Story by Donna Thornton
Deliberations will continue Tuesday, as a Grove Oak man waits to find out whether his defense of self-defense will spare him a conviction in a 2023 shooting.
The trial of Keith Sullivan began last Tuesday. He was charged with murder in the shooting death of another Grove Oak man, Greg Bagwell, in the early morning hours of May 8, 2023.
Sullivan’s lawyers have argued he was scared of Bagwell and was defending himself and his family when he saw through surveillance cameras that Bagwell was on his front porch.
Prosecutors told jurors that surveillance footage – viewed several times in the courtroom – shows Sullivan shooting Bagwell in the back as he was leaving the porch.
Jurors received the case Friday afternoon and deliberated for two or three hours before returning to the courtroom to ask a question. They went out to deliberate again, but recessed for the night a short time later.
Their deliberations got a restart Monday morning after Judge Shaunathan Bell informed the state and the defense that a juror had notified his office about illness and a trip to the emergency room Sunday. The juror was not able to be in court Monday.
Bell told lawyers the options were to dismiss for the day and see if the juror had recovered, or to call in an alternate. When the jury was selected two alternates were seated and heard the same testimony that other jurors heard. Who the alternates were was not revealed until testimony and closing statements were completed.
Bell also offered the option of continuing with 11 jurors of the defense did not object. Defense attorneys opposed that option.
The first alternate juror — the last one struck from the panel last week - was called in.
The judge gave jury charges again and instructed them to begin over with deliberations, because law requires that juries only deliberate when all members are present.
At about 2 p.m., jurors had indicated they were deadlocked.
Bell told the state and defense attorneys he was inclined to give jurors the “Allen charge” — instructions to jurors intended to encourage them to continue deliberations.
Defense attorneys objected.
The further instruction given to jurors urged them to look at their discussions and try to eliminate any personal issues or prejudices that might be affecting deliberations.
Jurors went out to continue their discussions for a couple more hours before lawyers were alerted that jurors were going home, to return at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday.
