YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) - A judge has not yet decided if s to rule onwill be reimbursed for his legal fees after he was acquitted of second-degree murder.sement of legal fees.
Cameron Jay Helland, 19, was charged with fatally shooting a 16-year-old boy during a drug deal at Yakima’s West Valley Community Park in November 2018, the Yakima Herald-Republic reported Thursday.
Helland was selling marijuana to Davontae Mesa, who grabbed him in a chokehold from the back seat prompting Helland to shoot him, Helland said.
Jurors found that Helland was acting in self-defense.
Under law, acquitted defendants legal bills must be paid by the state, but Helland was also committing a crime by selling marijuana to Mesa and three others, officials said.
Judge Kevin Naught is expected to issue a written ruling next week on if he can get any money.
The drug sale was not inseparable from the shooting, and Mesa asked Helland to sell him drugs, Defense attorney Ulvar Klein said. The state has previously reimbursed prisoners who were later found innocent $50,000 a year for their time in custody, he argued.
That is only true for someone who was wrongly convicted, and Helland was never convicted of the murder charge, prosecutors said.
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