Georgia
Judge rules teen was justified in shooting assailant 7 times
COLUMBUS, Ga. (AP) — A Georgia judge has dismissed a murder charge against a teen after concluding that he was legally justified in shooting a man seven times in 2021 because the man was trying to kidnap him.
The Ledger-Enquirer of Columbus reports that Muscogee County Superior Court Judge John Martin dismissed charges Wednesday against the unnamed teen at the behest of prosecutors who concluded from witnesses and video footage that the boy had a right to defend himself to stop a forcible felony under Georgia’s “stand your ground” law.
The boy, then 16, shot and killed Iverson Gilyard in August 2021 at a Columbus park. The newspaper withheld the boy’s name because he was a juvenile and has now been cleared of charges.
The boy was indicted as an adult in February for murder, aggravated assault, and possessing a gun while committing a felony. But prosecutors later concluded that Gilyard was the primary aggressor, entering the park and hitting the boy over the head with a handgun three times as the boy tried to get away.
Assistant District Attorney Robin Anthony said Gilyard, 22, also threatened to shoot the teen, saying “I’m going to bust you in the kidney.” When parents at the park complained, Anthony said Gilyard told the teen to follow him, stuck the gun in his waistband, and said, “You’d better not run, either.” Anthony said when Gilyard turned to walk away, the teen took a gun from his backpack and shot Gilyard. The 22-year-old was shot seven times, four times in the back, his family has said.
Martin agreed to drop the charges Wednesday, saying the boy believed he was being kidnapped, and that “the use of deadly force was necessary to prevent death or serious bodily injury to himself.”
Stand-your-ground laws remove a person’s duty to retreat from illegal attacks before using deadly force in self-defense. Opponents say they promote violence. But even before Georgia’s law passed in 2006, the teen could have been justified in using deadly force as the victim of a crime.
Gilyard’s mother, Tiesha Gilyard, had said in interviews that she did not think the shooting of her son was justified, saying he had put his gun away and that the teen shot Gilyard in the back first before coming and shooting him in the chest once Gilyard was down.
“Once he was down, he came up to him as if that was not enough, point blank range, and shot him three times in the chest,” Tiesha Gilyard told WRBL-TV in July. “If you shoot someone one time, they’re down. You got a park full of people. They’re down. This was malicious.”
“Any person has the right to use self-defense, even deadly force, to prevent a serious violent felony happening to themselves,” District Attorney Stacey Jackson told WRBL-TV in July.
The teen’s defense attorney, Jennifer Curry, was not immediately available for comment. Curry earlier told the Ledger-Enquirer that her client and his family were threatened after Gilyard’s death, with someone shooting into the mother’s home before the boy was released from juvenile detention.
Louisiana
Deputy constable quits after report he didn’t respond to rape report
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A deputy constable for a New Orleans city court has resigned following allegations he didn’t act when a witness told him a woman was being raped.
The deputy had already been suspended after the allegation was made.
The constable for 2nd City Court, Edwin Shorty, told news outlets that the deputy resigned Thursday.
The deputy was working a private security detail in the French Quarter on July 26 when he was approached by a witness who said a man was raping an unconscious woman nearby. Shorty said an investigation showed the deputy stayed in his car for several minutes before walking away from the scene. He did not release the deputy’s name.
Shorty said the deputy, who had 30 years of law enforcement experience, gave no explanation for his inaction.
Arkansas
3 officers suspended after video captures beating of suspect
MULBERRY, Ark. (AP) — Three Arkansas law enforcement officers have been suspended and a state police has been investigation launched after a video posted on social media showed a suspect being held down on the ground and beaten by police.
Arkansas State Police said Sunday night that it would investigate the use of force by the officers earlier in the day outside a convenience store in Mulberry, about 140 miles (220 kilometers) northwest of Little Rock.
Two Crawford County sheriff’s deputies and one Mulberry police officer were suspended Sunday, city and county authorities said. The officers were responding to a report of a man making threats outside the convenience store, authorities said.
State police identified the man as Randall Worcester, 27, of Goose Creek, South Carolina. The video posted online shows one officer punching Worcester with a clenched fist, while another can be seen kneeing him, and a third is holding him down.
Worcester was taken to a hospital for treatment Sunday then released and booked in the Van Buren County jail on multiple charges, including second-degree battery, resisting arrest and terroristic threatening, state police said.
Authorities have not released the names of the three officers who were seen on the video. Crawford County Sheriff Jimmy Damante said Sunday that the two deputies were suspended pending an investigation.
“I hold all my employees accountable for their actions and will take appropriate measures in this matter,” Damante said.
In a statement released Sunday evening, Mulberry Police Chief Shannon Gregory said the city officer involved in the incident is on leave pending the outcome of the investigation.
“The city of Mulberry and the Mulberry police department takes these investigations very seriously,” Gregory said.
