Testimony is done. The jurors have all the information they are going to get to decide whether convicted cop murderer Jamie Hood should die or serve a life prison sentence for the death of an Athens-Clarke County police officer and another man.
The penalty phase of the death penalty case began Wednesday with the testimony of the mother of one of his victims, Omar Wray, who was shot dead outside her house just days after Christmas in 2010. It ended with Hood’s mother testifying mostly about the death of another son, who was shot by a police officer more than 15 years ago.
Judge Pattrick Haggard told jurors they would begin deliberating Friday whether Hood should be sentenced to life with parole, life without parole or death after both sides make closing statements.
Azalee Hood repeated the allegations her son has made throughout his trial that law enforcement and, specifically, District Attorney Ken Mauldin hid from them records and an alleged viodo recording of an Athens-Clarke County police officer struggling with Timothy Hood over a gun and then shooting and killing him.
“They ain’t give us nothing,” Azalee Hood said when her son asked about information about Timothy Hood’s death in 2001.
Jamie Hood has said he shot and killed Athens-Clarke County police officer Elmer “Buddy” Christian and wounded officer Tony Howard because he heard his dead brother’s voice in his head saying “don’t let them do you like they did me.”
The testimony from Azalee Hood was in sharp contrast to that of the mothers of the police officers. Christian’s mother sobbed through most of her testimony yesterday as she told jurors how the death of her son had been felt in her family.
Azalee Hood spoke to the mothers from the stand, saying she understood what it felt like to lose a child.
“‘I’m sorry’ won’t take away the hurt and pain,” she said. “Everybody’s hurting. Ms. Christian, Ms. Wray, I’m a mother. I know y’all’s pain. I can’t tell you nothing to take that pain away. You going to have good days. You going to have bad days.”
She spoke of her hatred for the officer who killed her son, Timothy. But also told jurors that God wants her to let that hatred go.
“I asked the Lord to help me through my situation,” she testified. “I stopped hating (the) officer. What Jamie did hurt me to my soul. I asked why… I didn’t raise my kids like that.”
All seven of her sons, including two now dead, have been to prison.
“I was mad with Jamie. Real mad. Real mad. And I had to go on my knees,” she said.
Hood’s anger came through as Mauldin was questioning his mother about what she had read in the file on Timothy Hood’s shooting. He shouted at his mother several times to stop talking and then he called Mauldin “boy” and a “monkey.
As he had done before in the trial, Haggard had to call Hood out for insulting Mauldin.
Hood blamed the prosecutor when a defense witness, attorney James Smith, volunteered that Hood had been charged with rape, a charge that was thrown out.
He said Mauldin “elicited” improper testimony.
“He’s been doing slime. He is a slime,” Hood said, drawing a rebuke from Haggard.
“This is slime ball,” Hood continued.
Haggard said he would not hear any more of his objection if he continued with the insults.
Hood said he was charged in 1997 with raping and kidnapping his fiance. Hood told the judge she made the allegations when they broke up.
“For the record, he (Mauldin) knew what he was doing,” Hood said. “It was a calculated move. He did it to be unprofessional. It misleads the jury.”
Haggard told the jury the rape charge was dismissed and they should wipe that testimony from their memories.
Smith represented Hood in his trial and retrial for a 1997 armed robbery. He was convicted both times but the first conviction was thrown out because Hood was not allowed to bring an alibi witness.
A jury of nine men and three women convicted Hood earlier this week of murdering Christian on March 22, 2011, and killing a county worker, Wray, three months earlier.
Hood also was convicted of kidnapping a friend, which set off the man hunt that resulted in Hood killing Christian and wounding another officer, Howard.
Hood continues to deny he killed Wray because Wray would not tell him where to find a particular drug dealer. But he has admitted to the jury that he shot Howard and Christian. His defense was 12 years in prison for an “illegal” armed robbery conviction and the death of his brother at the hand of a police officer put him in a frame of mind that caused him to start shooting when he crossed paths with Howard and Christian.
On Wednesday, jurors, spectators and Hood's own mother cried during the testimony from Christian's parents and his widow about the impact his death has had on them and their family.
Hood first asked for a mistrial in the sentencing phase as Christian’s widow completed his testimony, citing the emotional impact of family photos and her tears and his parents’ tears was having on the jury. Hood said it was inflammatory.
He made that request again Thursday morning.
The judge denied both requests.
“You know you got people crying like that there,” Hood said. “That ain’t good.”
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