re: Attorney for Smith family / Attorney for Hayes l Press Conference Recap

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say that to my face mfer

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I am sure that that guy being convicted had nothing to do with him not telling the investigators that his girlfriend was in the car with him and then made a call to her acting like she was possibly inside the house while the guy was "breaking in".

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Aside from Aaron's testimony, the state did present evidence reflecting circumstantially on what transpired between the men. Jamison was driving away from the Aaron residence on a public street. He was unarmed. He was shot seven times while still sitting in his vehicle with a beer bottle between his legs and his car window only partially down. There are strong circumstantial inferences that the jury was entitled to draw from these facts, which conflict with Aaron's claim of self-defense.

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Additionally, there were two statements made in Aaron's testimony which revealed his state of mind and militated against a finding that he had a reasonable belief that he was in imminent danger. Aaron did not see any movement by Jamison or any other person outside of Jamison's vehicle as Aaron approached his home. Therefore, the issue of whether a burglary or other crime had occurred was very much in doubt. Aaron said, "I didn't know if I was talking to a newspaper guy" as he first approached Jamison. Additionally, when Aaron was asked in his testimony before the grand jury what it was that caused him to fire the first shot at Jamison, Aaron volunteered that Jamison's verbal "threats certainly weren't enough."

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The event that caused Aaron to rapidly shoot eight times at Jamison was a sudden movement that Jamison made inside his car. Aaron stated that immediately preceding the shooting he felt he could not get his car from park into gear and drive away from Jamison's threatening behavior. Therefore, Aaron picked up his loaded semiautomatic handgun. There was no need to engage a shell in the gun's chamber, and Aaron extended the gun over across McWilliams by the doorframe and open window, reaching to shoot as Jamison's fatal movement occurred.

Jamison's movement as described by Aaron included his opening the car door. However, the door was just slightly opened and always remained as a barrier between the two men. Jamison never began any movement turning his body to exit the vehicle. His critical movement was described by Aaron as follows:
He opened the door and reached front and left, as if he were reaching between the seat and the door or next to the seat or under the front left portion of the seat, but that's the way he made his motion.
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Because he dipped his whole body under as if he were reaching underneath the seat. I still didn't do anything until he came up so abruptly like he did.

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Other than this description, Aaron never reported that one of Jamison's arms or his hand appeared or extended to be seen above the door. Any arm motion would have necessarily been hindered and obstructed by the door, the steering wheel and the partially closed window. Jamison's body was found seated, with his legs still below the steering wheel. Despite any abruptness of Jamison's motion, there was no demonstration by Jamison indicating that a weapon was drawn and was beginning to be extended around the steering wheel and above the window or that his body was suddenly turning with the door swinging open. Those movements had not begun, and yet Aaron clearly had his gun drawn and pointed at Jamison's head. Aaron did not testify that he gave any advance warning before shooting, not even by the sound of chambering a shell into his gun.

From the above evidence, the jury could conclude that Aaron was not presented with an imminent danger so as to justify a reasonable belief that the killing of Jamison was necessary to save himself from losing his life or receiving great bodily harm. Aaron had perceived what he believed to be a threat posed by Jamison and had initiated his defense by aiming his gun at Jamison. Jamison did not have "the drop" on Aaron. Aaron had the drop on Jamison and fired at a time when Jamison had not begun a threatening action from the confines of his car in which he was limited from posing a deadly threat.

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also the earlier pics that purportedly showed the skid marks left by Will's vehicle from being hit by Hayes is also another ding showing Hayes was the aggressor in the whole situation

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i wonder what sparked this?

the holes in Thomsons story, I wonder?

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Are you kidding? This is a super high profile case now. No matter what he does, he's famous and can make a bunch of money.

His career just got made.

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They havent. Taken out of context

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Responding officers did not locate any visible weapons other than the gun authorities believe Hayes used to kill Smith and wound Racquel Smith, NOPD spokesman Tyler Gamble has said

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The main conclusion I draw from this entire tragedy and the many posts about it is that Payton is right about the gun culture. It's nuts to have people willing to remotely defend a guy aggressively pursuing a bump and run driver and using lethal force against the offending driver and his wife. The fact that those defenses are even discussed tells you how screwed up are the gun laws and the associated stand your ground defenses. It scares the shite out of me that this many half cocked people are driving around with loaded guns.

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Easy guy, read up on gun cases where the Defendant shot someone with +P loads and the shootee was awarded damages. NRA and concealed carry courses tell you to avoid magnums and +P loads. Know your shite before you speak.

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