The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Veteran officers back in federal court in task force killing case
Pair in 2016 incident entitled to immunity, their lawyers argue.
Two federal task force officers facing murder charges in the 2016 shooting of Jamarion Robinson bolstered their efforts to have their cases dismissed on Wednesday.
Attorneys for Eric Heinze and Kristopher Hutchens returned to U.S. District Court in Atlanta, arguing the veteran officers are entitled to immunity because they acted within the scope of their federal duties when they got into a shootout with 26-year-old at his girlfriend’s East Point apartment.
Robinson was shot nearly five dozen times on Aug. 5, 2016, after Heinze, Hutchens and other members of the U.S. Marshal’s Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force came to arrest him.
The pair were later indicted by the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office on charges of felony murder, aggravated assault, burglary, making false statements and violating their oath of office. Daniel Doyle, the third task force member who opened fire that day, died of cancer in March 2020 and was never charged.
Attorneys for Heinze and Hutchens got the case moved from Fulton County to federal court in the fall of 2022, successfully arguing that was a more appropriate venue for the task force officers.
Heinze was employed fulltime by the U.S. Marshals Service. Hutchens, a Clayton County police officer, was there because he served on the fugitive task force.
Police had been searching for Robinson after he poured gasoline outside his mother’s bedroom door on July 11, 2016, and weeks later
aimed a gun at two Atlanta police officers responding to a call about a suspicious person at an apartment complex, records show.
Attorney Lance LoRusso, who represents Heinze, said Wednesday that the task force members had reason to believe Robinson might still be armed because the gun was never recovered after the run-in with Atlanta officers.
He cited a number of cases where officers were granted immunity in useof-force cases once it was determined they acted within the scope of their federal duties.
“If they do no more than is reasonable or necessary, they should not be prosecuted,” LoRusso told U.S. District Judge Victoria Marie Calvert. “Jamarion Robinson made the decision to assault three uniformed federal law enforcement officers.”
Had he surrendered instead of shooting at police, LoRusso said Robinson would have stood trial for the charges he faced and would likely still be alive.
State prosecutors contend the task force members used excessive force that day, pointing to a neighbor’s cellphone video in which three shots can be heard after witnesses said Robinson lost consciousness and no longer posed a threat.
Emilia Beskind, arguing on behalf of the Fulton DA’s office, showed an autopsy photo of Robinson’s bullet-riddled body. Prosecutors
also showed photos of the blood-soaked walls and carpet where Robinson had been standing at the top of the stairs.
Of the dozens of rounds that struck Robinson, none of them hit his head, neck or heart, Beskind said.
“He died of blood loss,” she told the judge.
A U.S. Marshals shooting review board determined the officers’ use of force was authorized, and the Justice Department declined to open an investigation into the shooting, according to John Martin, a Justice Department attorney from the civil division.
Judge Calvert did not indicate how long she might take to reach a decision, but she denied the state’s request to send Hutchens’ case back to Fulton County because his police certification is suspended and he is technically no longer deputized as a federal officer.
Hutchens’ attorney, Don Samuel, said his client still works out of the task force’s Atlanta office, where he has a desk and trains other deputy marshals in the use of firearms and how to capture fugitives.
Even if both defendants retire before trial, Samuel said that doesn’t change the fact that they were acting as federal officers at the time of the shooting.
“The U.S. Marshals Service has said (Hutchens) is a federal officer,” Samuel said. “That should be the end of that question.”