Prosecutor: St. Louis officer ‘executed’ suspect

Associated Press

ST. LOUIS — A white former St. Louis police officer charged with killing a black man “executed” him after a car chase, then planted a gun in the slain drug suspect’s vehicle as an excuse for opening fire, a prosecutor told a court Tuesday.

But Neil Bruntrager, the officer’s attorney, denied the prosecutor’s allegations during opening statements in the first-degree murder trial for Jason Stockley, saying the officer was protecting himself against an armed and dangerous felon.

It was the first time prosecutors revealed publicly that they believe that Mr. Stockley, 36, planted a gun on 24-year-old Anthony Lamar Smith after Mr. Smith was shot in December 2011. Mr. Stockley, who resigned from the department in 2013 and now lives in Houston, wasn’t charged until last year, after then-Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce cited unspecified new evidence. The trial will be decided by a judge rather thana jury.

It’s unusual for officers to be charged with killing suspects while on duty, and few officers are convicted in such deaths.

A key issue in the trial is the unloaded .38-caliber revolver that another officer later found inside Mr. Smith’s rented Buick. Three cartridges were next to the gun. Mr. Stockley has said he unloaded the weapon as a safety precaution after shooting Mr. Smith.

Assistant Circuit Attorney Aaron Levinson said Mr. Stockley shot Mr. Smith five times, including once while standing 6 inches from him, which Mr. Levinson called the “kill shot.” He said Mr. Stockley then returned to the Buick multiple times.

Mr. Stockley’s DNA — but not Mr. Smith’s — was found on the gun, though Mr. Smith’s DNA was found on a bag of heroin inside the car, the prosecutor said.

“Anthony Smith did not deserve to die,” Mr. Levinson said. “He may have fled from police, but he did not deserve to be executed.”

But Mr. Bruntrager said both officers saw the gun inside the car before the chase started.