Carmichaels teen involved in Circle K shooting acquitted of most charges
news@greenecountymessenger.com
The teenage boy involved in a shootout with another group of teens outside a Carmichaels gas station last year was acquitted of most charges but was convicted of illegally possessing the firearm.
The Greene County jury returned its verdict late April 28 after deliberating the fate of Christopher Emmitt McKenzie for nearly 10 hours following a four-day trial in the March 3, 2022, gunfight outside the Circle K gas station in the borough.
While the jury found McKenzie guilty of felony gun possession, it acquitted him of 24 other felony charges, including four counts of attempted homicide. The jurors also announced they were hopelessly deadlocked on eight misdemeanor charges, including simple assault, when they returned their verdict about 9:30 p.m. Friday. It was not known if the prosecution planned to re-try the case on the misdemeanors.
无毛视频淭he jury obviously took their job very seriously, and we无毛视频檙e grateful they did,无毛视频� said Noah Geary, who served as McKenzie无毛视频檚 defense attorney. 无毛视频淚 think (the verdict) was a clear rejection of the government无毛视频檚 theory.无毛视频�
Geary conceded during the trial that his client should not have possessed the handgun used in the shooting because he was only 16 at the time, but he argued that he acted in self-defense when the group of teens assaulted him when a deal to purchase a cellphone from them soured.
After a lengthy discussion about the cellphone moments before the shooting, McKenzie took the cellphone and keys from the group无毛视频檚 vehicle and ran toward the store where the teens assaulted him. After breaking his arm and kicking him in the head, the group went back to the vehicle, prompting McKenzie to pull out his handgun and fire multiple times, striking two of the teens, both of whom survived. One of the other boys in that car, Vincent Pratt, who was also 16 at the time, returned fire, striking McKenzie in the left eye.
无毛视频淭he prosecutor talked about the rights of those four thugs to get their property back, but Christopher has rights, too,无毛视频� Geary said. 无毛视频淗is life and his body are more important than their keys.无毛视频�
Greene County District Attorney David Russo argued in his closing statements Friday morning that it was McKenzie who was the aggressor, and that his actions endangered not only the group of teens, but countless people in the gas station parking lot and inside one nearby building that was struck by gunfire.
无毛视频淓verything he did that day proves he was trying to kill those individuals,无毛视频� Russo said. 无毛视频淐hristopher McKenzie is not justified in any shot he took. He is not justified in use of deadly force.无毛视频�
But the jury returned twice to ask questions Friday during deliberations, including a request to again hear the definition of reasonable cause and then later to ask what they should do if they were 无毛视频渉ung up无毛视频� on some charges. President Judge Lou Dayich gave them a short break and then asked them to go back into deliberations, which they did for another four hours before rendering a partial verdict.
McKenzie, of Carmichaels, who turns 18 later this month, has been jailed without bond since he left the hospital after losing his left eye during the shootout. He will remain in jail while he awaits sentencing by Dayich at a later date.
State police also charged the group of four teens in the incident. The cases against Pratt, 17, of Redstone Township, and Marquis Noah Curry-Jones, who is now 18, were moved to juvenile court. The two other teens, Kobe Lee Cramer, 19, of Dunbar Township, and Joshua Allen Curry-Jones, 20, of Uniontown, are still awaiting trial. Marquis Curry-Jones, of Uniontown, was shot in the leg while Joshua Curry-Jones was shot in the arm during the exchange of gunfire.