Sheriff's Office got the wrong guy.

"DeAndre Wallace did not shoot Chris Baumann," the attorney said.

Kurpiers took issue with the undercover detectives' tactics during their stakeout for drug dealers. Baumann didn't have a gun or a bullet-proof vest on him but he was sipping beer, the attorney said. So were the other detectives. Their consumption of alcohol colored their judgement when they ended up going after a man they saw with a gun during a drug buy, Kurpiers said during his opening statement.

"They're impaired and therefore their perception, their relaying of what happened to you all, is going to also be impaired," Kurpiers said.

Two detectives, including Baumann, have testified today. Both said they were not impaired at all and that they were using the beers as props to lure drug dealers. Both said they had only a few sips of beer and that Sheriff's Office protocol allows alcohol to be used during covert operations as long as the detectives have less than a 0.05 blood alcohol level.

-- Colleen Jenkins, Times staff writer