Pulaski County Circuit Judge Barry Sims halted a murder trial Wednesday after two jurors said they were frightened by a man taking photographs of them.
At the request of the defense, Sims declared a mistrial. The judge said he was considering whether to take any action against the man, a cousin of the defendant.
Sims said the jurors felt intimidated by the man, who stood outside the courtroom door and took their photographs with a phone as they returned from lunch. At least four jurors were photographed, the judge said.
Defense attorney Bill Luppen asked for the mistrial because he believed that jurors could no longer be impartial about his client. The trial has been rescheduled for April.
Sims ended the trial of 20-year-old Michael Mitchell just after the sides had delivered their opening statements.
Mitchell is charged with first-degree murder and first-degree battery in the December 2014 shooting that killed Troy Lee Holmes and wounded Holmes' teenage stepdaughter at the Holmes family's Stevenson Drive residence.
Mitchell's defense is that he is innocent because he was acting to protect his friends.
Luppen told jurors that Mitchell shot Holmes after the 6-foot-2-inch, 257-pound Holmes lunged at Mitchell and his friends during a late-night melee in Holmes' front yard two days after Christmas in 2014.
Mitchell fired at least three shots and didn't immediately realize he had hit anyone, Luppen said.
The injuries to Holmes' stepdaughter, Asia Lacey, were minor and were caused by a bullet fragment that grazed her left thigh and embedded in her right thigh, the attorney said.
Mitchell didn't know anyone in the Holmes family and was at the residence only because he'd gone there with a friend, Shaheed Williams, the attorney told jurors.
Williams' girlfriend, Tatianna Curry, was feuding with Holmes' cousin, Roderick Gulley, with whom she had had a child, Luppen said. Curry was angry because Gulley, who was living with the Holmeses, had manhandled her and taken the baby from her earlier that day, Luppen said.
Williams and Mitchell were with Curry when she tried to get her daughter back, but the Holmes family refused to return the child, Luppen said.
Deputy prosecutor Kimberly Woods told jurors that Mitchell turned a father and a husband who was protecting his home into a victim by shooting the man in the back before Mitchell forced his way into the residence to pistol-whip Holmes' wife and wound his stepdaughter.
"He just wouldn't quit," she said in her opening statement.
After Sims declared the mistrial and dismissed the 10 women and four men of the jury, the judge's bailiff, Rod Bostic, testified that two jurors had gone into the judge's office and told the staff about the man photographing them.
Questioned by senior deputy prosecutor Melanie Martin, Bostic said he walked into the hallway in front of Sims' courtroom and saw a man holding a cellphone in front of his face.
Bostic said he asked the man to show him the photographs. The man showed him a picture of Bostic walking toward him and "several" photographs of jurors with their court-assigned badges. The bailiff said he had the man delete the photographs of the jurors.
Bostic said a woman with the man identified herself as his mother and said the man was the defendant's cousin, 39-year-old Kelton Deshon Ayers. Court records show Ayers' mother to be 61-year-old Rowena Hampton.
Bostic told the judge that the woman had been in the courtroom watching the day's proceedings but that he had not seen Ayers inside the courtroom.
Ayers had left the courthouse by the time the judge was informed about the photographs.
Court records show that Ayers is on probation for felony battery and terroristic threatening convictions, and is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 16 for a probation violation.
Separately, he was fined $685 in September after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor domestic battery charge.
The misdemeanor conviction stems from an Aug. 3 arrest at Ayers' home at 9420 Wilderness Road. The victim is listed as Ayers' younger brother, 35-year-old Alvin Ayers, court files show.
Kelton Ayers' probation stems from two occurrences: a Jan. 18 arrest at the home after he broke down his brother's dead-bolted bedroom door and threatened to kill him; and an April 2 attack on a Pulaski County sheriff's deputy while he was in the county jail, court filings show.
He punched Deputy James Hathcock in the face as the officer was walking him back to his cell. The deputy reported that he was able to wrestle Ayers to the ground and pepper-spray him.
The proceedings were transferred to the veterans treatment court in May, which required him to plead guilty to second-degree battery and terroristic threatening charges, and enter an unspecified treatment program through the Veterans Administration.
Ayers was sentenced to three years on probation, which will be supervised by the court to monitor his compliance with treatment. Court records show that the widowered father of three's only income is from Social Security disability.
He pleaded guilty to probation violations before Judge Mary McGowan in September.
Metro on 11/03/2016