The defense for a teen accused of killing five people in the 2022 shooting in Raleigh’s Hedingham neighborhood has filed a series of pre-trial motions as the trial start date on Feb. 2 nears.
Monday marks the deadline to file motions in the case, according to Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman. Any new motions filed Monday will be heard the week of Jan. 20.
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The newest motion filed by Austin Thompson's defense team on Monday argues for the court to restrict evidence related to searches on his personal devices leading up to the shooting.
The newly filed motion said that the state claims search warrants and police reports found that Thompson's search history indicated interest in mass shootings, weapons, forensics and other similar topics. His defense argues that not only were the alleged searches undated, but they also do not indicate a direct correlation to the shooting.
The motion adds information regarding Thompson's personal life and interests, stating that his primary hobby was hunting with his father, playing video games like "Call of Duty" and watching shows like "Criminal Masterminds." It also argued that Thompson grew up and attended school in a setting where mass shootings happen regularly.
"In fact, much of 2022 was dominated by constant news updates about the Uvalde mass shooting," the motion argues.
His defense team said that while there were searches related to mass shootings, they were interspersed among other searches like "why when I stretch my belly button hurts," "how many teeth does a hyena have," "if i recorded a fight do I have to give the police the fight video for them to use as evidence," and "can a cop search your car if they smell weed."
Therefore, the defense closed the motion by asking the court to hold a hearing regarding which content from Thompson's devices the state plans to use and make rulings based on the admissibility of these findings prior to introducing them in the trial.
Previous motions filed
In motions filed on Jan. 2, the defense is requesting that witnesses in the trial be sequestered in a room near the courtroom and be instructed not to discuss the case.
Another motion filed by the defense seeks to restrict large-scale, public-facing displays of photographs or videos containing images of those who died in the 2022 shooting. The defense requests that the images or videos be shown on a self-contained monitor to the jury or have photos passed to the jurors.
In late December, lawyers representing Thompson filed a motion to prevent the state from arguing that race or gender played a role in the October 2022 shooting.
His team also filed a motion asking the state to exclude statements Thompson made while he was recovering in the hospital after the shooting, arguing that he was not in the right state of mind or conditions to be questioned or to have his statements held against him.
The Oct. 13, 2022, shooting spree began inside the Thompson family home in the Hedingham community and ended on the nearby Neuse River Greenway. In addition to the murder charge for the death of his brother, 16-year-old James Thompson, Austin Thompson is charged with the murders of an off-duty Raleigh police officer, Gabriel Torres, 29, who was on his way to work when he was shot; Mary Marshall, 34; Nicole Connors, 52, and Susan Karnatz, 49. Another Raleigh police officer, Casey Clark, 33, and Marcille "Lynn" Gardner, a special education teacher, were injured.
Thompson was 15 at the time of the shooting. His trial is expected to start in February.
If Thompson is convicted, he will not face the death penalty.
Federal law prohibits capital punishment for people younger than 18 at the time of their crimes.
Breaking down the motions
WRAL News spoke with criminal defense attorney Chris Detwiler who broke down what some of these motions mean and how they benefit either the defense and the prosecution.
"Both sides kind of want to have an idea of what evidence is going to be admissible," Detwiler explained. "If everybody has a better idea of what evidence is coming in and what the rules are, the sides can have less unpredictability and be a little bit more straightforward on what their theory of the case is and what the strategy could be."
Detwiler said the defense's motion to to sequester witnesses is important for the integrity of the trial. He explained that if a court brings in five witnesses, and one witness is testifying while the others are in the room, the stories are likely to blend together.
Whereas if the witnesses are not in the courthouse when the first witness testifies, the court is more likely to see some inconsistencies, and "obviously inconsistent statements among the witnesses is going to be something that's generally good for the defense," Detwiler said.
In terms of the newest motion filed Monday deadline, Detwiler said it was an effort from the defense to make sure the state is not cherry-picking internet searches that happened years prior to the incident.
"And I'm getting the impression, just based off the court filings, that the state wants this to be more of a premediated mass shooting that was potentially even motivated by some sort of racial or gender considerations, whereas the defense wants this to be more about something that happened more spontaneously," Detwiler said.
Detwiler said that the overall goal of these motions is for either the defense or prosecution to keep out any evidence that might not be beneficial.
"The story that you're going to be hearing from the defense is going to be along the lines of a 15-year-old [who] maybe had some issues going on, and that this all happened spontaneously," Detwiler explained. "When you're talking about planned versus spontaneous, that's going to [determine and bring up] the mental state, which may be a huge factor in determining what he's ultimately convicted of."
