Posted on 04/21/2005 11:03:57 AM PDT by Former Military Chick
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Prosecutors trying Charles Allen McCoy Jr. for a string of sniper shootings in the greater Columbus area reminded jurors Thursday of the effect those shootings had one their own lives.
"The choice of driving routes drastically changed for many drivers here in central Ohio," Franklin County First Assistant Prosecutor Ed Morgan told jurors during his opening statement in McCoy's capital murder trial.
"The evidence will show that this change in driving routes was due in large part because someone in possession of a 9 mm Beretta pistol was choosing not to fire at a range target, but instead, took fire at both moving vehicles and occupied structures."
McCoy's 24-count indictment — which charges him with seven different crimes — stems from 12 shooting incidents between Oct. 19, 2003, and Feb. 14, 2004, all linked by ballistics or casing matches to a 9 mm Beretta handgun that the defendant's parents gave police March 12, 2004.
A few days later, McCoy's mother, Ardith, reported her son missing and an arrest warrant was issued. McCoy was arrested in Las Vegas March 17, 2004.
Lawyers for the 29-year-old defendant, who pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, concede that their client was the owner of the weapon.
They don't deny that McCoy was the gunman. Instead, they claim their client, who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, did not know the difference between right and wrong when he opened fire on numerous occasions, resulting in the death of 62-year-old Gail Knisley and igniting widespread panic in the community.
As Morgan described Knisley's last words — "what was that?" — after the gunshot and before she slumped over dead in the passenger seat of her friend's car, gasps filled the courtroom and Knisley's husband, son and daughter-in-law, sobbed quietly.
McCoy is also facing charges for opening fire on two homes, an elementary school, a car dealership and several motorists.
For McCoy's lawyers to prove the insanity defense, they must show that, during the shootings, "as a result of mental disease or defect," he did not know "the wrongfulness of his actions."
Prosecutor Morgan urged jurors to consider evidence of McCoy's efforts to elude authorities when deciding whether he knew what he was doing was wrong.
"The defendant made choices," Morgan said. "Hearing the choices made by the defendant should help you decide if the defendant knew the wrongfulness of his actions."
As Morgan pinpointed the shootings on a map, he described how the shooter expanded his shooting zone, which began close to the defendant's home in Grove Point and gradually moved further away as the investigation and media scrutiny intensified.
He also highlighted the fact that McCoy was either in or outside his car when the shootings occurred. "Does that choice possibly facilitate a quick entrance and exit from the crime scene? Is it not a choice to escape detection and escape capture?" he asked.
In the shootings that hit cars traveling on busy interstates, Morgan suggested McCoy opened fire from overpasses above stretches of road without entrance or exit ramps to make it difficult for his victims to seek assistance.
He also drew attention to the weapon Charles McCoy Sr. gave to police that was linked to the shootings, a 9 mm Beretta which the defendant had disassembled. His father told investigators his son indicated he had taken it apart to clean it.
"Why was it the defendant chose to clean just that gun?" Morgan asked.
After investigators caught McCoy in Las Vegas, two days after an arrest warrant was issued, the defendant told investigators why he had fled.
"'I guess it looked bad for me,'" Morgan repeated for the jury. "Does the defendant's choice to flee clearly show the defendant knew the wrongfulness of his actions?"
McCoy's lawyers chose to reserve their opening statements until the start of their case. Prosecutors will call their first witness Thursday afternoon.
No doubt he is insane, no doubt he admitted to doing the crime, the question will he get off based on insanity?
Insanity defense does not work, look how it is going in the Akbar case?
Stupid media... calling these sniper shootings when he was using a 9mm pistol.
This case is interesting because of who the lawyers are.
Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O'Brien is in his 3rd term and has been mentioned as a candidate for Ohio Attorney General.
The defense attorney is O'Brien's predecessor, former four-term Franklin County Prosecutor Mike Miller.
This will be interesting to watch.
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