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Sunday night on Twitter that the “incident in Crawford County will be investigated pursuant to the video evidence and the request of the prosecuting attorney.”
Mulberry is a small town of about 1,600 people in western Arkansas right off Interstate 40, a major corridor that runs from California to North Carolina.
California
Bill Paxton family settles lawsuit with hospital over 2017 death
The family of the late actor Bill Paxton has agreed to settle a wrongful death lawsuit against a Los Angeles hospital and the surgeon who performed his heart surgery shortly before he died in 2017, according to a court filing Friday.
The suit, filed against Cedars-Sinai Medical Center more than four years ago, had been scheduled to go to trial next month. But attorneys for Paxton’s wife of 30 years, Louise, and their two children, James and Lydia, filed a notice in Los Angeles Superior Court that they had agreed to settle the case.
“The matter has been resolved to the mutual satisfaction of the parties,” plaintiffs’ lawyers Bruce Broillet and Steve Heimberg said in a statement.
The terms are confidential, the attorneys said. Emails seeking comment from the defendants were not immediately returned. The agreement must still be approved by a judge.
Paxton, who starred in films including “Apollo 13,” “Titanic” and “Aliens” and in television series including “Big Love,” died on Feb. 25, 2017.
The cause was a stroke that came 11 days after surgery to replace a heart valve and repair aorta damage, according to his death certificate.
The lawsuit, filed a year later, alleged that the surgeon, Dr. Ali Khoynezhad, used a “high risk and unconventional surgical approach” that was unnecessary and that he lacked the experience to perform, and that he downplayed the procedure’s risks.
The misguided treatment caused Paxton to suffer excessive bleeding, cardiogenic shock and a compromised coronary artery, the suit alleged, and said that Cedars-Sinai knew that Khoynezhad, tended to “engage in maverick surgeries and show suboptimal judgment.”
The defendants said in court documents that Paxton and his family knew and understood the risks involved in the procedure, and voluntarily went on with the surgery. The defendants’ said there was no negligence that led to his death.
The four-year legal battle was marked by frequent attempts by the Paxton family to extract more discovery evidence from the hospital, and frequent court hearings over the issue.
Paxton, who was born and raised in Fort Worth, Texas, was among the industry’s busiest actors from the early 1980s until his death, amassing nearly 100 credits, including “Twister” and “Weird Science.” He was starring in the CBS drama series “Training Day” when he died.
Vermont
Suspect in murder-for-hire case agrees on move to Vermont
BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — The fourth suspect in the 2018 murder of a Vermont man involved in a troubled oil deal has agreed to travel to the state to face federal murder for hire charges.
Last week Serhat Gumrukcu, who is being held in Los Angeles, agreed to waive a hearing and be turned over to the U.S. Marshal’s Service for transport to Vermont.
Gumrukcu, 39, is the final suspect facing charges for the Jan. 6, 2018 kidnapping and killing of Gregory Davis, 49, of Danville. Davis was kidnapped from his home and found shot to death the next day in Barnet.
It’s unclear when Gumrukcu will appear in court in Vermont. His Vermont attorney declined comment on Monday.
Prosecutors say Davis had been threatening to go to the FBI with information that Gumrukcu, the co-founder of a Los Angeles-based biotechnology company, was defrauding Davis in a multimillion-dollar oil deal that Gumrukcu and his brother had entered into with Davis in 2015.
Two other suspects, including the alleged kidnapper, are being held pending trial. A third suspect has pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing.
Pennsylvania
Jury sought for death penalty trial in fire that killed 3
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Jury selection has begun for the death penalty trial of a man accused of having set a house fire that killed a young child and two women in Pittsburgh 4 1/2 years ago.
Martell Smith, 45, faces three counts of homicide as well as aggravated arson and other charges in the December 2017 blaze in the Homewood neighborhood. Testimony in the Allegheny County trial is scheduled to begin Sept. 12, the Tribune-Review reports.
Pittsburgh authorities allege that Smith set the early morning fire after getting into a bar fight with a man. Police say surveillance images show him buying a gas can and filling it at a gas station, and they allege he then drove to the home, doused the three-story brick structure with the gasoline, lit it and drove away.
Killed were 21-year-old Shamira Staten, her 4-year-old daughter, Ch’yenne Manning, and 58-year-old Sandra Carter Douglas.
A witness told police he overheard Smith muttering “yep, yep, I did it,” while fire crews battled the blaze around 2 a.m. Wednesday. The police complaint alleged Smith was also heard muttering “they made me do it.”
Prosecutors said capital punishment would be warranted if Smith is convicted of first-degree murder, citing the fact that the slayings occurred during commission of another felony, that the victims included a child and because of the defendant’s criminal record.
Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf imposed a moratorium against carrying out any death sentences shortly after taking office in 2015. Three people have been executed since the state reinstituted capital punishment four decades ago, the most recent in 1999, but all three had voluntarily given up on appealing their sentences.
