Evidence of alleged juror misconduct will be presented in a hearing this week to determine whether a former UAB football player convicted in the slaying of a Birmingham nursing student should get a new trial.
Carlos Stephens, 24, was convicted in April of capital murder in the 2020 shooting death of 20-year-old Destiny Washington.
In May, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The attorneys handling Stephens’ appeal last week filed a motion seeking a new trial, claiming jurors did independent research during the deliberation process.
Juries are instructed not to any outside research and to consider only evidence during the trial and the judge’s explanation and instruction on the law.
The trial judge, Circuit Judge Kechia Davis, denied the motion for a new trial.
Stephens’ attorneys - Richard Jaffe, Brett Knight and Jonathan Brown of Jaffe, Hanle, Whisonant and Knight – then filed a motion to reconsider and also asked for a judgement of acquittal.
The new motion included affidavits from Stephens’ trial attorney – Emory Anthony – and the lawyers’ investigator who interviewed jurors following the verdict.
According to Anthony’s affidavit, the jury began deliberations in the late afternoon on Friday, April 8, after four days of testimony.
“There was a knock on the jury door. The bailiff went into the jury room and came back into the courtroom and said the jury had a question, but they were going to ‘google it,’’ Anthony said in his statement.
“The judge said, ‘no, no, no,’ but the bailiff then said he was ‘just kidding.’’
The motion states that Juror 0551 “did in fact google it,’’ and researched many lengthy scholarly articles in order to clear up his own confusion as to the meanings of “manslaughter,” “capital murder,’’ and “heat of passions” to determine how they pertained to the Stephens’ case.
“Not only did Juror 0551 utilize this research in making his own decision as to guilt or innocence,’’ the motion states, “but also shared this information with other jurors prior to the final vote being cast.”
“This same juror stated that other jurors told him they looked up Alabama’s laws to come to a decision prior to the final verdict as well,’’ according to the motion.
Jurors, after almost two days of deliberations, at one point told Judge Davis that they could not agree on a verdict.
Davis then issued an Allen charge, sometimes called a dynamite charge - telling jurors to keep deliberating.
According to the new motion, Juror 0735 stated that after the Allen Charge, “the court told them there was no reason to make the family go through this all over again.”
Following the new motion, the judge set an evidentiary hearing for Friday, July 1, at 9 a.m.
Washington was shot to death at 9:40 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 17, 2020, in the parking lot of UAB’s student center on University Boulevard during a sale of $90 AirPods.
Prosecutors at the trial contended Stephens should be convicted of capital murder in Washington’s death, calling it a senseless, unreasonable and unnecessary act of violence.
They told jurors Stephens was angry that Washington’s boyfriend was 30 minutes late arriving to their meeting and angry at what followed – which included Keyuntae Moultrie trying to sell Stephens a pair of fake AirPods, raising the previously agreed-upon price and then accusing Stephens of paying with counterfeit money.
Stephens’ attorneys, however, claimed their client fired in self-defense only after Washington’s boyfriend pulled a gun on him and threatened to “blow him away.”
Jefferson County Deputy District Attorneys Jessica Hebson and Ashley Patterson prosecuted the case. Stephens was represented by attorneys Emory Anthony and Bobby Lendell Davis.
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