Mary Assad, the dead woman’s daughter, testified that her mother had a neck brace removed the previous week and rejected a suggestion from Blumenthal that her mother shuffled her feet. Court records show both have a history of petty thefts that didn’t involve violence. Townsel spent much of Wednesday’s hearing holding her right hand to her chin or taking notes. The other area, whether there was water on the tile floor of the bathroom that might have caused Assad to fall on her own and strike her head. Their questions to witnesses focused on two areas: One, Assad’s health, particularly her steadiness on her feet, after she suffered neck injuries in a Mother’s Day traffic collision in 2019 and two years before that, a fall down the stairs at home. None of the defense attorneys made opening statements Wednesday, but they began laying the groundwork for a case that will attempt to poke holes in the largely circumstantial prosecution argument. No one is saying who is paying for the high-priced defense, but Ginsberg represented Williams’ brother, Clippers basketball star and Riverside King High graduate Kawhi Leonard, in a copyright infringement lawsuit against Nike. Attorney Peter Ginsberg was originally hired by Williams’ family, and he tabbed Blumenthal’s law office to represent her.