Security Guard, John Carter – Found “Not Guilty”

Posted on by PGH Law

Guard, John Carter, not guilty in Pittsburgh shooting

Three-day trial ends in mixed views about verdict
By Paula Reed Ward / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A Verona se­cu­rity guard charged with ag­gra­vated as­sault af­ter shoot­ing a man ac­cused of steal­ing from a de­liv­ery truck in Home­wood was found not guilty Wed­nes­day.

John Carter, 54, tes­ti­fied on his own be­half dur­ing the three-day trial be­fore Com­mon Pleas Judge Joseph K. Wil­liams III.

The jury only de­lib­er­ated about 30 min­utes be­fore re­turn­ing its ver­dict.

De­fense at­tor­ney Steven Townsend said his cli­ent should never have been charged.

“I have no idea why they pur­sued a case like this,” he said. “It was clear from state­ments, wit­ness ac­counts and the video — John Carter was de­fend­ing him­self af­ter be­ing robbed.”

But Dis­trict At­tor­ney Ste­phen A. Zap­pala Jr. said if the same cir­cum­stances were pre­sented to him again, charges would again be filed.

Mr. Carter was charged with shoot­ing Edward Brown Jr. on Oct. 2 as he ran away.

Ac­cord­ing to Pitts­burgh po­lice, Brown took a jit­ney to Baker’s Dairy on Ham­il­ton Avenue that day, know­ing a truck for the Tri­an­gle Tobacco & Candy Co. reg­u­larly made de­liv­er­ies.

Brown walked to the back of the truck, tugged on a bun­gee cord at­tached to a con­tainer hold­ing money, grabbed more than $1,100 and ran.

Mr. Carter, who worked on the truck, told po­lice when he was first ques­tioned that he chased Brown, heard some­one scream that there was an­other per­son and then saw Brown stop and reach to­ward his waist­band. That’s when he fired, he said, to de­fend him­self.

But pros­e­cu­tors said a video taken from a Port Au­thor­ity bus did not show Brown “stop­ping and turn­ing around as Mr. Carter re­ported.”

“I think he was de­fend­ing his em­ploy­ment,” Mr. Zap­pala said. “We’re a so­ci­ety of laws, and you can’t shoot some­body who tries to steal from you.”

But Mr. Townsend dis­agreed.

“John Carter’s ac­tions were cer­tainly jus­ti­fied.”

He said his cli­ent is look­ing for­ward to re­gain­ing his per­mit to carry a fire­arm, as well as get­ting his job back as a se­cu­rity guard.

Brown pleaded guilty to theft in May be­fore Judge An­thony M. Mar­i­ani and was sen­tenced to serve two years’ pro­ba­tion and pay res­ti­tu­tion.
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2014/08/20/Verona-security-guard-not-guilty-aggravated-assault-Homewood/stories/201408200169#ixzz3B1YqKH8y