On June 14, 2020, a 21-year-old black man and a 21-year-old white woman walked out of a fast food joint. They pulled up next to a truck. Wilson's lawyers say that one of the white teenagers in the truck shouted "your lives don't matter."
Wilson told police that the teenagers in the pickup truck tried to knock his car off the highway, and that he thought they might be shooting at him. Wilson fired out his window at the truck. Haley Hutcheson was killed by the bullet that hit the backseat of the pickup.
He was charged with felony murder and could face the death penalty. Wilson claimed he was attacked.
Wilson told police that he and his girlfriend were scared that night. I will not allow my girl to get run off the road.
Ogeechee Judicial Circuit Court Judge Michael Muldrew decided that Wilson was a significant threat to the community and denied him bail. He remained in jail two months later when a police officer in Wisconsin shot and injured a Black man, sparking protests in that city that drew armed counterprotesters and Kyle Rittenhouse, a white 17-year-old who fatally shot Joseph Rosenbaum. Rittenhouse, who made a $2 million bond with the help of donations from supporters, testified that he feared for his life after three men tried to kick him and hit him with a skateboard. He was acquitted of all charges.
Wilson is scheduled to go to trial in March of 2022, and he will present a similar legal defense: A young person says he fired his gun at a group that threatened his safety.
Wilson's case raises the question of whether a young Black man's self-defense claim will carry the same weight as those made by other recent high-profile defendants.
Legal justification to kill people who pose a physical threat is offered by self-defense laws. Castle doctrine is based on the idea that a person has a right to defend their home if they are in danger. Utah passed a law in 1994 that extended the right to self-defense to any place a person has a legal right to be. Florida followed in 2005. 34 states have similar laws. Georgia states that a person is justified in using force if he or she reasonably believes that it is necessary to prevent death or great bodily injury. The white men who followed and fatally shot Ahmaud Arbery, a Black 25-year-old, while he was jogging near their neighborhood in Georgia last year have also claimed self-defense and are currently on trial for murder.
Critics of the laws say that who is protected depends on race. The United States Commission on Civil Rights released a study in 2020 that found that homicides in which the shooter is white and the victim is black were more likely to be justified.
The commission concluded that the same racial biases that have permeated our criminal justice system cannot be separate from this issue.
Rittenhouse was acquitted because he fired at people who he said attacked him, even though he had violated a local curfew and pointed his rifle at the men.
George Zimmerman was acquitted of all charges in the case because he was in a physical struggle with Martin, a Black 17-year-old who was walking home, even though he initiated the encounter against the orders of the dispatch operator he'd called to report that a person he deemed suspicious was passing
Bo Morrison, a black man, was shot and killed by Adam Kind, a white man, after police broke up a party at a neighboring home and responded to his complaint about the loud music.
Evidence of self-defense has not been enough to avoid a conviction for some Black defendants.
John McNeil was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of murdering a Georgia construction contractor who had threatened his son with a knife. He was charged with voluntary manslaughter and was released.
John White was found guilty of manslaughter in the 2006 shooting death of a teenager who was part of a group of young white people yelling racial slurs and threatening White's son in the driveway of his home in Long Island, New York. White spent five months in prison.
Critics of looser self-defense laws argue that easier access to guns and more flexibility to use them make for a deadly combination.
Nick Suplina, managing director for law and policy at Everytown, a gun safety advocacy group, said that there is a permissive environment for confrontations because of highTensions, gun laws are easy to follow, and there is a lot of violence. There are people itching for a fight because of political polarization.
Self-defense laws in America are marked by Wilson's case.
The teens in the pickup truck drove to the hospital, where Hutcheson was pronounced dead.
The four teens told police that they were at a stoplight next to a car when the light turned green and they drove away. They admitted to drinking, but they weren't breathalyzed.
When officers were asked if they knew why someone would shoot at them, they said they didn't know. According to police records, all four said that they believed that one of the people in the car was a girl named Marijane. Marijane, who is white, and her boyfriend, who is Black, were in a convenience store earlier that night.
