A Gwinnett County judge has denied a request for a new trial that was filed by a former Duluth police officer who inexplicably opened fire on Fulton County police Cpl. Paul Phillips, ending his career with a bullet through his arm.
Former police officer Jay Dailey is serving 60 years in prison for his drunken roadside shooting rampage in 2008 in Duluth. Phillips, then off duty and returning home from a second job, had stopped on the side of the road to investigate reports from two motorists of a man waving a gun.
Shot in the arm, Phillips no longer can hold a weapon or even type. He is on disability from the Fulton County Police Department and he no longer has the extra income he earned from extra jobs. He almost lost his house earlier this year but donations prevented foreclosure.
Dailey’s lawyer claimed in court Tuesday he was due a new trial because one juror was biased, two hospital-room interviews were inappropriate and the trial judge was unwilling to offer lesser charges in the original trial.
Dailey had been drinking heavily on Feb. 1, 2008. Off duty and wearing civilian clothes, Dailey flashed his police badge and flagged down a woman driving down Level Creek Road in Sugar Hill by feigning injury. He asked her to call 911 and then doused her with pepper spray and threatened to kill her.
Moments later Phillips drove up in a marked police car.
Phillips was in uniform and Dailey was not.
According to testimony, Dailey opened fire and Phillips shot back. Both men were wounded.
On Tuesday, Dailey’s lawyer argued mistakes were made in the trial and the conviction should be overturned.
One juror should not have been seated because she said during jury selection two close family members had been armed assault victims and she would not show Dailey any mercy, Dailey's lawyer said.
The attorney also said in the request for a new trial that Dailey was still intoxicated and had not been read his Miranda rights when police interviewed him at the hospital after the shooting.
Attorney Sharon Hopkins also said the jury should have been allowed to consider lesser charges in regards to those brought because her client, Dailey, waived a gun at two passersby. He was charged with aggravated assault concerning those two people.
Gwinnett County Superior Court Chief Judge Dawson Jackson rejected all her arguments.
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