Monticello Live

Shooting Trial Underway
Victim Testifies About Shooting
“Description of the Shooting”
16 Year Old Testifies in Shooting Trial
16 Year Old’s Mother Testifies
Defendant Testifies “Self Defense” in Shooting

At 5:50 PM, Friday, after only 20 minutes of deliberation, a jury of 3 men and 9 women returned a final verdict of not guilty in the trial of Jimmy Gibson for the November, 2013 shooting of a Star City man in northern Drew County.

Many contributing factors and bad decisions (mainly by other people besides the defendant) led to the events of that day.

Based on the information that Gibson had been told,
1.  A 26 year old sex offender was “stalking” a 16 year old girl, who was a close family friend; and
2.  “He’s got a gun,”
combined that Gibson didn’t know the man that he shot, before that night, seems to eliminate premeditation.

The case presented by the prosecution possibly occurred, but when the testimony, actions, and phone calls of the 16 year old girl were told,  it certainly affected the the view of the case in the jury’s opinion.

To sum up a portion of the defense attorney’s closing, “That little girl should’ve had her backside tanned for messing with a grown man, trying to be a grown woman.”  He also appropriately described what most people think about a 26 year old sex-offender “messing with” a 16 year old girl.

Again, many bad decisions led to the events of that day, but if not for the actin of the eventual victim and the 16 year old girl’s phone calls, Jimmy Gibson and his shotgun would not have been there, and would not have been in court on Friday.

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 25th, 2014 at 6:14 am and is filed under Court. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.