ST. LOUIS • Former St. Louis police Officer Jason Stockley was found not guilty Friday of murdering a man while on duty, sparking hours of angry protests that continued overnight.
St. Louis Circuit Judge Timothy Wilson's highly anticipated verdict found the white former St. Louis police officer not guilty of first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the December 2011 shooting death of Anthony Lamar Smith, a black drug suspect, after a high-speed pursuit and crash.
Protesters began gathering downtown immediately after the verdict was announced Friday morning. The demonstrations were largely peaceful at first, but as the night went on, protesters seriously injured two police officers and vandalized buildings, including the home of the city mayor.
People are also reading…
Early Friday, protesters tried to block officers from traveling on Tucker Boulevard between Clark Avenue and Spruce Street. Police used pepper spray to clear the roadway as protesters hollered, chanted and held up signs.
"My goal is to resist the power of the state," said the Rev. Renita Lamkin Green, pastor of St. James African Methodist Episcopal Church in Cape Girardeau, after standing in front of the line of police. "The power of the people is greater than the power over the people."
At one point, protesters climbed on top of a police SUV and smashed its windshield. At about 5:30 p.m., police said the downtown protests were no longer considered peaceful, and they asked people to leave.
Shortly after, protesters moved to the Central West End, where more than 1,000 marched on Euclid Avenue and on Kingshighway near Highway 40 (Interstate 64). Later Friday night, protesters gathered outside the Central West End home of Mayor Lyda Krewson, breaking windows. Krewson did not appear to be home.
Two officers were hit by bricks thrown by protesters in the area and were taken to hospitals, police said. At least five other officers sustained minor injuries throughout the day, and more than a dozen people were arrested, police said.
Gov. Eric Greitens praised law enforcement and peaceful protesters, but warned: "Violence will not be tolerated."
"Unfortunately, we did have some people who decided to engage in acts of violence," he said after meeting law enforcement officials in St. Louis. "Assaulting a law enforcement officer is not a peaceful protest. Breaking windows is not a peaceful protest. Destroying and vandalizing police cars is not free speech, and we are not going to tolerate it in the state of Missouri."
Activists, with support from some of the city's black clergy, had pledged disruptive protests ahead of Wilson's verdict. Wilson addressed such statements in his order:
"A judge shall not be swayed by partisan interests, public clamor or fear of criticism."
Watch: Protesters smash police car window (graphic language)
Damone Smith, 52, an electrician headed to work, was among the motorists being rerouted from the protest area.
"I think the verdict is disgusting," said Smith, who is black. "I'm proud of these people protesting. If you look like me, then you feel like there is no other way to express yourself in the face of this kind of verdict. Time and time again, African-American men are killed by police and nobody is held accountable."
In an exclusive interview with the Post-Dispatch Friday, Stockley said: "I can feel for and I understand what the family is going through, and I know everyone wants someone to blame, but I'm just not the guy."
The judge explained his rationale for the verdict in a 30-page document filed about 8:30 a.m. Friday.
"This court, as the trier of fact, is simply not firmly convinced of defendant's guilt. Agonizingly, this court has pored over the evidence again and again … This court, in conscience, cannot say that the state has proven every element of murder beyond a reasonable doubt or that the defendant did not act in self-defense."
Because the state failed to prove Stockley did not act in self-defense, Wilson wrote that he could not address lesser charges of homicide or manslaughter.
Former St. Louis police officer Jason Stockley was charged with murder in the on-duty shooting of a drug suspect on Dec. 20, 2011. He was acquitted by a judge in September 2017.
Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner said at a news conference that she was disappointed with the decision.
"While officer-involved shootings are very hard to return a guilty verdict, I am confident that we presented sufficient evidence at a trial to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Jason Stockley was guilty of murder in the first degree," Gardner said. "But at the end of the day, it was the judge who served as the finder of fact. … I must respect Judge Wilson's decision but I stand by the evidence we presented in court."
Mayor Lyda Krewson released a statement following the verdict saying, "I am appalled at what happened to Anthony Lamar Smith."
