It took jurors less than two hours Wednesday to find a Detroit man guilty of murder in the shooting of Gerald Maxwell two years ago inside a Rand apartment.
Leonard Thomas, 45, of Detroit, who is also known as "D," should spend the rest of his life in prison without a chance to go before a parole board, a jury recommended Wednesday afternoon.
Thomas had taken the witness stand earlier Wednesday, and said that he had shot Maxwell, 28, of Rand, in self-defense. Thomas' attorney, Ed Bullman, told jurors that prosecutors wouldn't be able to prove that his client had premeditated the shooting - an element required to convict his client of the murder charge.
"He decided he would rather be judged by 12 than carried by six, and that's why we're here," Bullman said of Thomas.
Thomas on Wednesday admitted when he took the stand, though, that Maxwell had bullied him in the days leading up to the killing.
"It makes no sense that a reasonable person would believe that the defendant felt that he was in imminent danger and that the victim had a gun, so he took two steps toward the victim and shot him," said assistant Kanawha prosecutor Maryclaire Akers.
"To walk up to the victim and execute him is not self defense," Akers said as she walked toward assistant prosecutor JC MacCallum, formed the shape of a gun with her fingers and pointed toward MacCallum's head. "That's first-degree murder."
Maxwell, who at 6'4" was nicknamed "Big Baby," was killed at about 9 a.m. Dec. 16, 2014, at an apartment on Starling Drive. He was relaxing on a couch in the living room when the shooting occurred, prosecutors said.
Not long before jurors began deliberating, while she was giving closing arguments, Akers placed an autopsy photo of Maxwell on a large screen in the courtroom. The photo, which was displayed for about 15 minutes, was of Maxwell lying on a table with a stick through his head to demonstrate the downward angle the bullet traveled.
The prosecutor argued the autopsy photos debunked Thomas' claims of self-defense, proving Maxwell was sitting down at the time he was shot.
Thomas had said that Maxwell also had a gun and had started to get up from the couch he was sitting on, when Thomas fired the shot.
Police and prosecutors say Maxwell didn't have a gun, but Bullman suggested that the apartment had been scrubbed of any possible incriminating evidence - like drugs and weapons. Police admitted they hadn't found drugs in the apartment, where a large amount of drug use was taking place hours before their arrival.
Thomas and others in the apartment had been up the night before partying and using drugs, except for Maxwell, who was there selling heroin, Akers said. Thomas wanted some of his heroin to trade a woman for sex, Akers said.
When Maxwell refused, Thomas shot him, Akers told jurors.
Drema Saunders was in the room when Maxwell was shot and testified that five days before the shooting Thomas felt bullied by Maxwell.
Three days before the shooting, Maxwell had made Thomas go outside and pick up fecal matter, Saunders testified, Akers said. Thomas was so upset with Maxwell on that day that he cried and ran off, Akers reminded jurors, minutes before they began deliberations.
And the day of the shooting, Thomas sat at the kitchen table with Robert Obey, playing with his gun and saying he was going to, "Kill a mother [expletive] today," Akers reminded jurors that Obey had testified.
Thomas also told Obey that he was angry at Maxwell for the bullying over the past few days and how Maxwell "don't think I'm about this life," Akers said.
Thomas wouldn't admit he had said that to Obey. Thomas didn't dispute much of what prosecutors told jurors had occurred the day of the shooting. He also didn't dispute much of what witnesses had testified to on the stand.
"He agreed with everything else about that interaction" with Obey, Akers said. "He just won't agree that he had a gun at that point or that he said 'I'm going to kill a mother [expletive] today.'"
"You know why?" Akers asked jurors. "Because he knows that makes him guilty of premeditation."
Reach Kate White at kate.white@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1723 or follow @KateLWhite on Twitter.