The 16-year-old girl in the truck testified that when the truck passed the sedan at an intersection, the two men stuck their hands out the window, but she didn't know if they said anything. She thought they were waving at Marijane.
Detective Cross wrote in one of the police reports that he saw Conley yelling out of a window of the victim's vehicle.
The case of obstruction of justice and arrested by the police is still pending, as he gave conflicting statements about who he thought was in the car.
The Statesboro Police Department issued a press release the morning after the shooting. The police got a call from a woman who said that her friend Emma Rigdon had told her that the teens in the truck had started using racial slurs.
On the next day, officers met with Rigdon. Wilson joined the conversation by phone while she was talking to police.
Wilson told Rigdon that the guys in the truck next to them were saying the n-word to him. She didn't hear them because she was distracted by her puppy.
Two boys were yelling at them after the light turned green, as the truck in front of them swerved in front of them. Wilson said that he saw a truck full of white males yelling racial slurs and flipping him off.
Wilson thought that the protesters were trying to run him off the road, and he was scared, according to Rigdon.
At the hearing, Rigdon said it was in the middle of the night. There are no lights on that road. I didn't know what was going to happen.
Wilson told police that he heard the rumble strips along the edge of the pavement when he went close to the embankment. He said he fired two or three "warning shots" below the truck, which caused the truck's driver, Glisson, to slow down.
Wilson heard a loud boom after the truck accelerated. He thought the truck had rammed his car or the teens had returned fire. The sound may have been from a thrown beer, as officers found beer cans by the side of the road matching the brand the teens were drinking that night.
Wilson told police that he had no idea what happened. I thought they were shooting at me.
Wilson turned at the next intersection.
Wilson turned himself in the day after the call.
Wilson's lawyers have argued that his actions meet the standard of the state's self-defense law, which states that a person has the right to stand his or her ground and use force.
Defense attorneys wrote in a brief to the court that the evidence shows that Wilson's vehicle was being attacked by the truck and that the teens in the truck were racist. Wilson tried to ignore the truck's initial encroachment of his vehicle lane of travel. Wilson was afraid for his life and the safety of his passenger because the truck continued in its aggressive advancement.
America's history of racist violence against Black people has been cited by the defense team as an explanation for Wilson's fear.
Francys Johnson, a defense lawyer, said that his worst nightmare as a black man in this country was to be on a deserted road with a bunch of drunk white men. There are bodies that are strewn through the history of this country that say that that is a reasonable fear for a number of people.
Three white men were convicted of murder and sentenced to death in the 1998 killing of James Byrd Jr., who was dragged from the back of a pickup truck in Texas. The driver of a pickup truck full of white teens was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison for hitting and killing James Anderson.
Wilson's case sparked an online backlash against both him and the teens at a time when racial tensions were high. Hutcheson's aunt said in court that her family has received threats on social media, including anonymous comments. Wilson's attorney identified a man in a "white heritage" Facebook group who made a "racially motivated threat" against Wilson and attended at least one court hearing.
Wilson acted unreasonably and prosecutors challenged the allegation that the white teens carried racist beliefs. At the hearing, the assistant district attorney asked if DeLoach had any black friends. Totten asked if he had any issues with Black people after he said that a Black friend lived with him.
In his testimony, DeLoach recalled an incident from earlier that night: After a brief, friendly interaction with a middle-aged Black man in a convenience store parking lot, Conley said to the man "Black Lives Matter" in a tone that indicated he "was just saying it to be I told him to shut up.
During the preliminary hearing, Wilson's defense attorney asked if he had uttered racial slurs that night, and when he answered "no", he invoked his Fifth Amendment right and refused to answer any questions.
He said that he and his friends used the n-word in a joking matter. DeLoach said that he has a lot of Black friends. I am not a racist.
Wilson acted out of anger, according to Totten. Even though Wilson had no criminal record, Totten opposed setting a bail amount for him.
She said in court that there was no telling what a person would do if granted a bond.
Judge Muldrew agreed.
Muldrew ruled that Wilson poses a significant threat to the people in the community because he had contact with the people in the truck.
Wilson is in jail in Bulloch County.
