A former Fulton County sheriff deputy testified Friday he was hiding in the woods from gunmen when Atlanta police arrested him on charges of murdering a pimp.
Richard M. Jackson said he fled into the trees where he was unable to scale a chain-link fence because he feared for his life after a gunfight that left Alan "Scooby" Griffin dead at a seedy apartment complex off Cleveland Avenue in Atlanta.
But he acknowledged he never called 911 -- as several residents and a prostitute did -- nor shouted out to officers as he watched them search for him. Jackson said he suspected they would eventually find him and he didn't want to risk getting shot by mistake.
"Why didn't you run out and say ‘I'm a cop?'" asked his lawyer, Kenya Herring, when questioning her client at his murder trial in Fulton County Superior Court.
"That would have been a bad move," he said. "You got a black man running out of the woods with a gun ... I'm pretty sure you're going to get shot ... I was waiting for instructions."
Testimony ended in the case Friday and the jury is expected to begin deliberating Monday. Jackson faces a sentence of life in prison if convicted of murder.
Jackson, 44, admits to killing Griffin, then 22, around midnight in back of the poorly lit apartment building on July 15, 2006, but contends he shot in self-defense. Prosecutor Sheila Ross, however, said it was Jackson who ambushed Griffin -- right after he tried to murder a 17-year-old prostitute.
Savanna Roper testified Wednesday she was working as a streetwalker when Jackson picked her up outside the apartments -- which were known for drug and sex sales -- and took her to a darkened area to provide sex for money. Once there, she said, Jackson pulled his department-issued 40-caliber Glock pistol and tried to pull off her skirt.
Roper said she fled to the front of the complex, screaming to her pimp for help, and Griffin grabbed his 9mm pistol and went to confront Jackson.
Ross said Jackson hid behind a trash bin and shot Griffin, in the heart, as he rounded the corner.
Griffin got off one shot. Jackson testified he didn't know he shot anyone until police arrested him for murder. He said he had stopped at the apartments to talk to a guy who he knew as "Capone," who was a regular inmate at the Fulton County jail where Jackson worked. He said he wanted to counsel Capone to give up his wayward ways.
Jackson said Roper offered him sex and he mocked her with ugly remarks about her looks, which he said prompted her to go get her pimp for payback. He denied shooting at her.
"They don't know he is an off-duty deputy," Herring said before testimony opened in Superior Court. "They think he is a John who got out of line. This is a homicide. Homicide is not murder."
The case languished for nearly two years after Atlanta police arrested Jackson. No indictment came until the District Attorney's Public Integrity Unit, which investigates officer-involved shootings, took an interest.
In 2008, Jackson was indicted and resigned from the sheriff's office. Earlier that year during an interview with Tracy Brumfield, then an investigator for the District Attorney, Jackson contended he fired only one time and only after gunmen with rifles shot at him. He denied firing at Roper although police found a spent shell casing that matched his pistol inside the truck, along with some condoms, which indicated the gun had been fired in the cab. Those facts matched Roper's story.
He also told Brumfield he call 911 for help, identifying himself as a deputy under fire. Brumfield's investigation showed Jackson had fired three times, and he never called 911. The only shell casings recovered were the three from Jackson's gun and one from Griffin's pistol.
Jackson blamed his incorrect statements to Brumfield on a bad memory and passage of time. Asked Friday why he told Brumfield he had called 911 to report the crime, Jackson said: "That is kind of hard to explain," he said. "I thought maybe I called 911."
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