Defense attorneys for a man charged in the shooting death of his mother three years ago are challenging the case which investigators have laid out, saying other possibilities in the death of Shirley Carter have been ignored.
A number of police officers and agents for the Department of Criminal Investigation were called to the stand Tuesday, as the defense for Jason Carter questioned the reports they filed; each investigator who testified questioned one or more witnesses, who named other suspects which may have had a motive to carry out the June 2015 shooting.
Attorney Allison Kanne concentrated on several statements in investigative reports which named alternate suspects; over a dozen investigators were called to the stand, and acknowledged the content of their reports…but said they found the information from these informants to be less than credible.
She also challenged Marion County Sheriff’s Office Detective Reed Kious and the decision to charge Carter with his mother’s death; he says investigators questioned a number of people, some of whom said they had knowledge of the incident from others and indicated other potential suspects.
But plaintiff’s attorney David Fautsch countered that many of these statements were hearsay which would be inadmissible, and came from people which investigators concluded were less than reliable.
He says these elements are less significant than the defense is making them out to be, and that Carter’s attorneys are only concentrating on these aspects in an effort to confuse the issue in advance of his criminal trial.
Carter received a $10 million judgement against him in a civil trial, and has a criminal case coming up in March.
