Attorneys for one of the three suspects in the deadly Riverchase Galleria shooting say new statements from witnesses bolsters their claim of self-defense.
King Williams’ lawyers – John Lentine and Christopher Daniel – requested that the preliminary hearing in the capital murder and attempted murder cases be reopened so that Jefferson County Judge William Bell Jr. review that evidence and possibly reconsider his previous ruling that there was enough evidence against King to proceed to a grand jury for indictment consideration. Jefferson County prosecutors, however, contended the “new evidence” is not actually new, and only corroborates testimony and evidence that led to Bell’s initial ruling in the case.
Jefferson County Judge William Bell Jr. Wednesday afternoon denied the defense motion without a hearing.
The shooting happened July 3 on the first floor of the state’s largest indoor mall. The gunfire killed 8-year-old Royta Giles Jr. and wounded Walter Lee Rashad Hudson, Chateria Brant and 11-year-old Senia Escobar Fajardo.
In addition to the 19-year-old King, Montez Moses Miracle Coleman, 22 and Demetrius Dewayne Jackson Jr., also 19, are charged in the case. Coleman claims he fired at King and Jackson in self-defense from them, while King and Jackson say they fired to protect themselves from Coleman.
The preliminary hearing in the case was held Aug. 11 and lasted more than 6 ½ hours. During testimony throughout the hearing, it was stated at least 12 rounds were fired in just four seconds near the food court during a dispute that possibly started because of a previous “beef” over rap lyrics.
Additional testimony showed one of the defendants – Coleman - fired his AR-15 style pistol through a book bag. The gun jammed after the first round, but he had about 75 rounds of ammunition in the backpack – nearly 50 rounds were in two gun magazines and 24 were stuffed in a sock. King and Jackson were among a group of five people, some of who raised their shirts to show that they too had weapons shortly before the gunfight commenced.
Though all parties agreed no one went to the mall that day with the intent to kill, the resulting carnage happened because of their “willingness and spoken or unspoken agreement to get in this gunfight,” said Jefferson County Deputy District Attorney Shawn Allen. When engaged in mutual combat, he said, all parties are criminally liable in the death and injuries that happened that day.
The case is being prosecuted by Allen and Deputy District Attorney Julie McMakin. The attorneys for the defendants are: Julian Hendrix (Coleman); Victor Revill (Jackson), and Lentine (King). Hoover police Sgt. Matt Savage is the lead detective on the case and was the sole investigator to testify in the preliminary hearing.
Kings’ attorneys filed a motion this week asking that the preliminary hearing be reopened following interviews done by Hoover police with witnesses after the hearing was held. Those interviews, according to court documents, were done Aug. 14 with two employees at Adore, a store that sells skin care products. Both were working on the day of the shooting and saw what happened.
“Both Adore employees’ statements were extremely exculpatory to the defense in that both informed the police in part that Montez Coleman fired at King Williams first and that King Williams and the group were walking away when Montez Coleman fired at them,’' Lentine wrote. Those statements, he said, “corroborate the defense’s position that it was Montez Coleman who was the initial aggressor who fired at King Williams causing him to react solely to defend himself.” The statements, he said, also disprove the state’s assertion that the incident was mutual combat.
One of the new witnesses, according to the documents, told police this: These guys start to flash a gun and started to walk away. They did not really want to do anything. I can tell they didn’t really want to do anything and (Coleman) kept provoking…then said, ‘pull it out.‘’'
The second witness said, “I was looking at the guy with big backpack (Coleman). He had a big gun inside the backpack. He started shooting out of the backpack as soon as he saw me step back. As soon as I saw the gunshot, I ran in the back and these guy (the group with King and Jackson) started firing.”
Prosecutor Allen’s response to the defense motion said the witness statements labeled “extremely exculpatory” by the defense are consistent with evidence already submitted in the hearing. “It was established and accepted by all parties that Montez Coleman fired the initial shot prior to Jackson and King immediately firing 11 shots,’' Allen wrote. He said testimony and video evidence showed that one or more members of the group with Williams and Jackson raised their shirts to show they were armed.
The Adore witnesses, Allen said, told investigators he heard both sides antagonizing each other. “The state’s position is the witness statements gathered after the preliminary hearing are consistent that (all three defendants) were engaged in a showdown that involved both words and the brandishing of firearms that escalated to the an exchange of gunfire that caused the death of Royta Giles and injury to three others.”
Lentine maintains it was purely self-defense. “King Williams did not provoke Coleman’s use of deadly force nor was King Williams involved in any unlawful activity at the time,’' he said. “King Williams acted in self-defense.”
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Attorneys for Galleria shooting suspect: New evidence bolsters self-defense claim; judge disagrees - AL.com
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