[ad_1]
The attorney for a South Carolina man who shot and later burned the bodies of two men, is saying that his client acted out in self defense and then later panicked, the Post and Courier reports.
James Edward Lofts’ insistence in self defense reportedly helped persuade a judge to grant him bail on Monday, as he faces trial for the murder of taxi driver Guma Oz Dubar, 46, and James Cody Newland, 32.
“He’s a human being,” lawyer, Stephen Harris said. “He freaked out and thought he was going to prison, so he tried to hide the bodies. Nobody knows how you’re going to react when you kill two people.”
Loftis was expected to post his $250,000 bail and be freed sometime this week, According to the Post and Courier, the case now raises new questions about the state’s Protection of Persons and Property Act, a “stand your ground” law that allows homeowners to use deadly force against people breaking into their homes in many circumstances.
Loftis’ account of what happened that night on March 5 has varied, according to the authorities, but Harris insists that one fact remains constant, and that was the two people he shot had allegedly confronted him in his own home. The lawyer did acknowledge, however, that what happened after the shooting was “heinous.”
“The only way he will ever be able to resolve that is to … have his day in court,” Circut Judge Markley Dennis said when considering bail during the hearing on Monday. According to the site, Dennis took into consideration various factors while deciding on the bail. The judge noted that Loftis’ self-defense plea makes it unlikely that he will be a flight risk.
The incident reporteldy started when Dubar, who operated the Global Mobile Taxi Service, gave Loftis a ride home early on March 5 from a strip club in Charleston. Newland, a friend of Dubar’s reportedly came along. According to Loftis, Dubar and Newland forced the way into his Goose Creek home afterward demanding cab fare. Loftis said that he would get the money, but instead came from the kitchen with his pistol, firing eight times.
His wife came home to bullet holes in the wall and blood on the floor and called the police.
Loftis told investigators that he had cleaned his home with bleach and then dug a hole in the backyard and put the bodies and the dirty clothes there, before burning the bodies and covering them with dirt.
“They were essentially just slow-cooked inside the grave site,” Deputy Solicitor Bryan Alfaro said at the hearing, according to the Post and Courier.
However, Lofits’ lawyer is inisisting that the size 12 footprint found near the handle of the house’s door and the blood found in the doorjamb supports Loftis’ self-defense story, again stating that the law was on his client’s side.
“Unless you’re a lawyer or a cop, you don’t know with a degree of certainly if it’s murder or not,” Harris said. “If he would have picked up the telephone after the shooting, we wouldn’t be here right now.”
Last month Harris asked Magistrate Ava Bryant to dismiss the murder charges against Loftis, however Bryant said that the decision would be left for jurors in a trial or for a circuit judge to weigh in. As the site notes, if Loftis files for immunity from prosecution on the state’s self-defense law, a judge would then listen to the argument during a pretrial hearing and decide whether to dismiss the charges.
However, Alfaro said that prosecution would be moving forward with the case, because of discrepancies in Loftis’ story.
“At one point, he indicated he had let [the men] into the home,” he said. “At another point, he indicated they forced their way into the home.”
Whether or not the men did break in is reportedly a key point in the case, as the law makes room for residents if they shoot someone who is clearly breaking into a home.
Loftis has not been charged with desecrating human remains, which is a felony, the site notes.
“If he wouldn’t have burned those bodies, he would be a free man,” Harris said. “[The police] see this horrible aftermath and say it’s malice. It’s not malice. It’s a person who’s scared.”
Once Loftis posts bail, he will be under house arrest, with the exception of work, doctor visits, church, and meetings with his attorney.
Read more at the Post and Courier.
[ad_2]