"I am sobered by this outcome. Frustration, anger, hurt, pain, hope and love all intermingled. I encourage St. Louisans to show each other compassion, to recognize that we all have different experiences and backgrounds and that we all come to this with real feelings and experiences," she wrote.
Krewson's comment drew a rebuke from Neil Bruntrager, Stockley's lawyer.
"How do you promote all those things by creating distrust in a system that clearly worked under these circumstances?" Bruntrager said. "It is irresponsible and a disservice to the community to make statements like that. It's an insult to Judge Wilson to make statements like that. And it falsely encourages the belief that an injustice was done here when in fact justice was done."
More than a month has passed since Stockley's bench trial ended, a case that has rekindled racial tensions not seen in St. Louis since the Ferguson uprising and police killing of VonDerrit Myers Jr. in the second half of 2014.
Ahead of the verdict — and the threat of violent protests — Greitens took steps to activate the National Guard, although it did not appear to be involved in front-line work Friday.
Tear gas deployed, officers injured by thrown bricks after protesters broke windows and threw paint at Mayor Lyda Krewson's home.
Police officers in St. Louis and St. Louis County were on 12-hour shifts, and some St. Louis schools called off classes for Friday. Barricades went up around downtown courthouses and the police station, and some downtown businesses boarded up their windows.
Stockley, 36, whose home is now Houston, was charged last year with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the death of Smith, 24. The chase began when Stockley and his partner Brian Bianchi tried to arrest Smith for a suspected drug deal at a Church's Chicken at Thekla Avenue and Riverview Boulevard and ended when the officers rammed Smith's car at West Florissant and Acme avenues.
The decision in the trial was Wilson's alone because Stockley waived his right to a jury trial. Bianchi did not testify and was not charged.
A kill shot?
Anthony Lamar Smith holds his daughter in an undated family photo. Smith was fatally shot by St. Louis police after a car pursuit in December 2011.
Prosecutors said Stockley carried out the premeditated murder of Smith by shooting him five times at close range and then planting a .38-caliber revolver in Smith's Buick after police pulled Smith's body from the car. They asserted a "kill shot" was fired at close range after the first four shots were fired in close succession and struck Smith in the shoulder.
Defense attorneys said Stockley acted "reasonably" in self-defense in killing a drug suspect he believed was reaching for a hidden handgun.
Wilson quoted Dr. Gershom Norfleet, who performed the autopsy on Smith, in his ruling saying, in part, "The wound on the shoulder would not have caused Smith's death and to call it a 'kill shot' would be wrong.'"
"An obvious question the state made no attempt to answer was how Anthony Smith could have been shot in the left lower abdomen by a person standing outside the car if Smith was simply sitting in the driver's seat. Dr. Norfleet testified that the wounds in Smith's left flank could indicate that Smith was reaching for something to his right at the time the wounds occurred."
Wilson also noted that there was no evidence to support the state's contention that there was a gap in time between any of Stockley's shots.
During the chase, Stockley shouted commands to Bianchi, who drove their police SUV while chasing Smith through the Walnut Park neighborhood at speeds approaching 90 mph. Amid sirens, engine noise and squawking radio traffic, Stockley can be heard on an in-car camera video telling Bianchi "Gonna kill this (expletive), don't you know it."
Prosecutors argued the statement proved Stockley's "cool reflection" of his intent to kill Smith.
But Wilson called the events "dangerous, highly stressful and frenetic ... the antithesis of a 'cool' anything, much less reflection."
During the trial, Stockley didn't deny making the statement but said he couldn't remember uttering it and therefore couldn't explain its meaning or context.
After the shooting, in-car camera footage shows Stockley sort through a duffel bag. Prosecutors alleged he was getting a gun to plant on Smith.
Wilson wrote, "Stockley does not have anything in either hand during the brief periods his hands are in view on this video, immediately before he exits. The video does not show defendant trying to stealthily recover a revolver and conceal it on his person."
