A jury of six men and six women was seated Monday in the wrongful-death lawsuit against former Little Rock police officer Joshua Hastings.
Attorneys decided on the panel just before 4 p.m. and will start the civil case at 9 a.m. today in Chief U.S. District Judge Brian Miller's courtroom. The jurors will decide whether Hastings was liable in the fatal shooting of Bobby Moore III, 15, in August 2012.
Hastings was investigating a report of car break-ins at the Shadow Lake apartment complex, 13111 W. Markham St., when he shot Moore, a burglary suspect. Hastings was later charged with manslaughter and was tried twice in Pulaski County Circuit Court, but both ended in mistrials after each jury could not make a unanimous decision. Prosecutors declined to try Hastings for a third time. The killing still cost Hastings his job.
In 2015, Moore's mother, Sylvia Perkins, sued Hastings, the city and former Little Rock Police Chief Stuart Thomas, though Miller dismissed all the defendants but Hastings in January.
Perkins is asking for compensatory and punitive damages, but without the city or Thomas as defendants, it is unclear how she could collect a significant monetary judgment against Hastings, who has had trouble paying an earlier attorney in the case.
Metro on 04/04/2017