[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TENN.

[Rick Halperin]

November 4




TENNESSEE:

Jurors to begin deliberations Sunday in Wilbourn death penalty case
Defendant changes mind, doesn't testify during trial for killing MPD officer


Shelby County Prosecutor Reginald Henderson stood in the middle of the 
courtroom and pulled the trigger on an unloaded 9mm gun. He then pulled the 
trigger 10 more times.

The gun was used as a prop to demonstrate for the jury the 11 times authorities 
say Tremaine Wilbourn, the man accused of killing Memphis police officer Sean 
Bolton, fired the same type of gun at the officer on the night of Aug. 1, 2015, 
in a neighborhood in Parkway Village.

Authorities said Wilbourn shot Bolton after the officer approached an illegally 
parked Mercedes-Benz in the 4800 block of Summerlane in the area of Cottonwood 
and South Perkins.

The driver of the car fled after Bolton shined a spotlight in the car. 
Wilbourn, who was a passenger, was being detained by Bolton when the two 
scuffled and Wilbourn is accused of  shooting the officer eight times including 
once in the face. Bolton later died at Regional One Health after one of the 
bullets pierced an artery in his thigh.

“There was a shot. Then there were 10 more shots. I submit to you that 
premediation is not an issue. This is first-degree murder,” Henderson said.

Prosecutors urged jurors to convict Wilbourn, 32, of first-degree murder in the 
officer’s death during closing arguments Saturday in the capital murder trial.

“There is no question who did it or where he did it, ” prosecutor Alanda Dwyer 
told jurors. “We don’t know what was in Tremaine Wilbourn’s mind, but we know 
what he did. If you shoot someone all over their body what is your intent? Your 
intent is to kill them, and that is exactly what Tremaine Wilbourn intended and 
he did everything in his power to get away with it.”

Defense attorney Lauren Pasley did not dispute that Wilbourn shot Bolton, but 
she disputed that he intentionally meant to kill the officer.

“If he intended to kill him why would he ask all of those witnesses to get 
their cameras out and record it,” Pasley said.

She said he panicked that night because he was a convicted felon with a loaded 
gun that night.

“We admit to shooting Officer Bolton.  He carjacked someone. The list gets 
longer. He is an ex-felon.

"True, that is true, but that does not make Tremaine a cold-blooded killer 
either.”

Wilbourn, who earlier in the trial said he intended to testify, told the court 
Saturday morning that he “wishes to remain silent” and changed his mind about 
taking the stand in his defense acknowledging that he understood that he could 
be asked about possible gang ties.

He is charged with first-degree murder, carjacking, employing a firearm in the 
commission of a dangerous offense and a felon in possession of a handgun.

Judge Lee Coffee told the jurors there are 15 possible verdicts to reach in the 
case. He dismissed jurors at 4:27 p.m. Saturday, saying he did not want them to 
think they had to rush to reach a verdict on the charges. They will begin their 
deliberations at 9 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018.

The trial started at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018, giving the 15 jurors 
time to visit the crime scene before court got underway for the day.

During the proceedings, defense attorney Juni Ganguli presented a motion for 
prejudgment acquittal to the court.

After reading a litany of case law and other factors in the case, the judge 
denied the motion, telling the attorneys with the jury out of the courtroom 
that the slaying of Bolton was a “particularly cruel offense.”

He added that the fatal shooting was premeditated by Wilbourn because the 
defendant made the decision not to return to prison that night as he was a 
convicted felon in possession of a handgun when he encountered the officer.

Wilbourn, who was convicted of federal bank robbery in 2005 and served 10 
years, had been released from prison in 2014 and was on federal probation when 
the shooting occurred.

“Officer Bolton was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Coffee said. 
“Officer Bolton was acting 100 percent in the scope of what he was charged to 
do that night. This is a particularly cruel offense where a officer was shot 
multiple times and his face was ripped off by a bullet.”

Wilbourn turned himself in two days after shooting and killing the officer, but 
Coffee said Saturday they never found the 9mm gun.

"Three years later it is nowhere to be found," Coffee said.

(source: dailymemphian.com)