A jury in Bell County, Texas, found Marvin Guy, 59, guilty of murder for fatally shooting a police officer involved in an early morning raid on his home in 2014.
Mr. Guy had been on trial this month for fatally shooting Killeen Police Department detective and SWAT team member Charles “Chuck” Dinwiddie as he and other officers carried out a “no-knock” raid on Mr. Guy’s home at about 5:45 a.m. on May 9, 2014.
Mr. Guy has contended for years, and his attorneys argued during the trial, that he awoke in a state of confusion and did not realize the people forcing their way into his home were police officers when he started shooting. Instead, Mr. Guy and his defense team insisted he was acting in self-defense against what he initially thought was a break-in.
As Mr. Guy responded to the police raid with gunfire, officers returned fire. In the commotion, Mr. Dinwiddie was fatally wounded and three other officers sustained gunshot wounds.
The jury returned its verdict on Tuesday, after beginning deliberations on Monday afternoon. The jurors concluded Mr. Guy was “not guilty” of this heightened murder standard, but was “guilty” of the lesser included murder charge.
With that verdict, the case is set to move to a “punishment phase,” which is scheduled to begin on Nov. 27, after the Thanksgiving holiday. This phase of the trial will include additional jury deliberations on Mr. Guy’s sentence. There are several enhancement factors that could add to Mr. Guy’s sentence, including unlawful possession of a firearm and possession of a controlled substance during the 2014 shooting.
Circumstances of the Shootout
Mr. Guy’s perception of the 2014 police raid on his home may have been impacted by other recent incidents in his neighborhood. Five days prior to the police raid, a neighbor across the street from Mr. Guy had reportedly experienced a break-in, during which a criminal suspect smashed in the window of the neighbor’s first-floor apartment and assaulted a woman inside, nearly choking her to death.As police attempted to raid Mr. Guy’s home on suspicions he was dealing drugs, they began striking at his front door with a battering ram. Police efforts to gain entry were initially slowed by a recliner chair pushed against the door. Prosecutors argued during the trial that this apparent effort to barricade the front door was evidence that Mr. Guy had somehow come to know people were coming to his home and that he was prepared to spring an ambush.
In his recollection to The New York Times, Mr. Galloway said he told his brother, “Ain’t nobody watching you, man. Now just go home.” Mr. Guy did return to his home at about 3 a.m. and, in his recollection to the New York Times, said he pushed the recliner up against the front door as an added measure to deter intruders before going to sleep.
Jon Evans, an attorney who represented Mr. Guy, argued that the defendant’s decision to push his recliner against his front door was not a criminal act but an indicator of the paranoia he felt prior to the police raid. Mr. Evans further argued that in addition to the early time of the police raid, Mr. Guy’s apartment had poor exterior lighting that didn’t illuminate his first-floor walkway and that Mr. Guy’s vision was further impaired as he wasn’t wearing his glasses at the time of the shootout.
During her closing argument, Ms. Garrett argued that Mr. Guy could have seen well enough to discern the people raiding his home were police officers and that those officers had adequately announced themselves by shouting that they had a search warrant.
