‘Maybe police don’t want you to know’: Jury considers murder case from 2016 protests
In his final words to the jury Wednesday, one of Rayquan Borum’s defense lawyers suggested that police rushed to charge Borum with a 2016 homicide to avoid further controversy.
Justin Carr, 26, was killed during a tense moment for the city. Hundreds of people had taken to the street for the second night in a row on Sept. 21, 2016 to protest the fatal shooting of Keith Lamont Scott by Charlotte-Mecklenburg police.
Less than 36 hours later, Borum, now 24, was arrested. A 911 caller had seen someone holding a gun and gave police a vague description — black male, average build, dreadlocks. Borum was one of several men who fit that description that night in uptown, defense lawyers reminded the jury.
While being questioned by police that day, Borum eventually said he had fired a gun. In phone calls from the Mecklenburg County Jail hours later, he said police had shown him videos, and he saw himself on camera.
“Why the f--- would you confess?” the person on the other end of the line asked.
Prosecutors don’t say Borum was aiming for Carr. Instead, prosecutor Desmond McCallum told jurors during closing arguments Wednesday, they believe he wanted to kill a police officer and hit Carr instead. McCallum argued if that was Borum’s intent, the jury should find him guilty of first-degree murder.
If jurors do believe Borum fired the fatal shot, defense lawyer Mark Simmons urged them to consider convicting him of second-degree murder. Judge Gregory Hayes instructed jurors on both options.
In six days of witness testimony, jurors heard a variety of descriptions for how and where the gun was pointed. Several witnesses agreed that the scene became chaotic when police with shields and helmets marched into and out of the Omni Hotel, moments before Carr was shot.
Simmons argued Wednesday that a concrete wall divided Borum from the main line of police, blocking his view at the time of the shooting. He also questioned why Borum was arrested quickly and why police apparently didn’t consider other suspects, including the possibility of an officer shooting Carr.
Police have said no officers fired their guns that night, but Borum’s defense lawyers have repeatedly questioned their decision not to do a “round count” to confirm every officer still had all the bullets they started out with.
“Maybe police don’t want you to know what was going on that night,” Simmons said.
In his police interview and jail calls, Simmons said, Borum never talked about aiming at police. That part of the state’s argument centered on a federal inmate, Kendell Bowden, who spoke to police 13 months after the Charlotte protests.
Bowden, who had just been sentenced to five and a half years in prison at the time of his CMPD interview, said that Borum specifically talked about killing a police officer the night Carr was shot.
When he took the witness stand last week, Bowden was less specific about Borum’s threat to police but insisted he saw Borum fire the fatal shot.
Prosecutor Glenn Cole told the Observer he isn’t worried about the shift, given the rest of the state’s evidence.
Simmons urged jurors not to believe Bowden, emphasizing that he’s currently imprisoned for fraud.
The jury deliberated for about 20 minutes Wednesday morning before taking a 90-minute lunch break. They deliberated all afternoon, but ended the day around 5 p.m. without reaching a verdict.
Deliberations will resume Thursday morning.
This story was originally published March 6, 2019 at 1:54 PM.
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