The pharmacist who fatally shot a teenage robber at a local drug store will be tried for first-degree murder.Oklahoma County Special Judge Greg Ryan said at yesterday’s preliminary hearing that prosecutors had sufficient evidence against Jerome Jay Ersland, 58, and ruled that he must stand trial.
Before making the ruling, the judge watched two surveillance camera recordings of the May 19 shooting at the Reliable Discount Pharmacy.
Mr. Ersland is charged with first-degree murder.
The pharmacist may have been surprised to hear the ruling, since he had earlier indicated he expected to be cleared at his preliminary hearing.
“Justice will prevail shortly,” Mr. Ersland wrote to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation in July.
But he gulped yesterday when the judge declared his ruling.
Mr. Ersland’s actions “were nothing less than an execution,” Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater told the judge Wednesday.
On the other hand, Irven Box, Mr. Ersland’s attorney, said his client should face trial only for first-degree manslaughter.
Prosecutors said Mr. Ersland shot Antwun Parker, 16, once in the head, pursued another teenage robber outside the pharmacy, and returned to the store and shot the unconscious teen five times in the chest and abdomen.
Mr. Parker and Jevontai Ingram, 14, prosecutors allege, tried to rob the store of drugs and money at the direction of two longtime criminals.
“I’m going to shoot your ass,” a pharmacy employee testified one of the two yelled at Mr. Ersland.
Prosecutors said the pharmacist went too far when he fired the last five shots, because Mr. Parker was unconscious, unarmed and no longer a threat.
Mr. Ersland has said he was defending himself and two female employees from a masked robber who was still moving.
The pharmacist’s defense attorney said he believes his client will be acquitted at trial, particularly because the tape recordings show the other robber tried to shoot the pharmacist in the face.
“Evidently, he’s got no bullets, or [his gun] malfunctioned,” Mr. Box said. “I still don’t think there are 12 people in this county that will find he’s guilty….[Antwun Parker] was still a threat.”
Prosecutors presented crime-scene photos that showed fallen merchandise on top of Mr. Parker’s right arm and against his body, and showed a blood pool beneath his head was undisturbed.
That was an apparent attempt to show that the teenager was not moving before he was shot the last five times.
The state’s chief medical examiner, as well as a renowned expert on blood spatter and a police detective testified the photos and other physical evidence proves he could not have been moving.
Dr. Collie Trant, the medical examiner, testified that five shots to the chest and abdomen were in a tight cluster.
The pathologist testified that those wounds would have been farther apart if Mr. Parker had been conscious, since the victim would have moved after the first shot to the torso.
Tom Bevel, the blood spatter expert, testified blood drips would have been on the floor or on Mr. Parker’s shirt if he had tried to get up after the head wound.
The security camera recordings do not show Mr. Parker after he was hit in the head, but they do show Mr. Ersland standing over where the teenager fell, and the pharmacist firing the last five shots.
The recordings also show the pharmacist chasing the first robber out of the store after Mr. Parker was hit in the head.
The pharmacist fired the fatal shots into Mr. Parker after returning to the store and getting a second gun.
Detective David Jacobson said Mr. Ersland has given inconsistent statements to police and to news reporters about the shooting.
The detective said Mr. Ersland told police he shot Mr. Parker five more times before chasing the other robber outside because Mr. Parker “wouldn’t go down.”
Detective Jacobson also testified that the pharmacist claimed to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder from killing people during combat in the Persian Gulf War of 1991.
“He had dreams about it,” the detective testified.
Moreover, the detective told the judge yesterday that Mr. Ersland also said he had been injured in combat, that his vertebra had been blasted.
The detective said a review of Mr. Ersland’s military records show his claims about combat are not true.
His military records show, the Oklahoman reported, that Mr. Ersland spent the war as the pharmacy chief at the military hospital at Altus U.S. Air Force Base in Oklahoma.
Detective Ryan Porter testified the security camera recordings prove Mr. Ersland did not consider Mr. Parker a threat after the robber fell down.
The detective said Mr. Ersland “walk[ed] right by, ignoring” the robber” as he went to get a second gun and also “ha[d] his back to” the fallen robber for several steps.
After the preliminary hearing, District Attorney Prater questioned with reporters why Mr. Ersland has given repeated statements inconsistent with the facts if the pharmacist thinks he is in the right.
“Why lie?,” the prosecutor asked the reporters. “Tell the truth. I’m not sure what was going through his head.”
“You’ve got someone lying on the floor on their back, unconscious, with their arms out to their side and their palms up,” the prosecutor continued.
“And they’re clearly unarmed, and you walk up and stick a gun about two feet from their chest and you put five bullets into their abdomen.
“That’s an execution.”
