By Dylan T. Lovan, The Associated Press
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - Family and friends of a 19-year-old black man killed by a white police detective were angered by the officer’s partial acquittal in the case.
Former detective McKenzie Mattingly was acquitted Wednesday of murder, manslaughter and reckless homicide charges in the Jan. 3 shooting of 19-year-old Michael Newby, who was shot three times in the back during an undercover drug buy.
“Three bullets in the back ain’t justice,” Leroy Nobles, a former friend of Newby, said after the verdict was read Wednesday night.
Outside the courthouse, Newby’s stepfather, Jerry Bouggess, said: “There are murderers out here.”
The panel of 10 white and two black jurors returned a partial verdict after more than eight hours of deliberations. The judge declared a mistrial on a separate charge of wanton endangerment after the jury was unable to agree on that count.
Mattingly, who showed no emotion as the verdicts were read, did not comment to reporters as he left the courtroom.
Commonwealth’s Attorney David Stengel called the case “whoppingly difficult. ... I’m one who does not like the verdict, but I accept the verdict.”
Prosecutors, in an 11th-hour turnaround, told jurors during closing arguments that they should not find Mattingly guilty of murder, but convict him of a lesser charge.
“I do not think that is what he is guilty of,” said Scott Davis, an assistant prosecutor.
Mattingly’s attorney, Steve Schroering, said Mattingly feared for his life before he shot Newby.
“There is not one piece of evidence in this case that proves that McKenzie Mattingly was doing anything other than protecting himself,” Schroering said during his closing argument.
Mattingly told investigators he believed Newby was trying to kill him, even though he never saw a weapon. He said the two struggled over his police-issued handgun when he tried to arrest Newby.
Newby was carrying a .45-caliber gun in his waistband the night of the shooting, police said. Prosecutors, however, said Mattingly never mentioned Newby had a gun, and that officers didn’t know Newby was armed until after he was shot.
Mattingly was fired for violating the department’s use-of-force policy, a decision police Chief Robert White stood by Wednesday.
Prosecutors said they had not decided whether to seek a new trial on the wanton endangerment charge, which Mattingly faced for firing in the direction of a car at the liquor store’s drive-thru window. Stengel said some possible witnesses who were in the car didn’t respond to subpoenas. Newby was shot in the liquor store’s parking lot.
The shooting sparked weeks of protests in Louisville in part because Newby was the seventh black man killed by Louisville police since 1998.
“It’s business as usual,” said the Rev. Louis Coleman, who has led protests against the police.