Judge denies NAU shooting mistrial
Prosecutor misconduct not found, but jury told of inaccurate remarks
FLAGSTAFF — A Coconino County Superior Court judge Thursday morning denied a mistrial for prosecutor misconduct in the Steven Jones murder trial. But he ordered that the jury be given an instruction about inaccurate statements made by the prosecutor in his closing argument that would diminish Jones’ claims of self-defense.
Before the trial began, prosecutors Ammon Barker and Bryan Shea convinced the judge to preclude statements Jones made to witnesses and police at the scene of the October 2015 shooting that left one student dead and three others wounded on the Northern Arizona University campus.
Immediately after the incident, Jones told another student that he acted in self-defense, and when he was in a police car after being detained, he was recorded on camera as saying, “Why were they going to hurt me?” and “I thought I was going to die.”
Those statements were precluded as “self-serving statements” and hearsay, and prosecutors argued that Jones was reflecting and making excuses. But in his closing argument, Barker said that Jones never brought up any notion of self-defense until he “had an audience at the police station.”
Defense attorney Josh Davidson accused Barker of deliberately having the statements precluded and then giving the jury the impression that they were never uttered. He asked for a mistrial.
Judge Dan Slayton suspended the jury deliberation and scheduled Thursday morning’s hearing to discuss the motion for mistrial.
Shea sought to defend Barker’s closing statement and said there was no wrongful argument.
Slayton said that he did not think that Barker committed prosecutor misconduct. But he felt that Barker and Shea decided to go “up to the line.”
“It’s up to the guy in the black robe to decide where the line is, and I think he crossed it,” he said.”
Davidson asked that the video be shown to the jury. The judge and attorneys viewed the film in the courtroom, outside the presence of the jury, as family members of Jones and the victims sat in the gallery.
Slayton denied the request because he worried that the strong emotional impact of Jones crying and hysterical in the back of a police car, his mouth swollen and bloodied, would be too prejudicial.
Slayton did not grant the motion for mistrial but read the misstatement to the jury and informed jurors about the precluded utterances.
The instruction was read, and the jurors returned to their deliberations at about 10:15 a.m.