PASADENA >> After just about seven hours of deliberation, a jury Monday found Pasadena murder suspect Rashad McCoy not guilty of killing 23-year-old Joseph Jones.
As soon as the verdict was read, emotions burst out from both sides of the courtroom, where the families of Jones and McCoy had watched anxiously throughout the two-week trial.
Both families said they plan to file lawsuits over the result.
Jones’ mother Faavaoa Jones began to cry loudly and screamed at the jury, yelling, “My son is gone.”
“It’s not fair,” she wailed at the 12-person jury, a few of whom were also wiping away tears.
Jones’ father David Jones yelled at the jurors as deputies escorted him, his wife and son Jessie Jones out of the courtroom.
“You’re stupid, and it’s not over,” David Jones said in a raised voice.
McCoy’s mother Keppie Moore sobbed along with the rest of McCoy’s friends and family once the verdict was read. Moore muttered “Thank you, Jesus” over and over. McCoy cried silently with his face buried in his palms.
“I feel great. I got this pressure that has been on me for the last two years and all of a sudden it just left,” Moore said. “I hope the Jones family gets some type of relief form this horrible pain, that the true killer is found. It’s up to the police to find the real killer. If it was my child I’d want the same done.”
McCoy, 25, was arrested in November 2012 and charged with murder for the September 2012 slaying. However, his attorney Cris Contreras argued that McCoy’s arrest was a case of mistaken identity.
Jones was shot following an attempted robbery and a foot chase through the dark streets of northwest Pasadena.
Witnesses Juan Mendoza and Jose Magana testified that Pasadena detectives William Broghamer and Cuong Pham had pressured them to identify McCoy as the shooter. Contreras introduced to the jury a tape from a witness interview in which Broghamer is heard saying he would “just pin it on anybody” to a colleague.
Moore said she plans to file a lawsuit against the department and Broghamer for falsely arresting her son. She said she hopes the case gets Police Chief Phillip Sanchez’s attention and can prevent other innocent people from going to jail.
“There are hundreds of people in jail just like my son was. Enough is enough,” Moore said. “They aren’t going to get away with it. We are suing them big time. … They convicted my son before he was even tried.”
City Manager Michael Beck and Sanchez did not respond to requests for comment late Monday.
Deputy District Attorney Stefan Mrakich also declined to comment on the verdict.
In addition to clearing McCoy of the murder charge, the jury also found McCoy not guilty of charges of attempted, willful, deliberate and premeditated murder of Jones’ brother Jessie Jones, with special allegations of intentionally discharging a firearm. The jury also found McCoy not guilty of lesser manslaughter charges in the case.
“It feels good for Rashad and his family. They’ve been waiting a long time for this,” Contreras said.
He added, “It still feels horrible for the Jones family. Their son was shot and killed that night and now we don’t really know who did it. … I felt like they trusted the police had the right person and this was a way to get past this, but there wasn’t any actual evidence that it was.”
During the trial, Jones’ two brothers Christian and Jessie, who were there with him the night he was shot, identified McCoy as the shooter, while two other witnesses failed to identify McCoy in court. Even after the verdict, Jones’ father said he was certain McCoy was the person who killed his son and said he plans to file a wrongful death lawsuit against McCoy.
“I’m 100 percent positive it was him,” Jones said. “I was upset because I was thinking that those people had enough intelligence to take and see the evidence that was there.”
Jones predicted that McCoy would meet a violent end once he was released from jail.
“He won’t make it six months in Pasadena,” Jones said.