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Home > Blogs > Dayton Courts: Legal and crime news > Archives > 2010 > August > 26 > Entry
Western Manor shootings: the defendant testifies he shot guards out of fear
DAYTON — Christopher Beatty-Jones, on trial for shooting two security guards in March, killing one, testified Thursday, Aug. 26, that he fired because he feared they would shoot him first.
Beatty-Jones said that he was struggling with the two Moonlight Security guards, hired to patrol Western Manor apartments on James H. McGee St., when his shirt came up and the guards saw his gun in his waistband. When he heard someone shout “gun,” and saw one guard reaching for his holstered weapon, he reacted, he said.
“I pulled the gun and started shooting,” Beatty-Jones said.
Beatty-Jones, 21, admitted gunning down guards William St. Peter, who survived and testified Tuesday, and James C. Locker, who died April 3, his 51st birthday, at Miami Valley Hospital.
Beatty-Jones charged with murder, attempted murder, and four counts of felonious assault. Closing arguments will be Friday morning, then the case will go to the jury. Defense attorney Doug Hess said Monday that the defense will ask Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Michael L. Tucker to allow the jury to consider lesser offenses and a self-defense claim.
St. Peter testified Tuesday that he and Locker were investigating a parked truck with lights on. Inside was Jodi Grigsby, a friend of Beatty-Jones, who was waiting for him.
Beatty-Jones said he was walking toward the truck when St. Peter came up behind him, pushed him and told him to keep his hands up and keep walking to the truck. St. Peter did not identify himself as a security guard, Beatty-Jones said.
St. Peter testified Tuesday that he met Beatty-Jones in the lot and asked him to walk toward the truck, then walked behind him, but did not touch him.
Beatty-Jones admitted to assistant Montgomery County prosecutor Tracey Ballard Tangeman that he lied to the guards when he said he did not remember his birthday, that he did not have a concealed-carry permit, and that he knew the two men were guards by the time a scuffle broke out at the truck.
Beatty-Jones said he began struggling with the guards “because I felt I didn’t do anything wrong.” He denied striking either guard, which contradicts St. Peter’s testimony. Both men testified that St. Peter sprayed Beatty-Jones with pepper spray twice.
Beatty-Jones told his attorney that the spray left his vision blurry, but admitted to Tangeman that he could see well enough to shoot both men more than once. St. Peter was hit twice in the chest, but a vest stopped the bullets. He was also shot in the right arm and part of his thumb was shot off.
Though Beatty-Jones said he started shooting when he saw St. Peter put his hand on his gun, St. Peter’s gun never left his holster, according to prosecutors. Locker did pull his gun, but it was struck by a bullet rendering it inoperable, according to prosecutors.
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