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Charges Dropped In Murder Of Domino’s Pizza Driver
November 2, 2012
Charges have been dropped against the man accused of killing a West Florida graduate working as a pizza delivery driver last year.
The State Attorney’s Office said Thursday second degree murder charges were dismissed against Gary Demeatric Harrison. Harrison was accused of attacking Tyler John Hinkle, a 2010 West Florida High School graduate, outside the Domino’s Pizza at 27 North Navy Boulevard on September 24, 2011.
“There is insufficient evidence available at this time to prove the charge beyond a reasonable doubt. Two witnesses provided information to law enforcement during the investigation of this case,” the State Attorney’s Office said in a released statement. “One of these witnesses has now recanted his statement and the other has refused to cooperate and is unwilling to testify at trial. In addition, the trial court has excluded these witnesses from being used at trial.”
Court documents indicate that there was no physical evidence to link Harrison to the murder.
Harrison’s trial had been scheduled to begin Monday.
Comments
23 Responses to “Charges Dropped In Murder Of Domino’s Pizza Driver”
it couldnt be my son that was killed by this gang banger i believe an eye for an eye ….enough said
Amen L360, 14 drug and battery felonies and this guy is walking the streets. If I ever go before a judge, I certainly want his lawyer for my advocate.
It would appear that Mr Harrison has lived a charmed life.
Citizen:
I am all about your freedom of speech rights, but before you go and smear the names of our men and women in uniform how about you talk to them first.
My father is the Sgt. in charge of investigations at the ECSO and the number one reason cases are dropped is not “poor judgment on the part of the officers and their supervisors” but instead a lack of manpower.
I have no doubt that the ECSO investigations unit only has a 20% prosecution rate on crimes committed in the county, but one must also take into account that as of two years ago (I am unsure of the current statistic) Escambia county was the certified poorest county in the state of Florida. With this said, we have no money to hire extra deputies and therefore no way to follow up on the growing number of crimes in our county.
It is not Sheriff Morgan’s fault that there are so many cases that never make it to trial. Law enforcement is just like any business, if there is no money to make changes changes do no get made. Unfortunately, crime is not as economically unstable, if a shortage of funds appears one just robs, cheats, or murders for more.
I have seen my father truly depressed because he can not supply the manpower to work cases. Their are literally hundreds of crimes a day reported in our county that involve investigations and less than 20 or so officers to work them. The math clears shows that MOST will never be tried when the average turnaround on a case can be anywhere from a few months to years.
I am not saying that you are wrong about your assumptions, and I am not saying that you are not well within your rights to complain about our justice system. However, I implore you to consider your words regarding our law enforcement and in turn cast the blame where it is due. We have no money to increase our productivity with regards to solving crimes; until that is changed 20% turnaround is a fine number.
Justin Hall
Mississippi State University
Check out the guy here…quite a record.
http://www.escambiaclerk.com/xml/xml_search.asp?ulname=Harrison&ufname=Gary&ucasetype2=&ucase=&ucit=&ufromdate=&daterange=0&ucasetype=&uagencynbr=&uagencytype=
Sounds like someone got to these wittnesses and scared them real good.
I hate this could have happened for this poor boys family. I do hope justice is
served for this boy who lost his life at such a young age. Prayers for the family.
Amen Educated.
If a witness is refusing to cooperate, it is most likely as a result of intimidation.
Have the names of the witness and the transcripts of their statements become a matter of public record? I would like to know the full story of what led to them becomming witnesses and their statements. I help pay the taxes that propel this judicial apparatus and would like to hear what was said.
It might be that this guy was actually innocent, eye witness testimony is questionable at best and there are plenty of people sitting in jail today based on what someone “thought” they saw.
I sat on a jury here in Escambia where the cops thought they knew where a suspect resided, printed out the identification of the driver’s licenses of the people living there, took it back to the witnesses at the scene to confirm it was them and then went and arrested them . . . . sounds innocent enough but what they did was fill the witness with an image they may or may not have seen before.
Of course they can later pick the guy out in a lineup because you’ve just shown them a picture . . . . double blind identification where the cops and the witness don’t know who to choose from is the only and best reliable way to pick someone out of a lineup. I’m glad someone had the courage not just to rubber stamp another identification if they weren’t sure.
Eye-witness testimony is very iffy at best. One man of simiar height and build, with face fur, ball cap, jeans and a plain jacket looks very much like another. I am 70 and one thing I have learned is that I could not convict on most eye-witness testimony and rarely or never on circumstantial evidence.