With some 10 city and county police officers standing near Smith's crashed car, a bystander's cellphone video showed police pulling Smith's body from the car shortly before Stockley climbed inside. Stockley testified he found a loaded revolver shoved between the center console and passenger seat. Lab tests of the gun revealed only Stockley's DNA. A plastic bag of heroin seized from the car had Smith's DNA but not Stockley's.
A breakdown of the judge's ruling in Jason Stockley murder case
Self-defense
Self-defense • The state did not disprove beyond a reasonable doubt the defense claim that Stockley acted in self-defense. “It does not matter which side presents the evidence that supports the issue of self-defense. If there is evidence to support self-defense, the state has the burden of disproving the defense beyond a reasonable doubt."
Deadly force
Deadly force • A police officer “is entitled to use deadly force where the officer reasonably believes the use of deadly force is necessary to effect the arrest and reasonably believes the person is attempting to escape by the use of a deadly weapon or may otherwise endanger life or inflict serious physical injury."
"We're killing this (expletive)."
"We're killing this (expletive)." • While prosecutors contended that Stockley's statement during the pursuit was proof of deliberation, it is apparent from video and audio that the chase was stressful. "People say all kinds of things in the heat of the moment or while in stressful situations."
Kill shot
Kill shot • Prosecutors contended Stockley fired four shots at Smith, then paused, then fired a fifth “kill shot” that produced "a puff of smoke." No witness testified to hearing a shot separated in time from a first group of shots. "Antonio French, a fact witness for the State, testified that the gun shot were in rapid succession and that one shot was not separated in time from the other shots."
Prior relationship
Prior relationship • Wilson said he believes it is “significant” that Stockley and Smith did not know each other before Dec. 20, 2011. “…They had no prior history, there was no history between Stockley and members of Smith’s family and there was no basis in the evidence to suggest any pre-existing animosity by Stockley towards Smith. There was also no evidence that Stockley even knew who was being pursued.”
AK-47 pistol
AK-47 pistol • There was no evidence that Stockley fired this weapon. Stockley’s decision to carry his personal Draco AK-47 pistol in violation of his department’s policy “might be a matter for department discipline” but “not relevant to the criminal charges here.”
An evidence photo by St. Louis police shows a gun that looks like the weapon that is pictured in the dash cam camera from Officer Jason Stockley's squad car.
Planting a gun
Planting a gun • The evidence did not support prosecutors’ claim that Stockley planted the .38-caliber Taurus revolver in Smith’s car. “The gun was a full-size revolver and not a small gun, such as a derringer, that can fit in the palm of one’s hand or in the side pocket of a pair of pants without being obvious.” The gun was too large to fit entirely in any of the pants he was wearing and would have been visible if tucked into Stockley’s belt. No officers standing by testified to seeing Stockley plant a gun in the Buick.
DNA on revolver
DNA on revolver • Prosecutors’ argument that the presence of Stockley’s DNA on the revolver and the absence of Smith’s proved it was planted “is refuted by the state’s own witnesses. Two DNA analysts testified that the absence of someone’s DNA on a gun doesn’t mean that person did not touch it. “Finally, the court observes, based on its nearly thirty years on the bench, that an urban heroin dealer not in possession of a firearm would be an anomaly.”
Partner's actions
Partner's actions • Brian Bianchi (pictured, right) was an inexperienced police officer with about 1 ½ years on the force. Trying to use Bianchi's "actions or inactions" to prove Stockley didn’t act in self-defense "is not a reliable endeavor, and would amount to mere speculation." In addition, Stockley did not immediately perceive Smith as a threat. "but only after 15 seconds had passed during which Smith was ordered to show his hands and open the door, and only when Stockley believed Smith had located the gun.”
Removal of gloves
Removal of gloves • The state's contention that Stockley removed his gloves before entering his police SUV to retrieve what the state alleged was a revolver that he then planted in Smith's car "makes no sense." "The gloves he removed were winter gloves" and "it makes sense that a person would remove winter gloves when searching for something inside a personal bag."
