Aug. 01--CLAYTON -- Former Rock Hill Police Officer Matt Crosby rolled his wheelchair into a courtroom here Tuesday and locked eyes with the man who shot him two years ago.
Then Crosby smiled.
He had been prepared to testify against George Jones, 39. But Jones abruptly acknowledged that prosecutors had enough evidence to convict him. A no-contest plea to assault and other charges brought his trial in St. Louis County Circuit Court to a halt on its second day.
It was Crosby's first time seeing Jones since April 8, 2010, the day Jones fired the bullet that lodged in the officer's spine and paralyzed him. Jones made his plea decision while Crosby was on his way to the courthouse; Crosby showed anyway.
"I just wanted to let him know, I'm here, you can't hurt me," Crosby explained later. The smile, he said, was meant to send a message: "I'm back."
The day before, jurors heard testimony from Jones' girlfriend, Michelle Pruitt, whose phone call for help brought Crosby and his partner to the apartment she shared with Jones in the 1100 block of Raritan Drive in Rock Hill.
The jury also heard medical evidence, and testimony from Crosby's then-partner, Lt. Jorden Lewis, who is now a captain with the Rock Hill force.
Prosecutors said Jones whipped Pruitt in the face with a pistol, causing her to flee the apartment with her teenage daughter and to call police. When officers arrived, they said, Jones came out of the apartment, took two steps, then started firing.
One bullet struck Crosby, then 30, in the left shoulder, resting in his spine.
Lewis and Crosby returned fire, striking Jones in the head and stomach.
Pruitt testified that Jones told her before she fled that he wanted to die that night.
Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Stephen O'Brien said there were two warrants out for Jones' arrest at the time, for aggravated kidnapping and assault cases in Tennessee. O'Brien was able to bring the fact into evidence because it was considered part of the motive.
"He wasn't going to be arrested, that's clear," O'Brien said in court. "He chose to shoot the police and escape, or shoot the police and have them kill him."
Defense attorney Eric Barnhart said because of Jones' head wound, he doesn't remember anything from the incident. Barnhart had planned to argue that police fired the first shot, and that Jones, once struck, began firing involuntarily and erratically.
Barnhart pointed out police approached Jones' apartment with their guns drawn and did not first try to calm him down. Lewis, in his testimony, acknowledged that Rock Hill did not at the time have a policy for possible suicide-by-cop situations.
Jones spoke only briefly Tuesday when entering his plea.
"I'm sorry," he said.
At sentencing Sept. 19, he could face from three years to life on felony charges of assault on a law enforcement officer, second-degree domestic assault and two counts of armed criminal action. There was no plea deal made with prosecutors.
Later, Lewis said he was glad Crosby had been spared the pain of testifying.
Crosby, however, said while he had been anxious, "I was ready to go." He said it was satisfying to stare down his shooter in court.
Prosecuting Attorney Robert P. McCulloch, whose father was a police officer shot to death in the line-of-duty, met after the hearing with Crosby, who was unable to return to work, and his fellow officers.
"We're happy for Matt that this ordeal is over," he said. "It's too bad it even had to go this far."
McCulloch added that people like Jones, who shoot at law enforcement, pose a particular danger to society. The prosecutor said, "Hopefully he will go to prison and never, ever come out again."
Copyright 2012 - St. Louis Post-Dispatch
