The jury within the homicide trial for Jonathan Douglas Shaw, accused of taking pictures one guy useless and wounding some other in a Kalispell health club parking zone September 2021, started deliberating Thursday afternoon.
Shaw, 37, faces counts of planned murder and tried planned murder for his position within the fatal taking pictures. He pleaded no longer accountable in Flathead County District Court docket in October 2021 and testified previous this week that he opened fireplace whilst in concern for his lifestyles.
Prosecutors alleged that Shaw shot Gas Health supervisor Matthew Hurley useless after Hurley attempted to refund his gymnasium club and dislodge him from the parking zone, the place Shaw was once residing in a trailer. Matt Underhill, the gymnasium’s assistant supervisor, had accompanied Hurley into the parking zone and testified previous within the week {that a} menacing Shaw adopted them again towards the gymnasium earlier than stating his intent to kill and opening fireplace.
Any other gymnasium patron, William Keck, engaged Shaw in a gunfight in a while after Underhill fled. Each males had been wounded within the change, which ended in the tried planned murder rate.
Protection lawyers Colin Stephens and Paul Simon of Missoula sought to exhibit Shaw was once cheap, if improper, when he determined to protect himself towards Hurley and Underhill. Shaw testified Wednesday that he was once ignorant of the cause of the pair coming near him within the parking zone and adopted them to get additional information. He stated he heard the 2 whispering invectives about him and noticed them succeed in into their wallet for what he believed had been guns.
Neither Hurley nor Underhill had been armed with anything else greater than cell phones.
“The proof is [Shaw] acted with justification,” Stephens stated in his remaining argument to the jury. “He was once improper, however his movements had been cheap in gentle of the instances.”
A shaken Shaw, in Stephens’ retelling, was once in the hunt for secure harbor when Keck opened fireplace. Keck, Stephens argued, was once the aggressor within the resulting gunfight.
“His intentions will have been very natural, however he shot first,” Stephens stated of Keck.
Keck testified previous within the week, announcing that he issued Shaw instructions earlier than taking pictures broke out. Keck advised the jury that Shaw spoke back with gunfire, however protection lawyers wondered the veracity of his reminiscence. Investigators said all the way through the trial that a number of main points in Keck’s account of his movements all the way through the taking pictures had been contradicted via proof amassed on the scene.
“We will forgive Mr. Keck’s reminiscence lapses given the warmth of the motion … but when we’re going to try this we additionally need to forgive [Shaw’s] as a result of, once more, the entirety came about in a couple of seconds,” Stephens stated.
He additionally addressed the presence of Hurley’s family and friends within the court. Stephens had unsuccessfully requested for a mistrial following the primary day’s complaints when an target audience member cursed at Shaw from the gallery in entrance of the jury.
“A tender guy died and I keep in mind that his circle of relatives and his buddies, they would like a reckoning,” Stephens stated. “All folks really feel sympathy for the ones people. And it’s OK to really feel sympathy for them however the regulation doesn’t permit you to use that sympathy [in your deliberations.]”
PROSECUTORS USED their flip earlier than the jury to reiterate their case towards Shaw point-by-point.
Video proof confirmed Hurley and Underhill leave Shaw’s automobile with their backs grew to become to him, stated Deputy County Legal professional Ashley Frechette in her remaining argument. Shaw adopted them, she stated; he threatened them.
“The defendant advised Hurley what his intent was once — that he was once going to die — after which he did it,” Frechette stated.
She additionally wondered Shaw’s credibility at the witness stand. Shaw testified that he was once not able to listen to both Hurley or Underhill. However, she argued, he stated he may just later pay attention them whispering about him in insulting and perhaps threatening phrases.
Shaw stated he didn’t know Hurley, Frechette identified, however investigators discovered data of on-line searches together with each Hurley’s given title and Gas Health within the question from the day earlier than the taking pictures.
And Shaw testified he was once not able to telephone 911, she recalled. Different witnesses there that day had no hassle calling emergency responders.
Addressing the protection’s arguments, Frechette honed in at the reasonableness of Shaw’s movements and his purported common sense for taking pictures Hurley. Shaw up to now testified beneath pass exam that he by no means noticed a weapon on both Hurley or Underhill.
“Is it cheap for the defendant to shoot at Hurley as a result of he’s achieving into his pocket? The state submits to you that’s not cheap …,” Frechette stated.
And if Shaw dedicated planned murder in killing Hurley, he may just no longer have used justifiable drive towards Keck without reference to how the following gunfight started, she argued.
“[Shaw] testified that this was once a battle zone. He likened it to a battle incident,” Frechette stated. “This incident was once a battle zone of the defendant’s personal making.”
Whilst Frechette clinically connected the prosecution’s case to witness testimony and proof amassed via investigators, Donovan hired emotion in his rebuttal remaining argument. Hurley, he stated, died doing a task, his process as common supervisor of the gymnasium.
Dressed in a Gas Health workforce blouse and joined via a coworker, Hurley headed out to the parking zone to take away a soon-to-be former member of the gymnasium for putting in place camp at the stretch of pavement.
Shaw, in Donovan’s telling, had no drawback figuring out what Hurley sought after.
“He’s disillusioned on the man who kicked him out of the one place of dwelling he had,” Donovan stated. “Is that cheap? The state submits that’s why Jonathan Shaw killed Matthew Hurley.”
