Clarification on Jury Verdict on Mavrick Fisher murder trial

THE DAILY MOTH:

Hello. I want to provide a clarification on the verdict from the jury on the Mavrick Fisher murder trial. He was accused of killing Grant Whitaker. The verdict came today and I did provide some commentary during the LIVE streaming and made a post. There was some people giving me corrections. I looked the video over and did some reviewing, and understand things clearly now. I will explain.

The first charge was first degree murder. It means Mavrick was accused of planning in advance to kill Grant, that he took a rock and killed Grant while he was sleeping. On that charge, the jury said Mavrick is not guilty.

Now, there was a second deliberation on murder — but on a lesser charge — involuntary manslaughter. It means that a person did not have an intention to kill, but happened to kill someone. The jury looked at Mavrick as striking the rock in an excessive manner that caused Grant to die, but in a way that was not what Mavrick intended to do. The jury said Mavrick was guilty of this. This is a lesser charge, involuntary manslaughter.

There is a higher degree of murder, which is voluntary manslaughter. It’s not “involuntary” but “voluntary.” This is more serious. It applies to a “heat of the moment” situation in which there was a fight or an argument, and Mavrick might have became angry and used a rock to strike Grant. On that charge, the jury was deadlocked. They couldn’t reach an unanimous verdict. They said 4 voted guilty of voluntary manslaughter, while 8 voted no. But on the involuntary manslaughter charge, Mavrick was found guilty.

Now, for grand theft auto — stealing a car — the jury said he was not guilty, but he was found guilty of unlawful taking of a car. Mavrick took the car without Grant’s permission and drove it. He was found guilty of that. It is a lesser charge than grand theft auto.

Now, for assault with a deadly weapon, which was a rock in this case, the jury was deadlocked. Five of them said Mavrick was guilty, while seven said not guilty. The jury couldn’t come to an agreement. So it meant a hung jury or a mistrial. So this charge was “thrown out.”

But two charges are sticking — involuntary manslaughter and unlawful use of a car.

The assault and voluntary manslaughter charges were deadlocked and were thrown out (mistrial).

Now, the court said the District Attorney Susan Krones can consider and make a decision on December 4th on if she wants to request a new trial, to call another jury, to go through the trial process again, on voluntary manslaughter, to accuse Mavrick of losing his temper and committing a murder. She can decide on December 4th. The same applies with the second charge, assault with a deadly weapon. These charges align with each other. So on December 4th we’ll see if the DA pursues it again or if she decides to stop completely, to not pursue anything.

Now, for the sentencing, this is on December 22. On December 21 there will be an opportunity for the families, friends, or loved ones of the victim (Grant) to provide impact statements on how much his death impacted them. This would give the judge something to think about before he decides the sentence for Mavrick.

I hope this clears things up and what the charges are.