Jury rejects self-defense claim, convicts man of murder

A Franklin County jury didn’t accept a man’s claim that he was defending himself when he fatally shot a pot dealer 15 months ago during a purchase at an East Side duplex.

On Friday, the jurors convicted Shante Stevenson, 23, of murder with a gun specification and illegally possessing a gun in the death of 55-year-old Marty Blair.

Stevenson faces a mandatory penalty of life in prison, with a chance of parole after 18 years, plus up to three years for the weapons charge when he is sentenced on June 15 by Common Pleas Judge Richard A. Frye.

The judge could add 10 years to the sentence if he labels Stevenson a repeat violent offender because of a 2012 burglary conviction.

Stevenson testified Thursday, saying he went to Blair’s house in the 800 block of South Weyent Avenue on Jan. 30, 2016, to buy marijuana for two acquaintances who waited outside in a car. He said Blair pulled a gun and tried to rob him in the kitchen.

Stevenson testified that he pulled his own gun, a 9-mm handgun, which Blair grabbed by the barrel during a struggle. Stevenson said he was trying to pull the gun out of Blair’s grasp when he fired it in self-defense. The bullet passed through Blair’s left cheek, exited near his right ear and lodged in the kitchen wall.

After fleeing the scene, Stevenson sold the gun and went to Georgia.

“That’s how we know this isn’t a selfdefense case,” Assistant Prosecutor Elizabeth Geraghty told jurors in her closing argument.

Stevenson testified that he didn’t contact police after the shooting because “I didn’t feel they would believe my story.”

During crossexamination, Geraghty aggressively questioned Stevenson about a jail phone call in which he told one of the men who accompanied him to the duplex not to show up for court. “If y’all don’t come, they don’t have no case,” Stevenson said in a recording of the call.

Both of the acquaintances testified against Stevenson, saying they didn’t know he had a gun until he came out of the duplex. They also didn’t realize anyone had been shot until seeing a report about the slaying on TV, they said.

They had asked Stevenson to buy $10 worth of marijuana for them. One of the men drove as they cruised the East Side until they found Blair outside a corner convenience store. They followed him to his home to make the purchase, with Stevenson going inside by himself.

“Why would (Blair) bring this kid back to his house to rob him?” Assistant Prosecutor Lindsay Miller asked during her part of the state’s closing argument.

Miller said no gunpowder residue or stippling were detected around the wound, meaning Blair wasn’t shot at close range.

Defense attorney Karen Phipps said no such evidence would be present because Blair was an arm’s-length away when the shot was fired.

“All of the physical evidence supports what my client said,” she told the jury, including a revolver found by the body.