Was it self-defense or murder?

Pat Head — Prosecutor for Cobb County. District attorney since July 1998. Retiring at the end of this year.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Rhonda Cook reviewed more than a thousand pages of court documents from John McNeil’s 2006 murder trial and the subsequent court appeals. She also reached out to each of the 11 living jurors in the case, and interviewed three jurors who agreed to talk.

Timeline

Nov. 8, 2005 — Anita and John McNeil close on a house on Earlvine Way in Kennesaw, a home built by Brian Epp.

Dec. 6, 2005 — John McNeil and Epp, who had previously fueded over the timeliness and quality of Epp’s work on the house, have a confrontation in McNeil’s yard after McNeil’s son claimed Epp pulled a knife on him. McNeil shoots and kills Epp. Police rule the shooting self defense.

Aug. 10, 2006 — A Cobb County grand jury indicts John McNeil on charges of felony murder, malice murder, voluntary manslaughter and aggravated assault.

Oct. 30, 2006 — John McNeil’s murder trial begins.

Nov. 8, 2006 — Jury convicts John McNeil of felony murder and aggravated assault but acquits him on charges of malice murder and manslaughter.

March 3, 2008 — Georgia Supreme Court rejects John McNeil’s direct appeal of his conviction.

May 2, 2012 — John McNeil files a “writ of habeas corpus” in Baldwin County, where he was imprisoned, challenging how the trial was conducted.

Sept. 28, 2012 — Baldwin County Judge Hulane E. George grants John McNeil’s request for a new trial.

Oct. 17, 2012 — Attorney General Sam Olens files notice that he will appeal George’s decision. There is no deadline for filing the actual appeal.

John McNeil did not kill Brian Epp in self defense, a Cobb County jury decided six years ago when it convicted him of murder.

Now the Georgia Supreme Court will be asked to see if those 12 people were given the correct instructions to guide them in deciding if McNeil had the right to use deadly force to protect himself, his home and his 19-year-old son.

McNeil, serving a life sentence, could get a new trial or he could work out a deal that gets him out of prison sooner.

But three jurors who recently talked to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution about the conviction say McNeil’s recorded conversation with a 911 operator en route to the scene might have done more to influence their decision than questions about self defense.

There had been tension for weeks between McNeil and Epp, the builder on McNeil’s nearly-finished but overdue $439,000 house on Earlivine Way in Kennesaw.

Trial witnesses portrayed a hostile relationship that became worse each day until the afternoon of Dec. 6, 2005, when McNeil’s son called to say a man had pulled a knife on him in their backyard.

Correctly assuming it was Epp, McNeil drove home.

“I’m about to pull up now. Just get the cops out here,” John McNeil said on the 911 recording. “I’m ready to whip his ass right now.”

The operator urged him to stay in the car as an officer was only minutes away, but he refused.

In less than three minutes after pulling into his driveway, McNeil loaded his 9 mm Smith and Wesson with hollow-point bullets and shot and killed Epp, a 31-year-old father of three. A year later, in November 2006, McNeil was convicted of murdering Epp and sentenced to life.

Last month, however, a judge ordered a new trial saying McNeil’s trial in Cobb County was unfair because the jury was not properly instructed on how they could acquit him if they thought his actions were justified. The state attorney general has given notice he will appeal that decision to the Georgia Supreme Court but there is no deadline for filing.

“This could be an important case in terms of deciding the important issue of whether the law allows a person, like a father, to defend a third party when the fracas between the son and the deceased has abated,” said University of Georgia law professor Ron Carlson.

Jurors recently told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution they discussed self-defense during their deliberations and they still thought it was murder based on John McNeil’s 911 call, eye witness testimony and the apparent hatred the two men had for each other.

They are certain they made the correct decision.

“He (McNeil) called the law and said he was going there to do it… We got full instructions on everything. We listened. The judge told us exactly what to look at.” said one juror, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because she fears retaliation.

Another juror in the nine-day trial, Michael McClellan, said “The jury was very diligent. I don’t think there was an injustice done in terms of the jury’s verdict.”

Juror Janis Parsons agreed with the verdict but now believes McNeil should get another chance because in her opinion the life sentence without the possibility of parole for 30 years is too long.

“I’m not saying he wasn’t trying to protect his kid but just listening to it on the 911 recording… our hands were tied,” Parsons said. “I didn’t want to say he was guilty…. But I couldn’t say he was innocent.”

The evidence, they determined, was clear: John McNeil, an African American businessman, murdered Epp, the white contractor who had built what McNeil and his wife thought would be their dream home.

Jurors heard about how then 19-year-old La’Ron McNeil told his father Epp had threatened him with a “blade.” They heard about how John McNeil rushed home, waved a gun at Epp and then loaded it. He fired a warning shot into the ground as Epp moved toward him and then pulled the trigger again, delivering a fatal round to Epp’s face from less that three feet away.

But there are some who say there was more to it than the nuances of the law, that McNeil was prosecuted because he is a black man who killed a white man even though the detectives decided it was self-defense.

Cobb County’s District Attorney Pat Head said his review of the case led him to believe Epp was not a threat to McNeil and that the grand jury should review the facts.

Head said a grand jury, not him, decided McNeil should tried for murder.

Race, he said, did not factor into his decision making, an allegation leveled by the NAACP that has been advocating for John McNeil. “Anybody who knows me knows that’s an absolute lie,” Head said.

But to the NAACP, it smacked of selective prosecution.

In recent weeks, the national and NAACP chapters in Georgia and North Carolina have held rallies in Atlanta, Marietta, McNeil’s hometown of Wilson, N.C., and the Washington area. The group also has raised money for John McNeil’s appeal.

“The case is emotional, but our emotions are in the facts,” stated Rev. Dr. William Barber, president of the NAACP’s North Carolina chapter, where the campaign started.

According to testimony, Epp and John McNeil feuded almost from the day the McNeils bought the $439,000 house on Earlvine Way in Kennesaw. They disagreed over fixtures, lighting, paint, tile and garage doors. The cost of toilets was not included in the sale price so the McNeils had to pay extra to have two installed.

On the day they closed, Epp still had not secured a certificate of occupancy and he still had a punch list of unfinished jobs.

The morning of the shooting, the McNeils discovered Epp had removed the heating and air conditioning vents from their house and installed them in the one he was building next door for his mother.

A few hours after that discovery, La’Ron McNeil called his father to report a strange man in their backyard. La’Ron McNeil confronted Epp and, according to his testimony, the two exchanged threats and obscenities until Epp waved a utility knife. La’Ron McNeil testified he went back into the house, locked the doors and called his dad to tell him about confrontation.

The angry father drove home, calling 911 on the way.

“When you get a call from your kids that somebody’s got a knife pulled on them, threatening them, the first thing you want to do is get home and protect your kid,” John McNeil testified. “So I said I was going to whip his ass.”

The 911 operator urged John McNeil to wait for police but he told her he wouldn’t.

Epp was leaning against his truck in the driveway of the house next door when John McNeil pulled up.

McNeil said he saw Epp get something out of his truck and put it in his right front pocket; Epp’s utility knife was still in his pocket when he was shot.

“The guy just went off,” said the juror who requested anonymity. “You know anybody who carries around a gun with hollow point bullets? They aren’t just wanting to scare somebody. What did he expect would happen? I think rage just ate him up.”