Tyrone Hartsfield Found Guilty

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Tyrone Hartsfield was found guilty of attempted murder today in the shooting of Richard Collier  and followed the verdict by telling the judge he did not think his trial was fair.

Collier was in the courtroom when the verdict was read around 6:30 p.m. Hartsfield's sister immediately broke down in tears and had to be escorted out of the courtroom.

Hartsfield sat quietly shaking his head as the verdict was read. A second charge, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, is unresolved.

Shortly after the verdict, Hartsfield asked to address the court. Despite numerous cautions from Judge Mallory Cooper, Hartsfield insisted. "Anything you say could affect your appellate rights. You still have a count pending," Cooper said.

"I just want to repeat something I said earlier. It's already on the record," Hartsfield replied. "I really want to do it now."

He mentioned the Florida-Georgia game and the fact that the courtroom is less than three miles from the Jacksonville Jaguars stadium. "I didn't feel like I had a fair trial in Jacksonville, Florida."

"I felt like I should have a change of venue," he said. "All I ask for is a fair trial...I didnt receive a fair trial here today.

The judge acknowledged the comments and that there already had been a verbal change of venue request. "The issue is on the record," Cooper said.

The jury deliberated for less than three hours before returning the verdict. The verdict is scheduled for the week of Dec. 14.

As today's final court session began two brief witnesses took the stand, then the attorneys delivered their closing remarks in the trial about the September 2008 shooting. Collier had left a nightclub and was sitting in his vehicle when he was shot six times in the back, leaving him paralyzed and with one leg amputated.

Prosecutor Bernie de la Rionda began by talking about Collier as the victim in the case. He mocked Hartsfield for the second time in as many days, saying Collier is the only person who has shed real tears.

Hartsfield took the stand Wednesday and broke down in tears several times during the defense's questioning. But de la Rionda asked the jury why Hartsfield never cried during cross examination. 

Defense attorney Ann Finnell opened her arguments by talking about the key witness, Stephfan Wilson. She said Wilson was a liar working with the police to help get a conviction where there was no case. "The prosecution here has cut a deal with the devil," she told the jury.

She even told the jury the defense didn't really need to present a case, because the prosecution made no case and didn't prove anything.

De la Rionda talked about Hartsfield at the club Square One the night of the shooting. There has been disagreement over who Hartsfield was with and what he was wearing.

He reminded the jury he presented several witnesses who saw him with Wilson. But Finnell has said Wilson, working with another police informant known as Ty-Lie, Tyron Smith, concocted a lie because of pressure from detectives.

The prosecution also used Hartsfield's words against him. Wilson wore a device and recorded a five-hour conversation with Hartsfield a few weeks after the shooting. De la Rionda and Moody took the jury back through selected lines from the transcript of that conversation, pointing out what they say proves Hartsfield's involvement.

Both sides argued that the phone records prove their side of the case.

De la Rionda, Finnell and Moody each brought out maps of cell phone towers with certain calls from Hartsfield, Wilson, Collier and others the night of the shooting, and each pointed to locations and times they say proves their side of the story.

"What a coincidence," de la Rionda summed up Hartsfield's testimony. Moody pointed out that Hartsfield had over a year to study all the evidence and come up with alternate answers, which he did so successfully the prosecution intimated he had been coached.

Finnell argued that if Hartsfield had been coached, he would have done a better job on the stand. "That man," she said, pointing at de la Rionda, "had the audacity -- the audacity -- to suggest that Mr. McGuinness (another defense attorney) and I coached that witness...Awful, awful."

Each side took about an hour and a half to wrap up their cases, and each closed with lines about Hartsfield.

"We know the state has not carried their burden of proof against Tyrone Hartsfield," Finnell stated.  "Tyrone Hartsfield did not shoot Richard Collier."

"This man before you, this defendant," concluded de la Rionda, "is the man who committed this act."

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