The Charlotte police officer who shot and killed Jonathan Ferrell 10 times will avoid jail time after a North Carolina grand jury decided not to indict him.
Randall Kerrick was immediately arrested for manslaughter in September after he shot Ferrell, a college football player who crashed his vehicle and was searching for help. Members of the grand jury said they did not have enough evidence to indict Kerrick, 28, of the felony charge, asking the prosecutors to refile the case with lesser charges.
“We the Grand Jury respectfully request that the district attorney submit a bill of indictment to a lesser-included or related offense,” the jury’s foreperson said in a hand-written note released by the clerk of court’s office late in the afternoon.
But prosecutors say there’s an issue — the entire grand jury wasn’t present for that vote, and they want to try again for manslaughter.
As of now, however, Kerrick is in the clear.
George Laughrun, Kerrick’s attorney, told The Charlotte Observer that Kerrick “feels like the weight of the world has been lifted from his shoulders.”
“He’s extremely relieved that the grand jury members saw fit to keep an open mind and not listen to all the propaganda on all the things he did wrong,” Laughrun said.
And it’s not clear what evidence was presented to the jury.
Grand juries meet in private. Attorneys on either side are not permitted to attend. In the Kerrick case, the evidence was presented by Charlotte-Mecklenburg police investigator Edwin Morales and Scott Williams of the State Bureau of Investigation.
But what else do you need, except the fact that Ferrell was unarmed, seeking help, and was in turn shot 10 times?
Let that sink in.
SOURCE: Charlotte Observer
