The attorney for a defendant accused in the 2020 shooting death of an Atlanta 8-year-old wants to keep the jury from hearing about his client’s past crimes when he goes to trial.
Jerrion McKinney committed firearm-related offenses in Missouri years before he was accused of taking a loaded rifle to a gang-related blockade at which Secoriea Turner was shot. His lawyer, Michael S. Katz, appeared before the Georgia Supreme Court on Tuesday in an effort to suppress evidence of the prior crime.
Prosecutors from the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office argued that the evidence is admissible under a provision of Georgia law which allows evidence of prior crime to be presented against a defendant charged under the Georgia Street Gang Terrorism and Prevention Act.
Supreme Court justices appeared to agree with prosecutors on that point. But they indicated that evidence of McKinney’s past crimes is likely to be suppressed under a different state law provision, unless prosecutors can show the previous offenses were gang-related.
“It just depends on the facts,” Justice Carla Wong McMillian said.
Presiding Justice Nels S.D. Peterson said that without a link between the prior crimes and gang activity, state law “will almost always keep the evidence out.” He said it would be rare for prosecutors to be able to use unrelated evidence that would paint McKinney in a bad light.
McKinney would be unfairly prejudiced if prosecutors were to tell a jury that he “is a bad guy who does bad stuff and you ought to convict him because he’s a bad guy who does bad stuff whether or not he did this thing,” Peterson said.
McKinney faces a raft of charges in relation to Secoriea Turner’s death, including multiple violations of Georgia’s gang statute, aggravated assault and unlawful gun possession. His co-defendant, Julian Conley, additionally faces murder charges. Both pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors allege that McKinney and Conley are Bloods-affiliated gang members who participated in a gang protest in Atlanta on July 4, 2020, near where a police officer fatally shot Rayshard Brooks at a Wendy’s restaurant three weeks prior.
Prosecutors said Conley shot at the Jeep Secoriea Turner was riding in near the burned-out Wendy’s, where protestors had partially blocked off an intersection. They said a rifle-wielding McKinney tried to pursue the Jeep after the rising third-grader was struck in the head with a bullet.
In March 2022, a Fulton County judge ruled that evidence of McKinney’s prior gang-related crime can be admitted at trial, allowing the state to show that he had robbed two people at gunpoint of an iPhone7 in Missouri in April 2017.
The judge barred prosecutors from presenting evidence that McKinney had taken a stolen gun to school and pointed it at a classmate’s head in May 2015, and that he had accidentally shot himself in the foot with a 9mm pistol in February 2016. Those acts, which also happened in Missouri, were not linked to gang activity, the judge found.
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
In November 2022, the Georgia Court of Appeals agreed with prosecutors that evidence of the 2015 and 2016 incidents could be admitted under a specific provision of Georgia law. The court then ordered the county judge to decide if that evidence could be presented under a different state law section.
In Georgia, relevant evidence against a criminal defendant can be excluded if its value is outweighed by the associated prejudice to the defendant.
Katz said the 2015 and 2016 incidents had nothing to do with McKinney’s alleged gang affiliation.
Prosecutors have argued in court filings that McKinney was a gang member when he committed the crimes in Missouri, and that he flaunted his gang membership on social media.
The Supreme Court will issue a decision as soon as possible, Chief Justice Michael P. Boggs said Tuesday.
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