David Huie Green summed it up extremely well.
Harrison needs to die a slow and painful death.
O Dexter, paging Dexter to Pensacola……
educated, I am educated. The Sheriff has all to do with these type cases. He is in charge of the Sheriffs Office. He has allowed the same do nothings to remain in Investigations even though they only had a 20% clearance rate last year. He has been told time and time again about the problems in that unit. This is not the only case that has been dropped. Let me help you with facts. An Officer can write probable cause in an arrest report and make an arrest on just about any thing. If you make an arrest too early in an investigation, you chance just what has happened in this case. By the time it makes it to court, the ASA Office doesn’t have enough evidence to prosecute the case. It’s called poor judgement on the officers part and his/her supervisors. There have been several cases that have been dropped for this very same reason. All the Sheriff has done to try and correct the problem is move one Sgt from investigations and a Captain. He then promotes a Lt up there that has been part of the problem all along to Captain and you are right back to square one. Oh, the Sheriff knows of the problems up there and seems to have no idea how to fix it. I hope for gods sake you never need an investigation done by the crew he has up there right now. You’ll see just how screwed up a case can be done. Let’s see then if you jump to his side when they dismiss the charges on you sons murderer. Sufficient evidence should be gotten prior to the officer making the arrest. The ASA Office is the prosecuting authority, not the arresting authority. You educate yourself.
If the sheriff arrests them and the judge lets them go, whose fault is that? Think about it. Replace our judges! As for the bad guy, it is only a matter of time before he either gets caught for something else or he gets shot by one of the bad guys he hangs with. The old saying “what goes around, comes around” is often true.
REGARDING:
“to you DHG,, according to your statement if you witnessed this guy kill your son you would be unwilling to accept what your eyes seen without proof, so he would get away a second time with murder.”
Witnesses lie.
Witnesses are mistaken.
Proof doesn’t lie or make mistakes.
Courts are unlikely to convict when you have two witnesses one of whom says he did it and the other says he didn’t do it. (Not that anybody cares what the Bible says, but the Bible also forbids convicting only on the word of a single witness.) Would YOU put a man in prison based on the testimony of one questionable witness when another questionable witness refuted everything he said and there was no evidence to support the charge?
That’s why you get supporting evidence, to weed out the mistakes and lies.
And if I witnessed someone murder my son, he would probably never live to trial. But no, if I saw someone who sort of looked like somebody I could almost make out, no, I wouldn’t cause another injustice just so SOMEBODY would pay. What is more, if I had a history of lying, you shouldn’t trust my testimony no matter how confidently I reported witnessing the murder.
That is why they should’ve tried to get corroborating evidence. Either they didn’t try or there was none. If there was none, it could be because the accused was smarter than they were and made no mistakes (and he doesn’t look like a genius) or because he didn’t do it.
David for truth and justice
to you DHG,, according to your statement if you witnessed this guy kill your son you would be unwilling to accept what your eyes seen without proof, so he would get away a second time with murder.
This contributing member of society has been committing felonies regularly since 1988. Escambia’s judicial system needs a federal review.
Be a citizen and know how the judcial system works. The sheriff has nothing to do with whether or not the judicial system deems there is sufficient evidence to put someone on trial for a crime. I’m so sick of the sheriff being blamed for things he’s got NO control over. Educate yourself before you point fingers, citizen.
it’s only a matter of time before this person screws up again and he will pay then it’s ashame he will be free to commit another crime and someone else has to pay for it with their life. who knows mabe they will get proof at a later date
When is Morgan going to do something with his Investigative unit??? He’s only moved one problem out and he left all the others. Then he promotes one of the bad apples to lead the rest in the basket. If he doesn’t rework the whole unit, he’s going to have more and more of these type cases dropped. How long does it take one person to figure out that the ones in charge over there just aren’t making the mark?? Wake up Sheriff, you haven’t made the changes you need to make.
Rest in peace Tyler, your blood does not call upon deaf ears or weak hands.
I cant believe this guy is going to get away with murder, you know he killed that man . thats ok he will get whats comng to him on the streets . i am sure the family want let this go . i would not . we need justice on this case .
I cannot believe this guy is gonna walk. Hinkle lost his life and no one is going to be sentenced. Karma will get this low life.
don’t trust just witnesses, get proof
David the near-sighted