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Posted on 01/17/2012 1:52:08 PM PST by marktwain
A Wetumpka man was acquitted of a murder charge Tuesday afternoon when an Elmore County jury returned a not guilty verdict in less than two hours after the closing statements were given.
Bobby Stokes, 64 at the time of the incident, was arrested and charged with murder in the 2009 shooting death of Johnny Leonard in Stokes’ home.
Stokes was watching television in his 1200 block Holtville Road residence around 12:50 a.m. Dec. 16, 2009, when his common law wife Christina Walker and Leonard walked into the home, according to court records.
During the trial it was revealed that Leonard walked into Stokes’ home with two handguns and shot at Stokes.
Stokes returned fire using a 12-gauge shotgun, striking Leonard with a fatal shot to the chest.
Stokes’ defense attorney said the evidence clearly sided with Stokes since he was acting in self defense.
“We are pleased with the verdict and letting the verdict speak for itself,” Goggans said.
Leonard had a checkered past, according to court records. He was on probation after being convicted of third-degree receiving stolen property, second-degree promoting prison contraband, obstruction of governmental operations, resisting arrest and reckless endangerment.
There must be more, or else this case shouldn’t even have gone to trial. Even an ex-con is presumably allowed to return fire after being shot in his own home.
Good point. On what basis was the prosecutor arguing that it wasn't self-defense?
Um, I think the guy who got killed was the ex-con.
This whole story doesn’t add up — why was Stokes prosecuted? Seems the jury didn’t take long to come to the conclusion he should not have been...
Looks like they story was seriously spun at some point or another to make it seem that Stokes just shot an invited (by his wife) guest. The new info is that apparently that "guest" -- who was in fact invited by Stoke's wife -- fired first.
Which still makes it baffling why he was indicted...
If there was some doubt as to the shooter's motives, and some evidence of bad feeling, the DA probably decided to let it go to the grand jury. The defense may have been confident enough in its case to reject a plea and let the jury decide.
Yep, misread the story.
Exactly. As presented here there was never a cause to charge him.
The OldPossum is a Southerner, so he knows these things.
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