SYLVANIA, Ga. (AP) - A judge has granted bond to a Georgia state trooper charged with murder for shooting a man to death after trying to pull over his car for a broken tail light.
Jacob Thompson is charged with felony murder and aggravated assault in the Aug. 7 death of Julian Lewis.
Thompson in Monday was granted a $100,000 bond after seven witnesses, including four law enforcement officers, testified for him at an earlier court hearing. He must have no contact with any witnesses in the case or relatives of the victim, Judge F. Gates Peed wrote in his order granting bond.
Relatives of Lewis are “going to continue to demand justice,” one of their lawyers, Mawuli Davis, said at a Monday news conference after the bond decision.
“They believe that what happened on Aug. 7 was in violation of his human civil rights and was fundamentally against the law, and so they’ll continue – and we’ll continue with them — to advocate for justice,” Davis said.
Thompson was on duty with the Georgia State Patrol when he tried to pull Lewis over for a broken tail light in rural Screven County. When Lewis refused to stop, the trooper chased him and forced his car into a ditch, then shot Lewis in the head.
Thompson wrote in his incident report that he shot Lewis as Lewis was revving his engine and turning his steering wheel, as if he trying to ram the trooper. But Georgia Bureau of Investigation Agent Dustin Peak testified in September that was impossible, because Lewis’ car battery disconnected when it hit the ditch, leaving the vehicle inoperable.
Peak testified that dash camera video shows one second elapsed between the time the trooper exited his patrol vehicle and fired the shot that killed Lewis.
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