{"id":167822,"date":"2025-04-02T07:59:39","date_gmt":"2025-04-02T07:59:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/alabama\/immunity-denied-for-former-decatur-cop-murder-trial-will-proceed\/"},"modified":"2025-04-02T07:59:39","modified_gmt":"2025-04-02T07:59:39","slug":"immunity-denied-for-former-decatur-cop-murder-trial-will-proceed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=167822","title":{"rendered":"Immunity denied for former Decatur cop, murder trial will proceed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A former Decatur Police officer didn\u2019t prove he was acting in self defense when he shot and killed a man in his front yard, a Morgan County Circuit Court judge ruled Monday.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Judge Charles Elliott also indicated in a lengthy ruling that former officer Mac Marquette was likely \u201ca trespasser,\u201d and not actively investigating a crime or performing an official duty, when he shot and killed Steve Perkins in Sept. 2023. Elliott also appeared skeptical of the officers\u2019 claims that they were at Perkins\u2019 home to \u201ckeep the peace\u201d on the night of the shooting, but Elliott wrote that that would be up to a jury to decide.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">As it stands, the prosecution of Marquette for murder will proceed on June 9. The former officer, who was fired by Decatur PD following an internal review of the Perkins\u2019 shooting, was one of four officers who accompanied a tow truck driver to Perkins\u2019 residence to assist in a vehicle repossession. That repossession attempt was the second of the night at Perkins\u2019 home \u2013 the first one ending when Perkins, holding a firearm, ordered the tow truck driver off his property.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Under Alabama law, police officers are not allowed to assist with vehicle repossessions unless there is a court order. Additionally, a vehicle repossession is only allowed to proceed without a court order if a \u201cbreach of the peace\u201d (an altercation or hostile confrontation) has not occurred.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Two of the officers present that night testified during Marquette\u2019s immunity hearing last week that they were aware that they were not allowed to assist in a vehicle repossession without a court order.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yet, that\u2019s precisely what they did, with the three concocting a plan to passively assist in the repossession. They did so by parking their vehicles down the street and hiding around Perkins\u2019 yard, out of sight, while the driver attempted again to repossess Perkins\u2019 truck.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">When Perkins, again holding a firearm, exited his home, unaware of the police presence, and made his way across his front yard to confront the driver for a second time, Marquette sprang from the darkness and shouted, \u201cHey! Police! Get on the ground!\u201d When Perkins, holding his gun, turned in his direction after the initial shout of \u201cHey,\u201d Marquette began firing with the final word still hanging in the air.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"code-block code-block-6\" style=\"margin: 8px auto; text-align: center; display: block; clear: both;\">\n<div class=\"zox-post-ad-wrap\"><span class=\"zox-ad-label\">Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In his ruling, Elliott noted that the time between Marquette\u2019s initial shout of \u201cHey,\u201d and the first bullet being fired was just 1.4 seconds.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The officers attempted to explain their violation of law and policy by saying that their intent was not to assist with a repossession, but was instead to \u201ckeep the peace\u201d at Perkins\u2019 residence. There was also mention of a potential charge of menacing, because Perkins threatened the tow truck driver with a firearm. (The tow truck driver told the officers that he would prefer not to press charges for menacing if he could retrieve the truck. However, he also told the officers that he would not return to Perkins\u2019 residence alone. Elliott wrote that the officers should have informed him of the proper procedure for obtaining a court order and been on their way.)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Elliott seemed skeptical of both explanations. In his ruling, he noted that an investigator with the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency testified that the proper protocol for officers when keeping the peace would be to maintain a visible presence or make contact with the parties involved. Marquette and his fellow officers did neither.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Additionally, to even have grounds to be on Perkins\u2019 property, the officers had to be conducting an investigation or legitimately engaged in performance of their duties. Elliott wrote that the officers had the authority to approach Perkins\u2019 property, to park nearby, but they did not have cause \u2013 \u201conce they viewed that no crime was occurring\u201d \u2013 to enter his property. For that reason, as far as the menacing investigation was concerned, Elliott viewed the officers as trespassers. To be viewed otherwise, he said, would have required them to behave as investigators and make contact with Perkins, fill out paperwork, etc.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In conclusion, Elliott wrote that two questions must be answered: whether Marquette was acting within the scope of his employment as a law enforcement officer when he shot Perkins, and\/or whether he behaved as another reasonable officer would. Elliott determined that Marquette could not have been acting as an officer if the reasoning for his presence at Perkins\u2019 home was the investigation of a menacing charge.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">However, if Marquette is claiming that he was there to keep the peace, Elliott said that leaves a jury to answer the two questions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><!-- CONTENT END 1 -->\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A former Decatur Police officer didn\u2019t prove he was acting in self defense when he shot and killed a man in his front yard, a Morgan County Circuit Court judge ruled Monday.\u00a0 Judge Charles Elliott also indicated in a lengthy ruling that former officer Mac Marquette was likely \u201ca trespasser,\u201d and not actively investigating a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":163362,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11763],"tags":[19099,41161,48813,11039,598,60621,3711,66519,24284,66520,13623],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-167822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alabama","tag-cop","tag-decatur","tag-decatur-police-department","tag-denied","tag-immunity","tag-mac-marquette","tag-murder","tag-police-shooting","tag-proceed","tag-steve-perkins","tag-trial"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - 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