When William Marcus “Marc” Wilson, 22, got a new bond hearing Tuesday, his mother fought back tears and testified to what the family would be willing to do to see him released while he awaits trial.

He faces felony murder and aggravated assault charges in the shooting death of Haley Hutcheson, 17.

“Whatever we need to do,” Amanda Wilson said when asked if she and her husband, Coweta County Fire Chief Deron “Pat” Wilson, would be willing to put up their home for a property bond.

Marc Wilson has been held in the Bulloch County Jail more than 180 days, since he returned from his parents’ place in Sharpsburg, which is also his home, June 17 and turned himself in to face warrants brought by the Statesboro Police Department.

By all accounts heard in court so far, Wilson fired the shot that struck Hutcheson in the back of the head as she rode with four other teenagers in a pickup truck on Veterans Memorial Parkway, Statesboro’s bypass, about 1 a.m. Sunday, June 14.

Marc Wilson has no passport, he has nothing in his bank account, and the car he was driving the night of the shooting belonged to his father, his mother testified.

“Yes,” she said when lead defense attorney Francys Johnson asked if she would help make sure her son wore an ankle monitor and remained in house arrest if that were a condition of bond. Asked if there would be somewhere in Bulloch County he could stay if the court wanted him to remain here instead of Sharpsburg, Marc Wilson’s mother acknowledged that his brother and his sister are Bulloch County residents and homeowners.

But Marc Wilson did not go to either of his siblings June 14 after the shooting, Ogeechee Judicial Circuit District Attorney-elect Daphne Totten emphasized with some of her questions.

Went to friend

He did go early that morning to the home of a friend, James Dixon of Statesboro, and asked to borrow his truck, Dixon testified Tuesday when questioned by defense attorney Gary Spencer.

“I was under the impression that some guys were after him, that they were trying to cause harm,” Dixon said. “He came to my house, asking to use my vehicle because he wanted to swap vehicles, hoping that they wouldn’t tail him or follow him anymore and cause him any more harm.”

He described Wilson as having been “distraught, very scared,” when he woke him up at home with his children.

When questioned by Totten, Dixon said that Wilson told him someone had followed him and his girlfriend from a convenience store to a restaurant and then tried to run them off the road. But he did not tell Dixon that he had fired a weapon, Dixon testified, referring to this as what he had also told police when they interviewed him.

He would have let Wilson drive his truck except that Dixon needed it to take his children somewhere the following morning, he said.

Wilson, still in his car, then returned to his parents’ place in Sharpsburg but at first did not tell them about the chase or the shooting. He did so after Statesboro police called him.

“I would hope that he would trust me enough to know that  I would do everything to try to take care of him and help him with it, but I think he saw it more as hurting and letting us down,” Amanda Wilson said.

Johnson asked her what her son had told her had happened.

“That someone had tried to run him off the road and he was scared that he was fixing to die,” she said.

He had further told her that he “shot the gun at the vehicle to get them to stop because he was yelling at them and they wouldn’t stop coming at him, swerving at him.”

Wilson had told his mother that the occupants of the truck “were calling him a n…, and they told him that ‘your life doesn’t matter,’” she testified.

The defense attorneys have asserted that Marc Wilson, who is biracial, and a white girlfriend who was in the car with him, were subjected to a racist attack in which people in the truck called them “n… and n… lover.”

Amanda Wilson was one of nine people who testified during the two-hour afternoon hearing before Judge Michael T. Muldrew in Bulloch County Superior Court. Muldrew, who previously denied Marc Wilson bond after a hearing Aug 18, did not announce a decision Tuesday but said he hopes to make one in a few days.

‘Virtually a kid’

Johnson, emphasizing Wilson’s financial dependence on his parents, at one point asked his mother “in the eyes of the things that he’s responsible for, is he virtually a kid?” She agreed.

Muldrew later asked her why her son, as “a virtual kid,” possessed a firearm.

“Because even a virtual kid, the perfect kid, especially a kid of color, might have a moment when they need to protect themselves, and everybody in my family, except me, actually do own firearms for protection,” said Amanda Wilson, who is white.

The teenagers in the pickup had been drinking as they drove from Claxton to various locations around Statesboro that night, according to testimony in a previous hearing. A sound like a “boom” and a beer can possibly thrown at Wilson’s car by occupants of the truck were also the subjects of previous testimony.

During the preliminary hearing in August, SPD Detective Detective Travis Kreun, referencing notes from the investigation, said that a single bullet hole had been found in the back glass of the truck. When he turned himself in, Wilson also surrendered his Taurus 9mm handgun. His attorneys noted that he had a permit.

Arraignment

Tuesday’s court appearance also served as Wilson’s formal arraignment. Johnson, speaking on his behalf, entered his plea of not-guilty to all charges

A Bulloch County grand jury Nov. 4 returned the indictment charging Wilson with one count of felony murder and one count of aggravated assault specific to Hutcheson, plus four other counts of aggravated assault in reference to the other occupants of the truck and one count of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.

Among Tuesday’s other witnesses were a high school football coach, who previously coached Wilson, and a retired Charleston-area police senior sergeant whose family became close friends with the Wilsons when they lived in South Carolina. Both vouched for his lack of any violent tendencies they had ever observed and said they would be ready to take him home if released.

By a videoconferencing connection, Coweta County Sheriff Lenn Wood testified that he knows Wilson’s family and believes his parents would do everything in their power to make sure he returns for all court appearances if given bond. Wood said his department also would be prepared to do any check-ins necessary if Wilson were allowed to return there.

But in the Bulloch County courtroom, the district attorney urged the judge to keep Wilson in jail.

“We believe that his actions immediately after and in the days that followed (the shooting) support our previous argument and our position today, that we do believe he poses a flight risk,” Totten said. “We’re also concerned about persons and property in the community. …

“All of these people that have come today that love him, support him – some of them are in law enforcement, he’s got family in law enforcement – he  made a choice not to reach out to one of those people,” she said.

Johnson countered that Wilson had no criminal record, “not even a speeding ticket…up until this single moment in time,” which Johnson said “he didn’t invite to himself” but had been in reasonable fear for his life. Pre-trial detention, he noted, is not meant to be punishment.

“Release this young man so that he can go home for Christmas,” Johnson said. “Give him whatever restrictions you want to give him, house arrest, an ankle monitor, and when we ultimately resolve this case, after a jury trial, then I know you will do what the law requires you to do.”