In a rare and unexpected move, a grand jury declined to indict Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Officer Randall Kerrick for voluntary manslaughter Tuesday, instead asking prosecutors to submit a lesser charge.
The defense claimed victory. The attorney general said his office planned to bring the charges against Kerrick before the grand jury again because some members of Tuesday’s panel were missing.
Randall Kerrick
(Photo courtesy tallahassee.com)
The number of absences and whether they had anything to do with the Kerrick case are not known. What is clear is that enough grand jury members felt the evidence presented against Kerrick did not support the manslaughter charge.
And they said so in writing.
“We the Grand Jury respectfully request that the district attorney submit a bill of indictment to a lesser-included or related offense,” the jury’s foreperson said in a hand-written note released by the clerk of court’s office late in the afternoon.
Kerrick was charged in connection with the Sept. 14 shooting death of 24-year-old Jonathan Ferrell, who was unarmed. The former Florida A&M football player was struck 10 times.
Kerrick, who had three years of experience at the time, fired 12 shots with his Smith&Wesson .40-caliber, semi-automatic pistol, all from a few feet away, police said. If convicted of the manslaughter charge, the 28-year-old faced a prison sentence of three to 11 years.
The reaction to the grand jury’s decision not to indict him varied from celebration and relief to anger and confusion.
In a prepared statement after the grand jury’s decision became public, Attorney General Roy Cooper said the case is not closed.
Citing the missing grand jury members, Cooper said, “It would be in the best interest of justice to resubmit this case to a full grand jury, which we plan to do as soon as possible.”
The statement did not mention a specific date. The attorney general’s office took over the Kerrick case at the request of Mecklenburg District Attorney Andrew Murray, a former law partner with Kerrick’s defense team.
Cooper’s spokeswoman, Noelle Talley, declined to say whether prosecutors would refile the original voluntary manslaughter charge or replace it with some lesser offense.
However, Talley did confirm that state prosecutors were surprised that some grand jury members were not on hand. A minimum of 12 is required to conduct business, and Tuesday’s grand jury issued indictments in other cases.
Talley did not respond to a question on how many jurors heard the evidence surrounding Ferrell’s death. Normally, the grand jury has 18 members; 12 votes are needed for an indictment.