Smith's wounds
Smith's wounds • The state did not answer "how Smith could have been shot in the left lower abdomen by a person standing outside the car if Smith was simply sitting in the driver's seat." A pathologist testified at trial that the wounds in Smith's left flank "could indicate Smith was reaching for something to his right at the time the wounds occurred," which "would be consistent with Stockley's testimony."
'Not firmly convinced'
Wilson concluded that he was "not firmly convinced" of Stockley's guilt, which is required to convict: "Agonizingly, this court has pored over the evidence again and again. This court has viewed the video evidence from the restaurant's surveillance camera, cameras in the police video, and the cell phone video by the lay witness, over and over again — innumerable times."
Prosecutors asked Wilson to consider lesser charges if he believed Stockley was not guilty of first-degree murder. Wilson said he "need not address lesser degrees of homicide" such as second-degree murder, voluntary or involuntary manslaughter because the state failed to prove Stockley did not act in self-defense. "The issue is whether a finding that the defendant was not guilty of an intentional killing based on the defense of self-defense forecloses the possibility of a conviction of a lesser degree of homicide."
Editor's note: An earlier version of this item misstated whether prosecutors asked the judge to rule on lesser charges. The story has been corrected.
The DNA
Wilson devoted nearly two pages of his 30-page ruling to discussion of the DNA found on the gun police said they found inside Smith's car, saying three scientists that testified at trial said their analysis did not conclude that Stockley's blood was found on the gun as the prosecution asserted.
'While we know emotions are running high, our number one priority is protecting and serving our citizens,' St. Louis interim Police Chief Lawrence M. O’Toole
Mary Ann Kwiatkowski, a supervisor at the biology section for the police department, "could not say there was blood on the gun, and that the absence of a person's DNA on a gun does not mean that person did not touch the gun. She reiterated that if DNA is not found on a gun, all she can say is that there is no DNA there, not that someone did or did not touch the gun," Wilson wrote.
He also said that after 30 years of experience on the bench, "an urban heroin dealer not in possession of a firearm would be an anomaly."
Smith had been released from prison in May 2011, about seven months before his death. In 2010, he had pleaded guilty to weapon and drug charges and was sentenced to five years in prison. He also pleaded guilty to a theft charge from a Ferguson case and was sentenced to three years. He served 16 months in prison.
The investigation into Smith's shooting lay dormant for years after it was reviewed by state and federal prosecutors without criminal charges until then-Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce charged Stockley, citing new, unspecified evidence. Prosecutors still have never said what the new evidence was; the defense claimed in closing arguments Aug. 9 that there's been no new evidence in the case since 2012.
Updated at 3 p.m. with announcement that all branches of St. Louis Library closing early.
In a text message to the Post-Dispatch Friday, Joyce said only: "I'm confident that the citizens understand why this case was prosecuted."
In an interview, Bruntrager called Joyce's decision to bring charges against Stockley "an intentional misrepresentation of the facts."
"This was reckless, bringing a case like this where we are today, with the city on the brink, people are afraid, businesses are closing down, schools are closing down, this is why we are where we are today. Why give people false hope?"
In 2013, the city paid Smith's fiancee and daughter, a $900,000 settlement stemming from a civil suit. Their lawyer, Albert Watkins, has called for the reopening of the lawsuit, claiming the city and state attorneys withheld copies of reports showing only Stockley’s DNA on the revolver.
“Quite frankly, the family clearly is sorely disappointed," Watkins said outside the courthouse Friday morning. "The community will be sorely disappointed, and all that we can hope for and pray for is that there is peace in the days to come.”
Smith's mother, Annie Smith, said at a news conference that the judge's decision was wrong.
"They keep asking me about justice and peace. OK, I ain't got no justice. I can never be at peace. How could I be at peace with all the officers still out here that killed my child," she said. "My soul is burning and my heart is broken. I could never be at peace."
Jeremy Kohler of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report
A timeline of events and coverage
Joel Currier
Joel Currier is a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter here: @joelcurrier.
Christine Byers
Christine Byers is a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
