Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Ex-cop’s shooting trial will proceed
Judge rejects claim of ‘stand your ground’ in death of Corey Jones
The prosecution of former police officer Nouman Raja in the 2015 fatal shooting of Corey Jones won a key victory Friday when a judge refused to dismiss charges under Florida’s “stand your ground” self-defense law.
Raja’s lawyers say they will file an appeal in the hope of getting manslaughter and attempted murder charges dismissed based on a claim that the killing of the 31-year-old stranded motorist was justifiable.
Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Samantha Schosberg Feuer said she doesn’t believe Raja’s story that he feared for his life because Jones pulled a gun on him after Raja announced he was a cop.
In her 27-page ruling, the judge concluded Raja “acted unreasonably” and she kept the case on track for a trial where Raja would be free to make the same “stand your ground” argument to a jury.
But the trial likely won’t happen as
planned in mid-July because of the pending appeal.
“I’m just happy the judge ruled in our favor,” said Clinton Jones Sr., father of Corey Jones. “It’s a relief and I’m looking forward to the trial.”
Prosecutors declined to comment. Raja’s attorneys said only that they will challenge the judge’s ruling in the Fourth District Court of Appeal in West Palm Beach.
Schosberg Feuer wrote that she based her decision on two days of hearings last month that were like a minitrial without a jury.
The “stand your ground law,” first enacted in 2005, says someone does not have to retreat and can legally use deadly force if the person reasonably believes doing so is necessary “to prevent imminent death.” Police officers can make these claims just like anyone else, but the Florida Supreme Court is reviewing the law.
Raja, 40, didn’t testify at the hearings, but his lawyers showed the judge a video of Raja speaking to investigators four hours after the shooting beside an Interstate 95 off-ramp in Palm Beach Gardens.
On the video, Raja voluntarily re-enacted the scene — called a walk-through statement — and described how he had been had been working a plainclothes car burglary patrol that night.
He said he left his tactical vest, police radio and department-issued gun in his unmarked cargo van when he approached Jones’ disabled Hyundai SUV, expecting it to be unoccupied.
The defense also played a recording of Jones’ call for roadside assistance, which captured sounds of Raja’s encounter with Jones and six gunshots at 3:15 a.m. Oct. 18, 2015. Jones was hit three times, including a fatal wound to the chest.
Raja’s lawyers then leaned on testimony from a forensic audio-video analyst, who said he enhanced the recording and picked up the sound of someone speaking prior to the first audible word — “Huh?” — uttered by Jones.
The judge wrote that based on the recording she does not believe Raja’s repeated claims to investigators that he identified himself as a cop when he approached Jones.
Raja told investigators that Jones hopped out of his SUV and immediately aimed a gun at him, but the judge found his “unreliable testimony is all that supports that proposition.”
Schosberg Feuer also wrote that it’s clear from the roadside assistance call there’s no evidence that Raja ever said, “Police, can I help you?” as he insisted.
The judge said she listened to the call numerous times and found “the first discernible word on the call was Jones saying ‘Huh?’ ”
She declared that any arguments over whether Raja identified himself as a cop were moot.
“It is common sense that in saying ‘Huh?’ Jones did not hear what was, if anything, specifically said to him that evening,” Schosberg Feuer wrote.
“Nowhere else in the call can defendant be heard identifying himself as a police officer nor is there any evidence whatsoever that he ever did,” the judge continued.
She also offered her opinion about what she believes happened:
“The court finds, and common sense dictates, the evidence shows the defendant had his gun drawn when he jumped out of the car and approached Jones. It was upon seeing the defendant — in plain clothes with no indication, understanding or knowledge that the defendant was a police officer, pointing a gun at him — that it was then, and only then, that Jones pulled out his gun in response.”
Prosecutors say that’s what makes Raja’s actions a crime, from the way he recklessly and aggressively approached Jones to firing shots when Jones was running away and no longer armed.
“If [Raja] would have simply followed the generally accepted practices of all law enforcement and acted in the manner consistent of how the huge majority of well-intentioned officers act on a daily basis, Corey would still be alive today,” Assistant State Attorney Brian Fernandes wrote in a closing argument May 15.
But defense attorneys Richard Lubin, Scott Richardson and Rick King argued that “there is no way that Officer Raja was the aggressor as that term is defined in Florida law.”
The lawyers said the evidence, backed up by Raja’s account of what happened, makes it “a classic case of self-defense: Mr. Jones pointed a gun at him, twice, and he responded to the deadly threat.”
Raja will remain on house arrest under a $250,000 bond, pending the resolution of his case.