doublesharp
Member
There was a thread about this shooting last summer. Here is a story about the trial.
Self-defense rejected in shooting of cyclist | courier-journal.com | The Courier-Journal
July 31, 2009
Self-defense rejected in shooting of cyclist
Parrish convictedby Clark jurors
By Harold J. Adams
[email protected]
As Yalanda Parrish sat in her sport utility vehicle with her teenage son, she was adamant about feeling threatened when a motorcyclist stopped at a Jeffersonville traffic light last year and walked toward them. Moments later, she shot him.
But on Friday a Clark County jury rejected her claim of self-defense in the wounding of Wesley Mosier Jr.
Parrish, 40, was found guilty on felony charges of aggravated assault and criminal recklessness in the June 17, 2008, shooting.
Clark County Circuit Judge Dan Moore set sentencing for Aug. 18.
Parrish and Mosier had engaged in a dispute while driving for about a mile along 10th Street. The incident was described by police as road rage.
Parrish, who had remained free since the shooting, was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs and taken to the Clark County Jail at the end of the four-day trial.
She showed no reaction when the verdicts were read in a crowded but silent courtroom, where spectators had been warned by Moore to remain quiet when the verdicts came in.
Jurors declined to comment after the trial.
Mosier, 54, who was hit in the chest by a .38-caliber bullet that narrowly missed his heart, said he was "tremendously thrilled" by the jury's decision.
"Thank God for the verdict," he said.
The jury deliberated about 3½ hours, stopping once to take another look at a soundless gas-station security video that showed Mosier's motorcycle passing Parrish's sport utility vehicle just before reaching the intersection at Allison Lane, where the shooting occurred.
According to police and witnesses, Mosier stopped in front of the SUV at the traffic light, got off his motorcycle and walked back to the driver's side of her vehicle. Mosier had testified that he couldn't see in the SUV because of its tinted windows but that it had been tailgating him, and he wanted to ask whether he had done something to offend the driver.
Parrish did not testify, and the defense rested Thursday without calling any witnesses. But in interviews with police and in testimony before the grand jury that indicted her, she said she was in fear for herself and her son when Mosier approached, and that he reached into the vehicle and tried to strike her.
"I was scared for my life," Parrish told Jeffersonville police in a taped interview that was heard during the trial, as was her grand jury testimony.
Witnesses called by Clark County Prosecutor Steve Stewart disagreed about portions of both Parrish's and Mosier's accounts.
In closing arguments Friday, Stewart told the jury of four men and eight women, "I'm not sure either one is telling the complete truth of what happened. … I think it's very clear that both of them were operating their vehicles recklessly."
But Stewart said Parrish's first reaction to seeing Mosier get off his bike was to pull her handgun, for which she had a permit, from under the seat.
"This is not the wild, wild West," Stewart said. "But even if it was Dodge City, the defendant would not be able to walk away claiming self-defense."
Stewart noted that witnesses testified that Mosier raised his hands, palms up, and took a step back before he was shot — contradicting Parrish's claim that he raised his hand to punch her.
Brian Butler, Parrish's lawyer, argued that Mosier repeatedly cut in front of Parrish along 10th Street and that she was justified in being afraid when he approached.
"We don't have to wait for someone to drag us out of our car and start beating us … before we can defend ourselves," he told the jury.
Butler also argued that Parrish's fear was based in part on the fact that she is black and saw "an angry man who happens to be white" coming at her.
"We're all kidding ourselves if we don't think that that created extra fear in her mind," he said.
After the verdicts, Butler said that he is convinced that his client "believed that she had to do what she did."
On July 1, Parrish's 15-year-old son pleaded guilty to misdemeanor battery for getting out of the SUV and kicking Mosier after he was shot. Clark Superior Court Judge Vicki Carmichael imposed a six-month suspended sentence.
Self-defense rejected in shooting of cyclist | courier-journal.com | The Courier-Journal
July 31, 2009
Self-defense rejected in shooting of cyclist
Parrish convictedby Clark jurors
By Harold J. Adams
[email protected]
As Yalanda Parrish sat in her sport utility vehicle with her teenage son, she was adamant about feeling threatened when a motorcyclist stopped at a Jeffersonville traffic light last year and walked toward them. Moments later, she shot him.
But on Friday a Clark County jury rejected her claim of self-defense in the wounding of Wesley Mosier Jr.
Parrish, 40, was found guilty on felony charges of aggravated assault and criminal recklessness in the June 17, 2008, shooting.
Clark County Circuit Judge Dan Moore set sentencing for Aug. 18.
Parrish and Mosier had engaged in a dispute while driving for about a mile along 10th Street. The incident was described by police as road rage.
Parrish, who had remained free since the shooting, was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs and taken to the Clark County Jail at the end of the four-day trial.
She showed no reaction when the verdicts were read in a crowded but silent courtroom, where spectators had been warned by Moore to remain quiet when the verdicts came in.
Jurors declined to comment after the trial.
Mosier, 54, who was hit in the chest by a .38-caliber bullet that narrowly missed his heart, said he was "tremendously thrilled" by the jury's decision.
"Thank God for the verdict," he said.
The jury deliberated about 3½ hours, stopping once to take another look at a soundless gas-station security video that showed Mosier's motorcycle passing Parrish's sport utility vehicle just before reaching the intersection at Allison Lane, where the shooting occurred.
According to police and witnesses, Mosier stopped in front of the SUV at the traffic light, got off his motorcycle and walked back to the driver's side of her vehicle. Mosier had testified that he couldn't see in the SUV because of its tinted windows but that it had been tailgating him, and he wanted to ask whether he had done something to offend the driver.
Parrish did not testify, and the defense rested Thursday without calling any witnesses. But in interviews with police and in testimony before the grand jury that indicted her, she said she was in fear for herself and her son when Mosier approached, and that he reached into the vehicle and tried to strike her.
"I was scared for my life," Parrish told Jeffersonville police in a taped interview that was heard during the trial, as was her grand jury testimony.
Witnesses called by Clark County Prosecutor Steve Stewart disagreed about portions of both Parrish's and Mosier's accounts.
In closing arguments Friday, Stewart told the jury of four men and eight women, "I'm not sure either one is telling the complete truth of what happened. … I think it's very clear that both of them were operating their vehicles recklessly."
But Stewart said Parrish's first reaction to seeing Mosier get off his bike was to pull her handgun, for which she had a permit, from under the seat.
"This is not the wild, wild West," Stewart said. "But even if it was Dodge City, the defendant would not be able to walk away claiming self-defense."
Stewart noted that witnesses testified that Mosier raised his hands, palms up, and took a step back before he was shot — contradicting Parrish's claim that he raised his hand to punch her.
Brian Butler, Parrish's lawyer, argued that Mosier repeatedly cut in front of Parrish along 10th Street and that she was justified in being afraid when he approached.
"We don't have to wait for someone to drag us out of our car and start beating us … before we can defend ourselves," he told the jury.
Butler also argued that Parrish's fear was based in part on the fact that she is black and saw "an angry man who happens to be white" coming at her.
"We're all kidding ourselves if we don't think that that created extra fear in her mind," he said.
After the verdicts, Butler said that he is convinced that his client "believed that she had to do what she did."
On July 1, Parrish's 15-year-old son pleaded guilty to misdemeanor battery for getting out of the SUV and kicking Mosier after he was shot. Clark Superior Court Judge Vicki Carmichael imposed a six-month suspended sentence.
