Sometimes the circumstances of a shooting make it the focus of a lot of news coverage for a while, only to be all but forgotten as the case is prosecuted.
Defendants may be sent to prison on a murder conviction, or sent home with charges reduced or dropped, and we sometimes never hear about it.
So when a reader asked what happened to that retired police officer who killed a man in a movie theater north of Tampa, after an argument about a cell phone, I had no idea. I thought it might be an example of a case that got away.
That theater shooting happened in January of 2014, after all.
Curtis Reeves, then 71, is the retired cop who said he fired the fatal shot in self defense during an argument with Chad Oulson, 43, as both men were sitting with their wives and waiting for a movie to start. After angry words about Oulson's cell phone, Oulson grabbed Reeves' popcorn and threw it.
Reeves claimed he pulled his gun and fired because he believed Oulson was attacking him and about to beat him up.
Last I knew, his lawyer was planning to rely on Florida's "Stand Your Ground" defense. The law allows you to use deadly force when threatened and in danger, even if retreating was perhaps a more reasonable option.
My take was that it looked a lot like a cowardly shooting that might will be seen as totally unjustified. But, had a judge quietly dismissed the second-degree murder charge when I wasn't paying attention?
No. Turns out, postponements have repeatedly pushed the expected "Stand Your Ground" hearing. Richard Escobar, the shooter's lawyer, says is only partly because of waiting for crime lab enhancements of a security cam video that captured some of the action in the darkened theater.
Another factor has been even more time-consuming, he said: "One hundred seventy-two witnesses."
What?
The theater was full of people who could have seen or heard something relevant, Escobar said Monday. "We've deposed over 150 witnesses."
Keep in mind, this is not even necessarily preparation for trial. Escobar still hopes there won't be one. He is preparing for the February hearing at which he hopes a judge will dismiss the charge.
Wow. It has often been explained that a key point of Stand Your Ground is avoiding the need for massive and expensive legal work and getting charges dropped quickly if a judge thinks the shooting was justifiable as self-defense. What's the point if it takes three years to have the hearing, and if the prep is as massive as that for a trial?
Plenty, at least as a defense lawyer sees it. In essence, Escobar gets two possible shots to win.
But unlike some simpler cases, preparing for the "Stand Your Ground" hearing in this theater case is much like preparing for trial, he said.
The hearing itself will likely last two weeks, he said.
If the case still goes to trial one day, it will take even longer, he predicts.
But that won't be any time soon.
No matter who wins at the hearing, the other side may well appeal.
Reeves will be 74 by then. If the hearing does not go his way and if his appeal also fails, I have a suggestion for his defense team: Come up with another delay or two, and then argue Reeves is not competent to stand trial because he no longer has any memory of the shooting.
Maybe I won't either.
- Tom Lyons can be reached at tom.lyons@heraldtribune.com..
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