When and if the case against Anthony DeJarion Kent for the April 16, 2024 shooting of a Statesboro police officer goes before the jury, a central part of the evidence will likely be video from officers’ body-worn cameras. Judge Ronald K. “Ronnie” Thompson, during a pretrial motions hearing Monday, said videos from the shooting encounter itself and the police capture of Kent a short time later would be allowed.

The judge temporarily left it an open question whether a half-hour audio recording from a Georgia Bureau of Investigation jailhouse interview of Kent in the wee hours of the next morning would be admissible, after a GBI agent testified that Kent appeared to have been under the influence of “the remnants of something” at the time. But while the defense attorneys – Ogeechee Circuit Chief Public Defender Reneta Newbill-Jallow and Public Defender Kirk Cheney – challenged the admissibility of some recorded materials, nobody questioned that Kent shot Advanced Patrol Officer Joey Deloach that evening in the parking lot at Copper Beech Townhomes.

“We’re not denying that Mr. Kent shot Officer Deloach,” Newbill-Jallow said Monday morning, while arguing that photos or video from the hospitals where the two men were taken for treatment should be excluded.

“We’re not denying that he was shot,” she continued. “There are two undisputed facts in this whole case.  … My client was also shot. There are pictures of him in the hospital. … They shot each other.”

When did he know?

But the attorneys raised or acknowledged questions about whether the officer shot first, and also at what point the defendant knew that he was exchanging gunfire with a police officer.

“The issue is whether he knew he was shooting a cop,” District Attorney Robert Busbee said, characterizing the other side’s apparent position, also early in Monday’s hearing.

First elected last year and D.A. of the four-county Ogeechee Judicial Circuit since January, Busbee is at this point working with Assistant District Attorney John B. Edwards Jr. to prosecute the case.

Jury selection was set to begin Tuesday morning, July 8, at the Bulloch County Judicial Annex. But the actual Bulloch County Superior Court trial was not scheduled  to begin until Aug. 4, with five days on the court calendar, through Aug. 8.

Kent, from Vidalia, was 19 when the shooting incident occurred, and is 20 now. The charges he faces at trial – aggravated assault against a peace officer, felony obstruction of an officer, felony theft by receiving stolen property and two felony counts of entering vehicles – were stated in an indictment returned by a Bulloch County grand jury in early May 2024. But an indictment is not a determination of guilt, just a finding by a majority of grand jurors that evidence is sufficient for the charges to go to trial.

If convicted on all of the charges, he would face a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison, Edwards figured when asked about this after court Monday morning. With 20 years being the maximum for aggravated assault, the difference between aggravated assault of a peace office and aggravated assault of someone else is that the “peace officer” charge carries a five-year minimum, but not a higher maximum, he said. The theft by receiving stolen property charge involves a gun, and this also carries a five-year added minimum. So Kent apparently could face a 10-40 year sentencing range, if convicted of all charges.

But the jury will only be asked to determine guilt or innocence on each charge. Sentencing, if there is any, would be the judge’s call.

A wide red line

The first video prosecutors showed the judge, State’s Exhibit 1 as of the hearing, was from Deloach’s body-worn camera.

For background, around 10 p.m. on April 16, 2024, the SPD had received a call that an unknown person was in the parking lot of the Copper Beech complex on Statesboro Place Circle “checking” car doors. Eight officers initially set up a perimeter and started walking in to cover the whole lot, according to previous police statements. 

In the body-worn camera image, the suspect in a car with its passenger-side door open was visible only for an instant as Deloach approached.

“Let me see your f…ing hands! Get on the f…ing ground!” the officer yelled.

Immediately after that, shots were fired rapidly, two semiautomatic pistols exchanging fire and sounding almost like a machine gun burst. 

Backing up, Deloach trailed a wide, bright red line of blood, clearly visible on the pavement, for some distance.

“Shots fired. I’m struck in the leg!” he yelled to his uniform-attached police radio.

Breathing heavily, he fell to the ground.

Other police radio traffic and sirens could be heard.  

At least two more officers arrived. One said, “Breathe! Joey, Breathe!” and Deloach replied “I’m breathing.”

Not everything was visible in the video, which lasted a little over two minutes, but it was around this time that Officer Nicholas Sparks-Hoskins reportedly applied a tourniquet to Deloach’s leg to stop the gushing of blood. Officers loaded Deloach into a patrol car and transported him to East Georgia Regional Medical Center.

Beyond the scope of the videos and hearing, Deloach was flown from EGRMC to Memorial Health University Medical Center in Savannah. He had received a wound from a bullet that struck the femoral artery in his left leg. After multiple surgeries and a nine-day hospital stay, he went home to continue his recovery before returning to active duty last September.

Using courtroom screens, prosecutors also showed a couple of brief videos from private car dash cameras in the Copper Beech parking area the night of the shooting. In one of these videos, the shots fired seemed countable, at least 10. One shot shattered a car’s window.

Edwards also showed still pictures taken from the video, and paused the video, to show the glimpse of the individual in the car door. His clothes and shoes looked like those Kent was wearing in other video clips from that evening.

These included brief video of someone, who prosecutors said was Kent, checking car doors, and later running, or walking quickly, through a parking lot at the Waffle House, as seen on a security camera there.

Treated and jailed

A somewhat longer video segment was from the bodycam of an officer who trailed the suspect from the Copper Beech complex through a wooded area to Brampton Avenue. When the officer emerged on the street, blue lights could be seen of a police vehicle, as other officers and sheriff’s deputies apprehended Kent. The video continued as officers attempted both to restrain him and render first aid. No blood was visible in the video, but he did reportedly have a gunshot injury to his right leg. An ambulance arrived to take him to EGRMC, where he was treated, released around 1:15 a.m., and transferred to the Bulloch County Jail.

There, at the jail, two GBI agents interviewed Kent less than four hours later, with the audio recording beginning at 4:39 a.m.

No gag order issued

One motion that Newbill-Jallow filed for Monday’s hearing sought to suppress the contents of that interview and other statements Kent made to police from use at the trial. Thompson said he would rule on that motion later Monday or Tuesday.

He had in effect denied the request she made last week for a gag order prohibiting statements by both sides to reporters and the public outside of court. Thompson said he was placing no prior restraint on news media or the attorneys but cautioned the attorneys that professional standards apply to what they say.

But also Monday, Cheney and Newbill-Jallow mentioned the possibility of seeking a change of venue. Newbill-Jallow said, and the judge agreed, that the attorneys’ ability or inability to select an impartial jury would show whether this should be considered.

The defense was preparing at least one exhibit of its own, as Cheney said he needed a gun-mounted light like the one Deloach had, with a working battery and not one held in evidence for more than a year. 

“You can tell by the video. … The defendant is disoriented. He is almost blinded. That goes to our line of (defense),” Cheney said.