Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Ex-cop declines to testify in Corey Jones trial
Former police officer Nouman Raja decided not to testify Tuesday in his own defense against felony charges over his fatal shooting of stranded motorist Corey Jones more than three years ago.
It’s now time for the Palm Beach County jury Wednesday to hear four hours of closing arguments from the lawyers, and then commence deliberations.
Prosecutors will contend Raja acted aggressively and recklessly when he chased and gunned down a frightened man in need of help next to a highway off-ramp. Raja’s attorneys will counter that he was justified in using deadly force because he was threatened at gunpoint.
The court on Tuesday released some details about the six jurors who will decide Raja’s fate, in response to a public records request.
Four men of the jury include: a company president who lives near Royal Palm Beach; a fiber optic splicer from Loxahatchee; a driver from Jupiter; and a driver from Riviera Beach. The two women of the jury are an information technology manager from North Palm Beach, and a cake decorator from Greenacres.
Before the trial, Circuit Judge Joseph Marx ordered that for the jurors’ protection, their names and most identifying information would not be released until the trial ends.
None of the jurors is African-American, which surprised some observers of a case that stoked national outrage in 2015 amid a spate of police shootings involving young black men.
Groups, including Black Lives Matter, gathered outside the courthouse last week in
support of the Jones family. But racial issues have not been raised inside the courtroom. Raja is of Pakistani descent.
No one on the jury has any obvious connection to law enforcement, either.
While Raja never took the witness stand, the jurors still heard his voice throughout the trial now entering its seventh day.
Prosecutors played for the panel Raja’s 911 call and his statements to investigators after his encounter with Jones, at 3:15 a.m. Oct. 18, 2015, in the southbound Interstate 95 exit ramp at PGA Boulevard in Palm Beach Gardens.
In those recordings, Raja claimed he announced he was a cop and saw Jones holding a silver handgun.
The jury also heard the most critical piece of evidence for prosecutors: a tape of Jones’ call for a tow truck after his Hyundai Santa Fe broke down.
The roadside assistance call captured sounds of the confrontation between Raja and Jones and all six shots from the officer’s personal gun.
Raja, 41, is charged with manslaughter by culpable negligence while armed and attempted first-degree murder with a firearm. The manslaughter charge is punishable by up to 30 years in prison. The attempted murder count is punishable by up to life in prison.
But jurors will have the option of choosing from a menu of lesser charges, if they find Raja is guilty of some other offenses. These include a basic manslaughter charge with a 15-year-maximum prison sentence or a misdemeanor that calls for up to a year in jail. Other lesser counts include attempted seconddegree murder, aggravated assault with a firearm, and simple assault.
Since his arrest on June 1, 2016, Raja has been on house arrest with a GPS ankle monitor, under the conditions of a $250,000 bond. He is a married father of two children, ages 7 and 9.
At the time of his death, Jones was a 31-year-old housing inspector for Delray Beach who played drums for a reggae band in the evenings. Jones performed at a gig in Jupiter prior and was driving to his home near Lake Worth when his SUV failed.
Prosecutors have blasted Raja as a “reckless killer” and Jones’ “angel of death,” who lied repeatedly about what happened when he interrupted a plainclothes car burglary operation to approach Jones’ Hyundai.
Among the experts who testified for the defense Tuesday was Dr. Stephen Nelson, medical examiner for Florida’s 10th judicial circuit, based in Polk County.
He told the jury he disagrees with the finding of Dr. Gertrude Juste, the associate Palm Beach County Medical Examiner who performed an autopsy of Jones.
Jones was hit by three bullets, with shots first hitting both arms and the fatal shot blowing the top off his heart, according to Juste.
The key dispute is over whether Jones could have run a distance of 41 yards from where his gun was found in the grass between the off-ramp and the Doubletree hotel.
The defense argues Jones was still armed when Raja shot him in the chest, then dropped his gun and continued running. The prosecution contends that Jones was unarmed when he was gunned down and Raja knew it.
Dr. Juste testified Monday that Jones could have moved just several feet after the bullet ripped through his heart.
But Nelson pointed to scientific studies and medical literature about the phenomenon of humans being able to run despite catastrophic gunshots.
The chairman of Florida’s Medical Examiners Commission told the jury that Jones clearly would have been able to run 41 yards, or nearly half the length of a football field.
“It’s now settled science and it’s in textbooks,” Nelson said, adding that Jones would likely “not drop like a ton of bricks.”