Not guilty: Quick verdict delivered in Bolden case

Buckey Bolden’s first-degree murder trial lasted two weeks and ended Friday afternoon with two words: Not guilty.

Bolden spent three and a half years in the Catawba County jail after a January 2008 shootout in the Randolph’s Billiards parking lot in Hickory left Ben Thompson dead, George Hill Jr., paralyzed and in a wheelchair and Elizabeth Brannon suffering from a gunshot wound to the head.

During the trial, Bolden and his defense attorney never veered from their version of what happened the night on Jan. 11, 2008: Bolden acted in self-defense when he shot Thompson and Hill, but he never fired at Brannon.

When she took the stand, Brannon testified that she saw Bolden firing a pistol at her as she backed her car out of the parking lot and tried to get away.

Hill’s version of events was different. When he testified from his wheelchair, Hill said he fired at Brannon as she tried to drive away from the scene of the shooting. Hill said he passed out briefly after Bolden shot him and when he woke up, he heard someone run away and a car start. He thought it was Bolden and opened fire on him.

After deliberating for less then three hours, the jury pronounced Bolden not guilty of first-degree murder, not guilty of two counts of attempted first-degree murder and not guilty of discharging a firearm into an occupied vehicle.

As the clerk read the jury’s verdicts, Thompson’s family – who had sat in the courtroom throughout the trial – walked out of the courtroom in disgust.

Bolden’s family wept with joy and relief. Some pumped their fists in excitement. Bolden’s 6- and 8-year-old sons beamed as they looked at their father.

“When I heard the verdicts I just thought, ‘I’m going to be with my kids,” Bolden said. “I feel good, man. I really didn’t know what to expect today.”

He hugged his friends and family. He held his sons. He made arrangements to get a ride home. Then he reached out to the families of those involved in the shootings.

“I want to send out my condolences to all of the families hurt in this,” he said. “It was just a bad situation that got worse.”

During his closing arguments, Bolden’s attorney, Ted Cummings, said there were big problems with the evidence presented in the state’s case.

Cummings said the state’s ballistics lab switched and mislabeled evidence. He said the metallic fragments found in the back of Brannon’s head when she was treated at the hospital were switched with the bullet found in Thompson.

Cummings argued that the fragments the prosecution said were found in Thompson were not big enough to cause the amount of damage found in his body. He said a bullet from Bolden’s gun couldn’t have been found in Brannon because he never fired at her – he only had six bullets in his gun and he’d fired all of them by the time she started backing up her car.

Assistant District Attorney Sean McGinnis agreed that the bullet and the fragments had been switched, but said Cumming’s ballistics expert switched them.

As to the charge of first-degree murder, McGinnis cited state law and said since Thompson was killed while Bolden was in the commission of a felony – shooting into an occupied vehicle – that Bolden is guilty of first-degree murder.

They jury disagreed.

It may have been swayed by Myisha Hoyle’s testimony. She was standing beside Hill’s car with Bolden. She told the jury that she saw Hill flash a silver gun and fire warning shots at Bolden before Bolden pulled his own gun from his waistband and fired back.

Hill testified that when Bolden saw Thompson sit up and reach toward the car’s console, Bolden shot and killed him.

In his closing arguments, McGinnis told the jury that Hill had previously been convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and that it was up to each of them to decide how much of his testimony to believe.

At almost 3:30 p.m., the jury sent a note to the judge asking to see several items including: all bullets and fragments of bullets removed from the victims, photos of Thompson, X-rays of the victims, four written reports and photos of the cars involved in the shootout.

The judge and attorneys agreed with the stipulation that the bullets and fragments be viewed in the courtroom. The remaining items were delivered to the jury room for examination.

After arguing about whether the fragment came from Thompson’s body or from Brannon’s head and vice versa and how to label them appropriately, McGinnis and Cummings arranged the pieces of evidence on the table.

The jurors were allowed to approach the table one by one and look at the evidence. Many chose to put on rubber gloves to handle the bullets and fragments.

At 4:55 p.m., the jurors announced that they’d reached a unanimous verdict not guilty.