A man accused of killing two DeKalb County police officers won’t be allowed to skip trial because of his claim that he was acting in self-defense.
A DeKalb County Superior Court judge has denied William Maurice Woodard’s request for immunity from prosecution in the 2008 shooting deaths of DeKalb Officers Eric Barker and Ricky Bryant Jr.
Judge Gail Flake also addressed Woodard's motion that claimed state laws prohibiting convicted felons from carrying guns are unconstitutional. Woodard pleaded guilty in 2005 to felony drug possession.
“His ‘carrying or possession' of a gun, which is the ‘deadly weapon' used in this case, is unlawful,” Flake wrote in an opinion handed down last week. “It therefore follows that [the] defendant is not entitled to a pretrial hearing on immunity.”
Woodard is accused of fatally shooting Bryant and Barker on the night of Jan. 16, 2008, as they tried to search him in the parking lot of a south DeKalb apartment complex. The defendant has said the officers used excessive force, essentially trying to beat him up as they frisked him, and he responded to protect himself.
Barker was killed at the scene, and Bryant later died at a nearby hospital.
Prosecutors are seeking the death sentence for Woodard. His trial is expected to begin as early as August.
In a 26-page opinion, Flake’s denials of Woodard’s immunity request and unconstitutionality claim were among dozens of responses to motions his attorneys have filed on his behalf in the four years since the shooting.
Among other motions she denied were requests to suppress evidence – eyeglasses and a Bible Woodard left as he fled the scene – and attempts to disqualify both the DeKalb County District Attorney’s office and the public defenders assigned to defend Woodard.
Since the night of the shooting, Woodard has had nine defense attorneys who have filed more than 150 motions.
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