Some critics say ShotSpotter can’t distinguish gunfire from fireworks. This tragic case says differently.
About a week after Independence Day in 2022, Rickey Latham’s 10-year old son still had some bottle rockets. Latham and the boy were setting them off late into the evening and that began to annoy his neighbor. A confrontation ensued and the neighbor, Devin Griffin-Curry, shot Latham—right in front of his son.
ShotSpotter detected the gunfire amidst the fireworks and alerted the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, who responded and found Latham lying dead, his son the main witness to his murder.
Police obtained surveillance video from the offender’s house and what it captured confirmed the facts but also the callousness of the offender and his family members, who accompanied him to the shooting.
As the killer and his family walked back to their house after the shooting, they were laughing. One of them remarked, “He said he don’t care about dying. Well, he dead now.” Disgusting.
Griffin-Curry was arrested and convicted at trial. He appealed, arguing, among other things, that he should have been allowed to present testimony from a psychologist that ADHD caused him to have diminished capacity. But the psychologist’s testimony would not have supported Griffin-Curry’s defense in the way he believed it would. The lower court did not abuse its discretion in excluding it.
Same with his Speedy Trial claim. The delay did not prejudice him. And while the government did make an improper argument at trial, the lower court appropriately addressed it.
Griffon-Curry stays in prison, where he belongs.
You can read the opinion here: https://lnkd.in/gybm-CHH.