10/22/2008 6:00:00 AM
Jury finds local man not guilty
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| Robert Reed |
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KINGMAN - After a four-day trial and about an hour of deliberation, an eight-person jury found a Kingman man not guilty of second-degree murder.
Robert Reed, 63, was charged with second-degree murder in the death of Gary Shane.
"I knew from the very first time I heard his story that he was not guilty," said Mohave County Public Defender Dana Hlavac, who represented Reed, along with Deputy Public Defender David Corbett.
"This is malicious prosecution," said Charles Smith, a half brother of Reed, shortly after the case broke for lunch. "The prosecutor should have dropped the case after he found out about the DNA."
Hlavac and Corbett argued that Reed shot Shane in self-defense. According to the defense, on March 17, 2007, Reed, Shane and Shane's wife were drinking and then arrived at Shane's house. Shane's wife left the room at some point. At that time, Shane and Reed got into a discussion about a family matter. Shane pulled out a gun that he had borrowed from Reed, and pointed it at Reed. Reed and Shane then struggled to gain control of the gun. In the process, Shane was shot once in the stomach.
Reed shot Shane a second time when he thought Shane was reaching for a shotgun.
According to the defense, Reed then left the home and went to his brother's house. He left his car, with the gun in it, at his brother's house and was given a ride by one of his brother's friends to an airport in Needles, Calif. From Needles, he hitchhiked to another brother's house near Redding, Calif. Once he reached that brother's house, he turned himself in to police.
Deputy County Attorney Ros Saciuk argued that Reed deliberately shot Shane. He pointed to testimony from Shane's wife, who said she saw Reed shoot Shane twice.
He also pointed to testimony from a neighbor, who said she had heard an argument, saw Reed walk out to a vehicle, pull out a gun and walk back into the home. She said she then heard gunshots.
She also saw Reed leave the home. According to her testimony, Reed walked up to her and said, "I did it."
"There are numerous flaws in the defendant's tales," Saciuk said in his closing statements to the jury.
There was no DNA evidence on the gun that showed that Shane had actually handled the gun, he said. Hlavac disputed this and pointed to DNA evidence from the state's own expert, which showed a small sample of DNA on the gun, which could possibly be traced to Shane.
Saciuk also argued that the gunshot wounds, witness statements and evidence pointed to the fact that Shane never lunged out of the chair at Reed. Reed had shot Shane as he sat in the chair, he said. Hlavac used trajectory evidence to disprove Saciuk's theory.
After instructing the jury, Judge Steven Conn excused them for lunch. The jury returned at 1 p.m. and was given the case for deliberation. At 2, the jury returned with the verdict.
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