Shot car was in reverse, teen says

Victim’s record to be admitted in suit against ex-LR officer

A teenager riding in a car with Bobby Moore III when the 15-year-old was shot to death by a then-Little Rock police officer testified Friday that Moore placed the car's gear shift in reverse before the officer opened fire.

Former officer Joshua Hastings has said he fired into the moving vehicle because he feared his life was in danger because Moore was driving toward him. Hastings killed Moore on Aug. 12, 2012, at a Little Rock apartment complex after he and another officer responded to a report that the teenagers were breaking into cars.

Moore's mother, Sylvia Perkins, filed a civil lawsuit in 2015 seeking compensatory and punitive damages from Hastings, former Little Rock Police Chief Stuart Thomas and the city. Chief U.S. District Judge Brian Miller dismissed Thomas and the city from the suit before the trial began Monday.

Jeremiah Johnson, currently incarcerated in the Pulaski County jail on breaking or entering and other charges, said the teenagers were trying to leave the apartment complex and had no intention of harming Hastings.

"He would be deceased instead of Bobby if we were trying to run him over," said Johnson, glancing across the courtroom at Hastings.

Hastings' attorney, Keith Wren, reviewed transcripts with Johnson of his previous statements, trying to contradict him on whether he previously said the Honda Civic was traveling forward or backward.

A brief debate about whether the words "uh huh" -- included in a transcript of Johnson's initial statement to police -- represented an affirmative or negative answer about the car's direction ensued. Wren then pointed to a transcript from one of Hastings' criminal trials in which Johnson was asked if the car was going forward when shots were fired.

"Yes, sir," the transcript says.

"He's never said [Moore put the gear shift in reverse] before," Wren, who called Johnson to the stand, said outside of court. "I knew he would be uncooperative. ... I think his lack of credibility cuts both ways."

Perkins' attorney, Mike Laux, said Johnson and another teenager in the car during the shooting "vacillated on things throughout those statements" to police.

Johnson on Friday said the car was moving slowly forward before Hastings "popped out of nowhere" and jumped in front of the car. Hastings shined a flashlight into the car's windshield and commanded Moore to stop, Johnson said. The teen then placed the car in reverse and shots were fired, he said. This was when the car rolled backwards and crashed into a parked car and a pole holding up a carport, Johnson said.

"I told [interviewers] we were going forward and the car was going backward," Johnson said of the confusion about his meaning.

Hastings has said he fired the shots, then moved out of the way before the Civic struck a rocky embankment and then rolled backward before striking the parked car. Witnesses testified Tuesday that the parked car was more than 100 feet away from the embankment.

Hastings lost his job after the shooting and was twice tried criminally on a manslaughter charge. Prosecutors dropped the charge after neither jury could reach a unanimous decision.

Thomas, the former police chief, on Friday testified that it's his opinion Hastings violated department policy when he fired on the car.

Jeremy Cummings, an accident reconstruction expert from Tallahassee, Fla., who was hired by the plaintiff, testified Thursday that he concluded after reviewing the evidence that Moore was either attempting to put the Civic in park or reverse when he was shot.

Miller on Friday also settled a lingering evidence question by ruling that the jury could hear information about Moore's criminal history.

Perkins will no longer seek punitive damages and does not plan to make a case estimating how much money Moore could have earned over his lifetime, Laux said in court.

Perkins' suit is instead focused on compensatory damages stemming from "loss of society," which covers harms to companionship, love, affection and the broader relationship Perkins shared with her son.

Particularly because the lawsuit did not make a case of Moore's earnings potential, Laux argued that Moore's criminal history was irrelevant.

Miller, in making his ruling, reasoned that Moore's criminal activity may have hurt the relationship between Moore and Perkins, who had just testified that Moore was "perfect, to me."

Jurors watched as Perkins and Laux reviewed several childhood photographs of Moore, showing him in a pumpkin patch, with the Easter Bunny and posing with family members for formal portraits.

Wren, seizing on the word "perfect" in Perkins' testimony, argued for the criminal history to be admitted. Miller said he would have allowed it even if Perkins hadn't used the term.

The judge ruled that Moore's summer 2012 arrest on an armed robbery charge could be discussed as a felony and that jurors could learn that the teen had been adjudicated as a juvenile delinquent on three occasions. The four cases' underlying facts were not discussed. Moore was not convicted of the felony charge.

"We might start pushing to that point where [jurors] say, 'He got what he deserved,'" Miller said when deciding the parameters of how attorneys could discuss the information.

When asked on the stand about how Moore's criminal history -- including when she had to bail him out of jail for the felony charge -- affected their relationship, Perkins said that she was "disappointed," "upset," "embarrassed" and sometimes felt "like I wasn't doing all I could do."

Nonetheless, Perkins still loved her son, she said.

"He wasn't a perfect, perfect, perfect kid, but he was my kid," Perkins said.

Moore's criminal history was the latest in a series of facts admitted as evidence in the civil trial that were kept from Hastings' two criminal trials, including that a gun was found in the car and that the car was stolen.

"After five years the truth is finally starting to come out," Wren said outside of court.

Miller previously ruled that although Hastings was unaware at the time of the shooting that a gun was in the vehicle, he would allow it to be introduced because jurors may find insight into the teenagers' frame of mind.

"We respect the judge's opinion, but we disagree with it," Laux said outside of court. "It's our position that these matters are not relevant."

The nearly nine-hour court session Friday ended abruptly during a sidebar conversation after jurors were dismissed for the weekend. Laux, seeking to have the full statements given to police by Moore's teenage companions admitted as evidence, expressed confusion about remarks Miller made and asked the court reporter to read them back.

"You can stay here [as long as] you want and read whatever you want," Miller said, standing up and announcing he would be driving back home to Helena-West Helena. "You'll be doing it by yourself."

The trial continues Monday at 9 a.m.

Metro on 04/08/2017

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