DECATUR, Ala. (WHNT) — The murder case of former Decatur police officer Mac Marquette is on hold while the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals considers his self-defense claims.
Late Tuesday afternoon, the Alabama Attorney General’s Office responded to those arguments on behalf of prosecutors in Morgan County.
In a 43-page filing, the Attorney General’s Office, acting on behalf of Morgan County prosecutors, told the appeals court Marquette’s self-defense claims at this point should not lead to a granting of immunity on the murder charge.
“Marquette has not shown a clear legal right to immunity from prosecution in the shooting death of Perkins,” the the AG’s office filing argues. “The circuit court correctly found that, based on Marquette’s proffer of evidence, there remain open questions regarding whether he had a legal right to be at Perkins’s house and/or was operating within the scope of his duties as a police officer at the time of the shooting—questions more appropriately decided by a jury.”
Marquette is charged with murder in the September 2023 on-duty shooting of Stephen Perkins.He was killed during a botched repossession attempt of his truck. Marquette was indicted early last year, but he has argued Perkins pointed a gun at him that night, and he killed Perkins in self-defense.
In its response to Marquette’s immunity claims, the AG’s office included information from the the ALEA investigator’s report into the Perkins shooting. The portion included in Tuesday’s filing notes that Investigator Jamie King’s report said the officers on the scene that night appeared to act reasonably.
“Based on the facts of the investigation, Officers Marquette, Mukadam, and Williams had reasonable belief that [the victim] had committed the crime of menacing when hebrandished a firearm against the tow truck driver,” according to King’s report. “Officer Marquette also had reasonable belief that [the victim] was going to use deadly force against the tow truck driver or himself when he exited from his house with a pistol pointed in the direction of the tow truck driver before turning the pistol in the direction of Officer Marquette.”
The AG’s reply also notes King testified at an immunity hearing over Marquette’s self-defense claims back in March. Prosecutors asked him about officers not announcing their presence to Perkins that night.
“On cross-examination, Agent King further testified that if peace keeping was their goal, the officers’ decision to set up tactically so that their presence was unknown to Perkins was ‘unusual for this circumstance’ because visual officer presence is a necessary componentfor keeping the peace,” the AG’s office said in its filing.
The AG’s office also notes that Agent King testified about whether the officers acted outside the scope of their duties in accompanying tow truck driver Caleb Combs back to Perkins house that night. Combs told police Perkins had pointed a gun at him during Combs’ first attempt to repossess Perkins truck.
“Finally, Agent King testified that, based on his training and experience, the officers exceeded the scope of their duty in accompanying Combs to Perkins’s house for the second repossession,’ the state filing argued .
In late March, Morgan County Circuit Judge Charles Elliott denied Marquette’s immunity claims. Marquette is asking the appeals court to overturn that ruling. If the court determines he acted in self-defense, the murder case would be over.
Marquette’s trial is currently set for Sept. 15, but that date could change based on the length of the appeals court review.
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