A possible plea offer for William Marcus “Marc” Wilson, charged in the June 2020 shooting death of Haley Hutcheson, was discussed by defense attorneys and a prosecutor with Wilson and with Hutcheson’s family Wednesday at the Bulloch County Judicial Annex, but outside of  the courtroom.

Superior Court Judge Ronald K. “Ronnie” Thompson had slated a status and motions hearing in part “to place the plea offer, should one exist, on the record,” as stated in his scheduling order. But at the end of the day, after the apparent talks in private throughout the day, no plea offer had been made public and Wilson remained slated for a trial, with jury selection to begin April 18, on charges of felony murder, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony.

However, Thompson in his closing comments Wednesday suggested that a delay from April 18 may become necessary.

The hearing had been scheduled to begin at 9 a.m., and Wilson took a seat at the defense table with three of his attorneys, Francys Johnson, Mawuli Davis and Martha Hall.  Chief Assistant District Attorney Barclay Black from the Ogeechee Judicial Circuit D.A.’s Office was at the prosecution table. But the attorneys had gone out before Thompson first spoke to the other people in the courtroom.

He said he had told the attorneys he would be there all day and was available to put things on the record in preparation for trial.

“But the things they’re talking about, some of it’s in the nature of a settlement conference, which is what you have with a civil case,” Thompson said. “In a criminal case it’s not unusual for the parties to talk about other options besides trial, and that’s why the court arranged this today, to facilitate that. If it doesn’t work out, we’ll have a trial.”

Six or seven members of Hutcheson’s family were seated in the rows of audience chairs on the prosecution side, and Wilson’s father was one of the few people in the audience chairs behind the defense table. At least once during the morning he was called into the side room where defense attorneys were talking with Wilson. Later, both Wilson and his father were back in the courtroom, while his defense attorneys remained out.

At times, Black went out, apparently meeting briefly with the defense attorneys. Once, returning to the courtroom, he told Hutcheson’s family members the offer was much like what they had already been informed of. He later met with them elsewhere in the building.

So it continued, before and after a lunch break, with nothing happening inside the courtroom, which was actually the jury assembly room, first set up as a courtroom earlier in the pandemic. The judge only returned to that courtroom at 4 p.m.

After first talking quietly with the attorneys, he announced that he had given them two dates, March 31 – or attorneys had first said March 30 – as the deadline for all motions in the case and April 6 as the date for a hearing on the motions.

Possible delay

This was an indication that the case was again moving toward a jury trial. But Thompson noted that some reports sought as evidence had still not been received, particularly a Georgia Bureau of Investigation ballistics report. This could cause the court to have to “continue this matter,” he said, meaning delay the trial from the announced April 18 start date.

“We’ve got 400 jury summonses out, and it’s not going to be fair to the taxpayers or the clerk to have 400 people come on a day that we’re not going to have trial,” Thompson said.

He said he still very much wants to hold the trial the week of April 18.

“But the defendant has the right to a fair trial,” Thompson said.  “So, if all the information, the data, is not in, and all the stuff we need for a fair trial, the court may have no other option than to continue the case for at least 30 days, or 60 days if I need to.”

Wilson was able to come to court with his father and go home with him, since he made bond March 4 after Thompson that day allowed a conditional, $100,000 bond under “house arrest” to await trial. Wilson is required to wear an ankle monitor and remain within a 25-mile radius of his father’s home in north-central Georgia. Of course, returning to Bulloch County for court proceedings is one of the allowed exceptions.

Wilson is also prohibited from using any social media or having any contact with Hutcheson’s family or any witnesses in the case.

Previous decision

Also on March 4, concluding a three-day hearing, Thompson denied Wilson’s motion for immunity from prosecution under a “stand your ground” claim, but acknowledged that an argument of self-defense is still available to him as an affirmative defense at trial.

Having been denied bond by another judge previously assigned the case, Wilson, now 23, had spent more than 20 months in the Bulloch County Jail since turning himself in three days after Hutcheson’s death.

When Wilson, who was 21 then and is now 23, fired several shots from a 9mm handgun while driving his Ford Focus along Veterans Memorial Parkway, Statesboro’s bypass, shortly before 1 a.m. on Sunday, June 14, 2020, one bullet struck Hutcheson, 17, in the back of the head. At the time she was riding with four other teenagers from Claxton in a crew-cab Chevrolet Silverado pickup.

During the immunity hearing and before it, the defense attorneys asserted that Wilson, who is biracial, and his then-girlfriend, Emma Rigdon, who is white, were subjected to racist aggression by occupants of the truck, including attempts to run Wilson’s car off the road.