October 14, 2008
Jurors found doctors more believable than witness
Testimonies in death of teen said to conflict
In the end, the jurors found the doctors more believable than the eyewitness.
A day after acquitting Jacob Tyler Fortney of manslaughter and related charges in the death of Noah Jamahl Jones, two members of the jury - who spoke on the condition of anonymity, saying they feared for their safety, among other concerns - contended that Anne Arundel County prosecutors failed to offer a convincing argument.
The outcome in the racially charged case upset some students at Northeast High School - which Fortney, 19, had attended and where Jones would have been a senior this year - as well as leaders in the African-American community.
Yesterday, the Anne Arundel County branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People said it intends to press the U.S. Department of Justice to complete a civil rights probe the organization successfully sought last year and to file federal charges against Fortney.
Justice Department officials did not return a phone call.
During the trial, the key prosecution witness, Joshua David Bradley, said he saw Fortney run and jump onto Jones' face, and later heard him gloat that "I crushed his head." A few weeks afterward, Bradley testified, Fortney bragged that the leap earned him the nickname "Air Jordan."
But two medical experts - one for the prosecution and one for the defense - said they saw no injuries to Jones to substantiate a claim that a 200-pound man stomped on Jones' face.
In closing arguments, Deputy State's Attorney William D. Roessler said Fortney delivered a soccer-style kick to Jones' head, but the two jurors said they did not believe the changed explanation.
"There should have been at least a broken nose, some facial injuries," one juror said. "And then all of a sudden it turned into a kick to the side of the head. Their witness said it was a leap, a jump. How do you think about that, all of a sudden it's different?"
The second juror called the soccer kick explanation a "good try."
Jurors knew that Bradley agreed to testify in exchange for prosecutors' dropping charges.
David W. Fischer, one of Fortney's lawyers, said he believed that medical professionals contradicting Bradley's account was crucial to the acquittal.
Prosecutors stood by Bradley's testimony.
Roessler said he thought his soccer kick explanation fit perfectly.
"I honestly think that is what happened in the case," he said.
Both jurors in the all-white panel said race did not seem to play a part in the fatal fight, with one noting that guests of the white party host included black youths. But some in the black community, including the victim's mother, believe race was a motivator. Robin Jones has said that her son's interracial relationships had kindled animosity.
The six men charged in Jones' death are white. Jones was black, as are the three friends with whom he arrived at an outdoor party to retrieve another friend they believed was in danger from Fortney's group. Two members of Jones' group are charged with having weapons.
No hate crime has been alleged, and the lead detective testified that he did not find a racial motive.
In a statement released yesterday, some NAACP court observers said they didn't think Anne Arundel County States Attorney Frank R. Weathersbee's office vigorously prosecuted the case.
Robin Jones said she was not pleased either. "I know they did hard work on this case, but I don't think they took the best route," she said.
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