SandyMaloneStillwater, OK – A jury acquitted a bail bond agent who fatally shot a client in her office in August (video below).
On Thursday, the jury in the trial of Chastity Carey watched the video of her shooting and killing Brandon Williams when he refused to be taken into custody.
The deliberated for a brief period on Friday, and returned a verdict of not guilty, according to the Stillwater News Press.
The shooting occurred shortly before 11:45 a.m. on Aug. 9, 2017, at Carey’s Signature Bail Bonds office at Town Center in the 100 block of West Seventh Avenue.
Carey, 42, had posted a $35,000 bond for Williams just nine days before the shooting, the Stillwater News Press reported.
Williams had been arrested on July 27, 2017, and charged with the burglaries of three areas restaurants.
Her son had set up a GoPro video camera to record her meeting with the 38-year-old Williams.
In the video, things appeared to be going smoothly until Carey got up from her desk to shut and lock the office door.
At that point, the video showed her son took handcuffs to her to lock up Williams, and Williams got upset.
He began to collect his belongings as if to leave.
Carey told him several times to put his hands behind his back.
“Don’t put your hands on me! Why? What are you doing this to me for?” Williams asked, as he scrambled to get away from Carey.
He made his way behind the desk, off camera, and Carey went after him, stopping to reach into her desk drawer and retrieve her gun, the video showed.
She turned and shot Williams, who could not be seen in the video.
“Mom, you just shot him,” her son said, sounding and looking shocked.
“I did,” Carey said. And then she called 911, and told dispatchers she had just shot a man, The Ada News reported.
“Carey told officers she had called Williams to her office with the intent of taking him into custody to revoke his bond and deliver him back to the Payne County Sheriff’s Office,” Stillwater Police Captain Kyle Gibbs wrote in a press release.
“A witness was present during the meeting between Carey and Williams. Carey told investigators a fight broke out between her and Williams during the meeting. She indicated she shot Williams with a gun she had in her desk in self-defense during the struggle,” Capt. Gibbs wrote.
He told The Ada News police had arrested the bail bond agent because “Witness statements as well as evidence found at the scene, including video evidence, contradict Carey’s version of the event.”
“The investigators’ findings indicate that the shooting was not a justifiable act of self-defense,” Capt. Gibbs said.
The jury disagreed and acquitted her after they watched the video.
At the trial, Carey claimed that she shot when Williams grabbed her gun.
After you watch the video below, do you think that the shooting was justified? We’d like to hear from you. Please let us know in the comments.
Watch Carey shoot Williams in her office in the video below: