A U.S. District Court judge will decide whether two fugitive task force members facing murder charges in Fulton County can have their case moved to federal court.
State prosecutors argued at a Tuesday hearing that Eric Heinze and Kristopher Hutchens violated Jamarion Robinson’s Fourth Amendment rights when they burst into his girlfriend’s East Point apartment six years ago and killed the 26-year-old in a shootout.
Heinze and Hutchens’ attorneys say they were acting within the scope of their federal duties in trying to capture Robinson, who was wanted on felony charges. As members of the U.S. Marshal’s Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force, the officers should be tried in federal court, their lawyers argued, not in Fulton County Superior Court.
Robinson was shot nearly five dozen times after firing at officers inside the apartment, authorities said. The task force did not have a warrant for the home, but confirmed Robinson was inside after sending in a maintenance man from the complex to see if he was there.
Credit: Fulton County Sheriff's Office
Credit: Fulton County Sheriff's Office
State prosecutors argued the courts were open on that Friday morning and said the task force could have easily obtained a search warrant before entering the home with their high-powered guns, shields and bulletproof vests.
Police had been searching for Robinson after he poured gasoline outside his mother’s bedroom door on July 11, 2016, and weeks later aimed a gun at two Atlanta police officers responding to a call about a suspicious person at an apartment complex, records show.
“He was unstable. He was violent and they were anxious to take him into custody before anyone was injured,” Heinze’s attorney, Lance LoRusso, told Judge Victoria Calvert during the seven-hour hearing. “They were under attack and they fired their weapons to prevent the loss of their lives and the lives of their federal officers.”
A U.S. Marshals shooting review board later determined the officers’ use of force was authorized, and the Justice Department declined to open an investigation into the shooting. John Martin, a Justice Department attorney from the civil division, said task force officers are authorized to execute state warrants and that the group acted under the color of federal law.
“The state’s argument is quite perilous to federal interests,” Martin told the judge.
Hutchens, a Clayton County police officer, was there only because he served on the task force, said his attorney, Amanda Clark Palmer.
State prosecutor Natalie Adams said the rarely used removal act is not intended to protect officers “who violate state and federal law.”
“They made violent entry into the home of a third party to execute an arrest warrant without a search warrant,” Adams said. “The defendants did not wait for the authority to move forward. They violated the law.”
Of the estimated 100,000 arrests made each year by U.S. marshals, about 70% of suspects are wanted solely on state charges, said Richard Kelly, the agency’s assistant director for tactical operations.
He said task forces comprised of marshals, deputies and police officers are mutually beneficial for all agencies involved, noting roughly 40% of homicide arrests in the U.S. are made by such task forces.
“We’re able to locate and apprehend some of this country’s most violent fugitives,” Kelly said.
Adams said like Robinson, many of those fugitives are armed and have histories of mental illness, but they’re still taken into custody without incident.
The GBI, which investigated the shooting, said a handgun and multiple spent rounds “believed to be associated with Robinson” were recovered from the scene. He had been shot 59 times, with 17 of those bullets exiting his body, said his mother, Monteria Robinson.
Heinze and Hutchens were indicted in October on charges of felony murder, aggravated assault, burglary, making false statements and violating their oath of office. Daniel Doyle, another task force member who opened fire that day, died of cancer in March 2020 and was never charged.
“These men were engaged in a federal operation,” said Hutchens’ attorney Don Samuel, noting Robinson was accused of pointing a gun at police officers days earlier. “They were acting reasonably. The believed they were dealing with someone who’s dangerous, who potentially posed a danger to them.”
Palmer, his co-counsel, said Robinson ignored multiple commands to drop the gun, leaving the officers no choice.
“Even after he was shot he didn’t drop the gun,” she said. “Rather than being taken into custody, Mr. Robinson decided to brandish his gun, point it at officers and fire at the officers.”
Heinze and Hutchens’ murder trial was scheduled to begin next week in Fulton County, but Samuel said he would request a stay as Calvert decides where the case should be tried.
Monteria Robinson said it doesn’t matter if the case is tried in state or federal court, as long as the officers are held accountable.
Credit: Miguel Martinez for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Credit: Miguel Martinez for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Her son simply needed mental health help, she said, and she never would have called the police on him if she knew what would happen.
“I just want Jamarion back,” she said Tuesday night.
THE STORY SO FAR
July 11, 2016: Jamarion Robinson’s mother awakens to the smell of gasoline at her Gwinnett home and called the police. Robinson, who had been previously diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, had poured gas on the floor outside her bedroom. A felony warrant for attempted arson was taken out for Robinson, who didn’t return home.
July 27, 2016: Robinson points a gun at two Atlanta police officers responding to a suspicious person call at an apartment complex. A second arrest warrant was taken out, this one for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
Aug. 5, 2016: A fugitive task force comprised of several officers attempts to arrest Robinson at his girlfriend’s East Point apartment. Robinson fires at officers and is killed during a shootout. He had shot nearly five dozen times.
January 2018: Monteria Robinson, Robinson’s mother, files an excessive force and wrongful death lawsuit against several members of the fugitive task force. The lawsuit is later dismissed by a U.S. District Judge who ruled the officers had qualified immunity.
October 2021: More than five years after the deadly shooting, a Fulton County grand jury returns an eight-count indictment against Eric Heinze and Kristopher Huchens, charging them with murder and other charges. Attorneys for the defendants look at have the case moved to federal court.
March 1, 2022: Heinze and Hutchens plead not guilty at an arraignment in Fulton County Superior Court.
Aug. 30, 2022: The federal appeals court in Atlanta partially revives the 2018 civil lawsuit filed by Robinson’s mother against two task force officers. It upheld the lower court’s decision dismissing Hutchens from the suit on the grounds of qualified immunity.
Sept. 6, 2022: An evidentiary hearing is held in U.S. District Court to determine whether the case will be tried in federal court or superior court. A judge has yet to rule on the matter.
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