Kerrick’s lawyers to argue in court Friday for dismissal of police shooting case

Lawyers for a Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer accused of wrongly killing an unarmed man say blood evidence was mishandled and the charge should be dropped, according to court documents filed this week.

Superior Court Judge Robert Ervin is expected to hear that pretrial motion and several others at 10 a.m. Friday at the Mecklenburg County Courthouse in the case of Randall “Wes” Kerrick, who has pleaded not guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the 2013 death of Jonathan Ferrell.

Defense attorneys George Laughrun and Michael Greene are asking the court to:

▪ Hold the trial outside Mecklenburg County, arguing that publicity has made it impossible for Kerrick to receive a fair trial.

▪ Dismiss the charge because of “selective prosecution” after prosecutors went to a grand jury twice to get an indictment.

▪ Dismiss the charge because the blood evidence was mishandled.

▪ Prevent the prosecution from referring to Ferrell as a “victim.” Kerrick’s attorneys say the officer acted in self-defense and the jury should determine whether Ferrell was a victim.

Ferrell, a former Florida A&M football player, did not have a criminal record. He moved to Charlotte to be closer to his fiancée, who was working as an accountant here. Ferrell had enrolled in Johnson C. Smith University and was holding down two jobs.

The night he died, Ferrell wrecked his car after driving a co-worker home. He went to a nearby home apparently seeking help. His late-night banging on the door prompted the woman inside to call 911.

Kerrick was among the responding officers who encountered Ferrell as he walked up the road. Ferrell, 24, ran toward the officers, police said. One officer fired but missed with a Taser, police said. Kerrick fired his gun at close range, striking Ferrell 10 times, according to investigators.

In their latest pretrial motion, Kerrick’s lawyers said they have reason to believe Ferrell was under the influence of some type of substance at the time, and they claim in court documents that law enforcement failed to keep enough blood evidence for the defense to do independent testing.

In response, Charlotte attorney Charles Monnett, who is representing the Ferrell family in its lawsuit against Kerrick, the police and local government, says the officer’s defense team is following the legal strategy of “attacking the victim.”

“I do not believe there will be any competent evidence to show that Jonathan Ferrell was impaired by any substance at the time of the incident, legal or illegal. The toxicology report shows that,” Monnett said.

Kerrick fired his weapon in self-defense, his lawyers say, because Ferrell charged at him, reached toward his waistband, struck the officer in the face and grabbed his gun near the trigger.

Laughrun and Greene say in their latest motion that witness statements indicate Ferrell ingested illegal drugs the night of the shooting.

One of the officers at the scene described Ferrell as being in a “zombie state” and believed he was “amped up” on something, according to the motion. The two officers who answered the call with Kerrick described Ferrell as “uncooperative, aggressive and erratic,” according to the motion.

Blood tests by the Mecklenburg County Medical Examiner’s Office and another lab showed no evidence of illegal substances, but did show Ferrell had been drinking. His alcohol level was within the legal limit for driving.

The defense team had requested that all evidence be preserved, and yet most of the blood evidence was destroyed after testing, the court documents claim.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department had sent a sample of Ferrell’s blood to NMS Labs in Pennsylvania to test for the presence of marijuana, hallucinogens and other substances. But the police department failed to ask the lab to preserve the blood longer than the lab normally does, and the lab eventually discarded the sample, Kerrick’s lawyers say in their motion.

The remaining blood is not enough for proper testing, the motion says.

Laughrun declined to say whether tests conducted by NMS Labs showed any illegal substances in Ferrell. Laughrun also declined to say whether the defense team had intended to test for different substances, or whether it wanted to repeat tests that already had been done.

CMPD spokesman Robert Tufano on Thursday would not answer questions about whether police failed to properly keep blood evidence. “This is an active case in front of the court, and we’re going to refrain from commenting,” he said. Staff writer Michael Gordon contributed.

This story was originally published May 7, 2015 at 11:22 AM with the headline "Kerrick’s lawyers to argue in court Friday for dismissal of police shooting case."