CONWAY -- Midway through the murder trial for a teen accused in the 2006 beating death of a homeless man, a Circuit Court judge ruled that prosecutors did not present enough evidence and dropped the charge against the 19-year-old.
At the end of the prosecution's presentation of the case, Judge Steven John granted defense attorney Stuart Axelrod's motion for a directed verdict, which is a ruling by the judge to acquit the defendant because the prosecution doesn't have enough evidence for a conviction.
John also fined Horry County police detective John Lewis $250 after holding him in contempt of court for not providing all of his case file information to attorneys before the trial began this week in the three-year-old case.
Bilal Harris, 19, faced life in prison if convicted of murder in the April 1, 2006, death of 51-year-old Steven Walsh. Harris hugged his family after the judge announced his ruling.
"The mere presence at the scene of a crime does not prove the person is guilty," John said. "There is no evidence that the court finds that connects this defendant to the crime charged."
Assistant Solicitor Sanford Graves and Lewis left the courtroom after the rulings and declined comment.
Walsh died April 1, 2006, eight days after he was attacked in a wooded area outside the Myrtle Beach city limits while living in a homeless camp off U.S. 501. At the time of the incident, Harris was 16 and was tried as an adult. A 17-year-old, who was 14 at the time and also charged in the incident, pleaded guilty in 2006 to voluntary manslaughter, according to the solicitor's office. The younger teen was sentenced to be held in a juvenile detention facility at least two years and up to his 21st birthday.
The Sun News does not identify juveniles charged in a crime.
Harris, who remains jailed on an unrelated armed robbery charge, has been in custody since his initial arrest, and Axelrod said he will seek bond on that charge.
"The state's case depends entirely on circumstantial evidence," Axelrod said. "It's a shame in our court that people sit in jail for 3½ years. The court did the right thing in the case. Justice was served, our system works."
Members of Harris' family celebrated outside the courtroom and said they believed the teen when he said he wasn't involved in Walsh's death.
"I'm happy. We've been waiting for this for a long time," said Harris' sister Jamela Jolly after the ruling. "He's the type of person who would tell us, and he said he didn't do it."
Sequoyah Brown, also Harris' sister said: "My heart dropped. I knew he didn't do it. My grandma said he was going to walk, and he walked."
Joseph Jolly, Harris' brother, said he did not have words to describe what he was feeling knowing the murder charge against Harris was dismissed.
After the 13-woman and one-man jury, which included two alternates, were dismissed from the case, some of the jurors said they did not believe there was enough evidence to convict Harris beyond a reasonable doubt.
"They didn't prove it was him, but somebody did do it. We knew a crime was committed," said Courtney Cabbil, a juror. "There just wasn't enough evidence there to show it was him. They might have pointed the finger, but evidence-wise, it wasn't there against him."
The women said prosecutors hinged their case on Harris being identified by having a dreadlock-type hairstyle, but a woman who was with Walsh when he was attacked did not identify Harris as the attacker. She testified two boys attacked Walsh with empty beer bottles and a cinder block.
Juror Nicole Campbell said testimony by the younger teen's father that his son had similar hair to Harris at the time of the incident had cast doubt on Harris being the aggressor in the attack. "There were too many pieces that were not connected," Campbell said.
Doren Chaves, another juror, said she kept waiting for the "zinger" from prosecutors to show Harris was responsible for Walsh's death, but it never came.
"There was nothing from the state. There was no hard evidence," Chaves said. "When you're convicting someone of murder, there's got to be evidence. With the evidence we had, we hadn't seen it yet. I wish him the best of luck in life now. He's got to start over."
Frances Morris said she is concerned about how Harris will rebound after being jailed during his formative years and not being able to finish high school.
"I hope this will have an effect on his life," Morris said. "I hope he can change who he associates with and not get caught up in all this."
After John concluded Harris' trial, he questioned Graves and Lewis about why two photo lineups, a man's picture, letters written by Harris while jailed and photos of his body taken at the jail were not provided to Axelrod during the initial exchange of information in the case.
Graves told John he became aware of the evidence on Tuesday and "immediately" informed him and Axelrod. Neither the younger teen nor Harris were in the photo lineups, which were shown to a witness in the case, Graves said. The photos were tucked in a pocket of the case file and were found Tuesday, Graves said.
Lewis apologized to John for the mistake about not seeing the photos and then explained he had requested the jail letters and photos to aid in sentencing at the end of the trial because they contained information that was indicative of possible gang membership, he said.
"We do not expect this to happen again," John said before he found Lewis in contempt of court and ordered him to pay a $250 fine within the next seven days.
Horry County police Sgt. Robert Kegler said he could not comment on the incident.
Deputy Solicitor Fran Humphries said he expected such a decision because the photos were found during trial.
"It would be unfair to say it has never happened," Humphries said. "With the best detective, over the course of time in dealing with these types of complex cases, there exists the potential that a single document for whatever reason is not sent to us. That doesn't make it right. Police officers are people, not machines."
Humphries said he addressed the issue with Horry County police officials on Tuesday after the discovery of the information.
No comments:
Post a Comment