Two law enforcement officers facing murder charges in the 2016 death of a man who was shot nearly five dozen times pleaded not guilty Tuesday morning.
U.S. Marshal Eric Heinze, 45, and Clayton County police Officer Kristopher Hutchens, 48, were indicted last year on murder and other charges in the killing of 26-year-old Jamarion Robinson.
Robinson’s body was left riddled with bullets when a fugitive task force made up of local law enforcement and federal authorities tried taking him into custody at his girlfriend’s East Point apartment on Aug. 5, 2016.
Credit: Miguel Martinez for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Credit: Miguel Martinez for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
At the time, a U.S. Marshals Service spokesman said officers were attempting to serve warrants from Atlanta police and Gwinnett County police. Authorities said Robinson had a gun and refused to put it down, prompting members of the federal task force to open fire inside the apartment.
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, his mother, Monteria Robinson said.
Heinze and Hutchens, two members of the taskforce, were indicted in October on charges of felony murder, aggravated assault, burglary, making false statements and violating their oath of office.
Both men appeared in court via video conference Tuesday morning and entered not guilty pleas. A trial date has been tentatively scheduled for Sept. 12.
Monteria Robinson said her son had previously been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. At the time of his killing, federal task forces were not allowed to wear body cameras. The police shooting was not captured on video, but Monteria Robinson said her son had bullet holes in the palms of his hands.
Robinson had been accused of pointing a gun at Atlanta police one week earlier and he had warrants out of Gwinnett charging him with criminal attempt to commit arson, authorities said. The GBI turned its findings over to the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office in September 2016.
While she’s grateful two of the officers were eventually charged, Monteria Robinson said nothing will ever bring back her son.
“I just want to make up from this nightmare,” said Robinson, who said she relives the trauma each time she has to meet with investigators or appear in a courtroom. “I just want my son back.”
Speaking outside the courthouse alongside several family members, Robinson called Tuesday’s hearing the first step in her yearslong quest for answers.
Credit: Shaddi Abusaid / shaddi.abusaid@ajc.com
Credit: Shaddi Abusaid / shaddi.abusaid@ajc.com
“We’re long overdue,” she said. “We’ve been waiting for six years.”
She called the two defendants “rogue officers” and said she wants to “get them out of a blue uniform and into an orange jumpsuit.”
Fulton District Attorney Fani Willis, who took office early last year, says her team has made prosecuting police use-of-force cases a priority. Her office has said prosecutors are still working through a backlog of such cases, but hope to get through the 2020 incidents by year’s end.
Former District Attorney Paul Howard sued the U.S. Department of Justice over Robinson’s case, saying the department refused to release documents and kept his investigators from interviewing officers involved in the shooting. Shortly after taking office in 2021, Willis said she’d tasked her Anti-Corruption Unit with making charging decisions in the case.
“No matter someone’s job or status, everyone is bound by the law,” Willis said in a statement. “It is now incumbent upon my office to prove the allegations in the indictment beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Heinze is the assistant chief inspector with the U.S. Marshals Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force. Hutchens is a Clayton County police officer who was working as a task force officer with the U.S. Marshals Service during the incident. Defense attorneys for both men have said in court filings that their clients were acting lawfully as federal agents and should have immunity from prosecution.
