By Bill Poovey, The Associated Press
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) -- A man fatally shot by a rookie policeman who pulled him over for an improper license plate was on a “cocaine buzz” and ignored commands to stay away from the car, the officer’s attorney told jurors.
Lee Davis, in closing arguments at the trial of former officer Chris Gaynor, described the May 29 shooting of John Eric Henderson, 32, as “reasonable self-defense. It’s tragic but it’s not a crime.”
Davis said Henderson “was absolutely noncompliant with this officer.”
Hamilton County Assistant District Attorney Neal Pinkston said Gaynor, 24, “panicked and lost control of the situation.”
“It was an unarmed man that was shot,” Pinkston said.
Gaynor was on his fourth day working alone when he stopped Henderson because of an improper license plate and loud muffler. Gaynor has said he thought he saw Henderson reach inside the car for a gun after being pulled over.
Gaynor, who has since been fired, is being tried on a charge of criminally negligent homicide.
After three hours of deliberating on the second day of the trial, the sequestered jurors told Criminal Court Judge Stephen Bevil they decided to take a break until Friday.
Jurors have been told that Henderson acted “fidgety” and an autopsy showed he a trace amount of cocaine in his body.
“If training had been followed, then both parties would have gone home alive,” Assistant District Attorney Jason Thomas said.
Davis said Henderson disobeyed Gaynor by leaning inside the car and reaching inside the dash box. Davis said a more experienced police officer likely would have had Henderson “tied up and hanging from a tree in about 3 seconds.”
With the case involving a white officer and black victim, Henderson’s brother, Charles Lockhart Nash Jr., complained outside the courtroom afterward that the comment by Davis was “racist.”
Davis declined comment, citing a gag order by the judge.
Investigators found a potato, a bottle of cologne and a utility knife in Henderson’s car, which was pulled over in front of a house he was helping repair.
Gaynor was fired in September following an internal affairs investigation and a recommendation by a citizens’ review panel.