With no question that Stanley Isaac Nelson fatally shot Latravis Jerome Morant, a Pulaski County jury hearing testimony this week is being asked to decide whether there is a good reason that the 31-year-old man was killed.
Prosecutors and police say there is not and that the gunfire also put at risk the lives of five children who were asleep in the home that night.
They call Morant's August 2013 slaying first-degree murder, accusing the 34-year-old Nelson of deliberately shooting to kill when he opened fire inside a Jacksonville home at the urging of a cousin who was losing a fistfight to Morant's brother after a night of gambling losses.
Nelson, of Little Rock, is also charged with first-degree battery in the wounding of the brother, Sedrick Lemont Green, 34, of Jacksonville.
"Is it reasonable to use a gun at a fistfight?" deputy prosecutor Jayme Butts-Hall asked the eight women and four men in opening statements, saying the answer is no.
But Nelson's attorney David Cannon told jurors that his client was forced to take action that night to save himself and his cousin, Courtney Ryan Marshall, 34.
Cannon said Nelson had tried to tamp down the violence by taking Marshall's gun away during the fight.
But when the other four men in the house, all members of the Morant family, turned on the cousins, Nelson had to shoot in self-defense, the attorney said.
"Was it reasonable?" Cannon said. "It was to protect himself and Courtney Marshall."
Proceedings resume at 9 a.m. today before Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen, with prosecutors expected to rest their case this morning. Also charged with first-degree murder and first-degree battery, Marshall, of North Little Rock, is scheduled for trial next month.
According to testimony Wednesday, the six men were gathered at the Craft Street house of another Morant relative to celebrate Green's birthday. They had been drinking and shooting dice. But things got ugly between Marshall and Green, with Marshall, after a losing streak, poking the other man in the head at least once. Green responded by throwing a punch that knocked Marshall to the ground.
What happened next is where prosecutors and the defense disagree.
The Morant family men-- Green, Johnathon Charles Adams, 26, of Cabot and Darrius Jamel Morant, 23, of Jacksonville -- testified they tried to break up the fight and get Marshall and Nelson out of the house.
But Marshall wouldn't give up, even after being punched in the face by Latravis Morant, and he began grappling with Green who threw Marshall to the floor and got on top of him throwing punches, according to the testimony.
They said that's when Marshall called out to Nelson to shoot the men and Nelson opened fire, striking Latravis Morant in the stomach and wounding Green in the right arm and thigh.
But Cannon, the defense attorney, has challenged that narrative by pointing out that Green, Adams and Latravis Morant were all larger and more muscled than his client, whom the witnesses admit never landed a punch during the fracas but collected several blows to the face. He's also questioned whether the Morants were more interested in beating up Nelson than they were in stopping the fighting.
There's also been testimony that Nelson only had Marshall's gun because he snatched it away from Marshall to keep his cousin from shooting anyone.
Metro on 10/23/2014