The Clayton teen on trial for fatally shooting a sheriff’s deputy last year took the stand Thursday afternoon and contradicted his own sworn statements to investigators.
“Eighty-five percent of what I told them was a lie,” Jonathan Bun said in response to his attorney's questions.
Bun was 17 on July 20 when he allegedly shot and killed Deputy Richard “Rick” Daly as the deputy tried to arrest the teen for January 2011 armed robbery.
The teen is charged with malice murder, felony murder and several counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, among other offenses.
Bun’s appearance as the sole witness for the defense was the second surprise – the first being testimony from the police officer from whom the murder weapon was stolen – in the high-profile murder case.
“It was self-defense,” Bun said to the jury at the beginning of his testimony. “I was paranoid because that [undercover fugitive squad] white truck was tailing us.”
Bun told the jury he didn’t see any police lights or hear any sirens, and he didn’t recall recognizing a uniform on Daly until after the deputy had been shot.
Bun’s behavior on the witness stand ranged from flippant and thoughtful to defiant. The defendant also showed some remorse when Clayton Assistant District Attorney Jason Green accused him of being heartless on cross-examination.
“I told you how I felt,” he said. “I said I think about it everyday.”
Bun’s testimony followed a morning of prosecution evidence highlighted by an hour-long video showing the teen confessing to a GBI agent and a Clayton District Attorney’s investigator.
“I thought with my hands and not my head,” he said in the video recorded the morning after the shooting. “Everything went by so fast. I cocked the gun and I shot.”
Thursday, however, Bun’s story had changed.
“I could even say I’m guilty, but not wrong for what I’ve done,” he told Green. “I would have to say of most of my charges I’m not guilty. … I would say of all of them.”
In the interview with investigators, Bun said he aimed at Daly’s chest, intending for his shots to strike the deputy’s ballistic vest and “put him down.”
When Green made Bun reenact the shooting in the courtroom, using a plastic replica of a gun and a chair to represent the passenger seat the teen sat in last July, Bun halfheartedly waved the faux weapon in the direction of the prosecutor, who was mimicking Daly’s final moves.
“I didn’t aim,” Bun said. “I just pointed in his direction and shot to scare him off. This isn’t something I can just make myself do again. Somebody died.”
When questioned by his attorney, public defender Lloyd Matthews, Bun gave direct answers.
“Did you voluntarily give this statement" after the shooting? Matthews asked.
“It was out of fear,” Bun replied, saying officers pistol whipped him, ordered dogs to attack and strip-searched him when he was apprehended.
Bun responded differently when questioned by Green, answering reluctantly or dodging the prosecutor's questions.
“Could you dumb it down for me?” he said on more than one occasion.
Green asked why Bun was dishonest with investigators in the initial interview. The prosecutor replayed the teens' words back to the court, showing jurors the video of the teen's questioning after his arrest. The suspect made statements then that contradicted his testimony Thursday.
“That’s your voice. … You said you saw the blue lights,” Green said. “How did you think not telling the truth to [GBI Special Agent John] Spurlock and Investigator [Steve] Payne would benefit you?”
“I don’t know,” Bun said. “I was just saying stuff. I was just lying.”
When Green challenged Bun’s assertion from the stand that he was reacting to a perceived threat to protect his friend, Toan Nguwen, the driver of the car he was riding in, Bun became hostile. Nguwen earlier testified that he had warned Bun, "Don't do anything stupid."
“He wouldn’t have thought it was stupid if it was one of his enemies and I was protecting him,” Bun fired back.
Early in the cross examination, Green asked Bun what he wanted the jury to do.
Bun thought a moment, then said softly, “Nothing but find justice.”
The defense rested its case when Bun stepped from the stand late Thursday afternoon. Closing arguments are scheduled to begin Friday morning.
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