Columbus jury decides not to convict man of murder charges in double homicide. Here’s why
Authorities said Rayshondre Gartrell Tarver couldn’t claim self-defense for fatally shooting two men who tried to rob him of the marijuana he was selling.
Georgia law does not allow suspects to claim self-defense if they kill someone while trying to commit a felony, prosecutors argued during Tarver’s trial last week in Muscogee Superior Court.
The jurors in Tarver’s case didn’t buy that argument, and they acquitted the 21-year-old on two counts of murder in the Oct. 7, 2019, deaths of Montrell Johnson, 18, and Terreon Joseph, 17.
The jury didn’t let Tarver off completely, finding him guilty of attempting to commit a felony by trying to sell marijuana and of using a firearm to commit a crime. He will be facing up to 10 years in prison when Judge Gil McBride sentences him at 9 a.m. Dec. 1, attorneys said.
Besides his gun and drug charges, Tarver was indicted June 30 on two counts of felony murder for killing Joseph and Johnson while committing the felony of trying to sell marijuana.
Defense attorney William Kendrick was thankful jurors rejected the murder charges: “I’m glad for the jury’s verdict,” he said Wednesday. “They saw through it.”
They were not willing to accept the prosecution’s stance that Tarver legally could not act in self-defense while selling drugs, he said. Kendrick had argued that Tarver had a right to protect himself, even while trying to sell Joseph two ounces of marijuana.
“The attempted sale of marijuana does not obviate his life,” Kendrick said.
Prosecutors declined to comment on the verdict, but during the trial, they told the jury that Georgia law allows no self-defense claim for those who use deadly force while “attempting to commit, committing, or fleeing after the commission or attempted commission of a felony.”
The shooting
According to the initial testimony in Tarver’s case, police were called at 11 p.m. to the shooting on 32nd Avenue, where they found a misfired 9-millimeter handgun in Joseph’s right hand, and several .40-caliber shell casings near Johnson’s body.
Detective Dexter Wysinger said his investigation revealed Joseph had been Facebook-messaging Tarver about buying two ounces of marijuana for $450, and they arranged a meeting.
Kendrick said that at the same time Joseph was messaging Tarver, Joseph and Johnson were plotting to rob Tarver and, if necessary, to shoot him to get the marijuana.
Tarver asked a woman he knew to give him a ride to the rendezvous on 32nd Avenue, where Joseph was waiting in the street. Tarver showed him an ounce of marijuana when Joseph came to the car. Joseph was holding the bag when Tarver saw Johnson approaching in the rearview mirror and realized he had been set up, police said.
As Tarver snatched the marijuana back, one of the men put a gun in his face and demanded he give it up, investigators said. Tarver then pulled out his own gun and started shooting, telling his driver to speed away.
Autopsy results later showed Joseph was shot once in the chest, and Johnson was shot three times in the head and once in the back. Tarver and his driver were not injured.
The woman who gave Tarver the ride testified during the trial, saying she would not have allowed him in her car, had she known he had a gun and planned to sell drugs. But she also testified that she thought Tarver probably saved her life when the shooting started, Kendrick said.