Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Ex-cop loses ‘stand your ground’ appeal in killing of motorist
An appeals court says former cop Nouman Raja should go to trial on charges of shooting and killing stranded motorist Corey Jones nearly three years ago in Palm Beach Gardens.
The Fourth District Court of Appeal on Thursday rejected Raja’s “stand your ground” self-defense claim.
The three-judge panel provided no explanation for denying the appeal. But the decision allows the prosecution to continue on charges of manslaughter by culpable negligence while armed and attempted first-degree murder with a firearm.
Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Joseph
Marx could set a new trial date when he meets with the lawyers Aug. 31.
Despite Thursday’s setback for the defense, Raja’s legal team can still try to convince a jury it was “a classic case of self-defense.”
Prosecutors can use their argument that the evidence shows Raja was the aggressor, by showing “a flagrant, total disregard to Corey Jones’ life” and then lying about what happened.
Both sides declined to comment about the appellate court’s decision.
The “stand your ground” law says an individual does not have to retreat and can legally use deadly force if the person reasonably believes doing so is necessary “to prevent imminent death.”
The issue of whether police officers can make those claims, the same as the public, is before the Florida Supreme Court; in the meantime Raja had that right.
Raja, 40, has been on house arrest with a GPS ankle monitor under a $250,000 bond since his arrest in June 2016.
The shooting happened at 3:15 a.m. Oct. 18, 2015, beside an Interstate 95 off-ramp, after Raja had driven an unmarked van up to Jones’ broken down SUV. Seconds later, the plainclothes officer fired six shots from his personal handgun, hitting the 31-year-old Jones three times, according to facts not in dispute.
In his statement to investigators about four hours after the shooting, Raja said he was startled when Jones exited his Hyundai Santa Fe.
“I said, ‘Hey, man, police, can I help you?’ ” Raja said. “And the second I said police, he jumped back and I clearly remember him drawing ... a gun at me.”
But the prosecution says all of Raja’s claims are refuted by an audio recording of a phone call Jones made for roadside assistance. The recording includes sounds of the encounter and the gunshots.
Jones had a licensed gun he bought just days earlier for protection, but it was not fired, records show.
The “stand your ground” claim became the focus of a mini-trial without a jury in May. The defense called a forensic audio-video analyst to play an enhanced version of the recording for Circuit Judge Samatha Schosberg Feuer.
In a ruling June 1, she refused to dismiss the charges, writing that she didn’t believe Raja’s repeated claims to investigators that he identified himself as a cop when he approached Jones.
The judge noted that Raja can’t “be heard identifying himself as a police officer nor is there any evidence whatsoever that he ever did.”
Schosberg Feuer also rejected Raja’s claim that Jones immediately flashed his gun, concluding that Raja’s “unreliable testimony is all that supports that proposition.”
The bottom line, the judge said, is that Raja “acted unreasonably.”
“The manner in which Defendant approached Jones — in the middle of the night, driving the wrong way up the ramp, in a white unmarked van, parking headon diagonal to Jones’ vehicle just feet away, jumping out of his vehicle, in plainclothes, with his firearm drawn with no indication he was a police officer — would not afford an ordinary citizen Stand Your Ground immunity,” the judge wrote.
Raja’s defense team appealed the order a few weeks later, arguing it was “riddled with error.”
Jones’ extended family and friends say they’ve been frustrated over repeated trial delays caused by Raja’s bid for immunity from the charges.
They’ve leaned on prayer, while remembering Jones as a peaceful, churchgoing man who played the drums in a reggae band and also worked as a Delray Beach city housing inspector.
Benjamin Crump, a civil attorney who represents Jones’ estate, recently called Raja’s “stand your ground” claim “a shameful ploy to escape prosecution” in the killing of an innocent man.