A retired Florida police captain went on trial for murder on Monday, eight years after he shot dead a moviegoer who threw a bag of popcorn at him in a dispute over text messages.
Curtis Reeves, now 79, killed Chad Oulson, 43, at a movie theater in the Tampa suburb of Wesley Chapel shortly after the confrontation over the younger man’s use of his cellphone while previews were playing.
Reeves initially attempted to use Florida’s controversial stand-your-ground law to insist he acted in self-defense, but a judge ruled in 2017 that the doctrine did not apply. Subsequent legal arguments and the Covid-19 pandemic further delayed the case.
“The eight-year delay is, in my opinion, embarrassing and only benefited Curtis Reeves as it allowed him to contribute to be at home with his loved ones and spend time with his family,” TJ Grimaldi, attorney for Oulson’s wife, Nicole, said in a statement.
“All [this] while Ms Oulson was stuck waiting for delay after delay to be resolved.”
Opening statements in the second-degree murder trial were presented on Monday morning before a jury of six. Prosecutors are attempting to paint Reeves as an overzealous character who had prior disagreements with other patrons over their cellphone use in the auditorium.
Lawyers for Reeves, meanwhile, will argue that their client felt threatened by Oulson, who they say was angry and obstructive, and threw what Reeves believed was a cellphone at his head.
Witnesses have previously said that the pair argued over the texting, and Reeves attempted to find a manager. “He came back very irritated. Somebody throws popcorn, I don’t know who threw the popcorn. And then bang, he was shot,” Charles Cummings, an eyewitness, said at the time.
Oulson was taken to hospital in Tampa, where he was pronounced dead. His wife, who was wounded in the hand by the shot that killed her husband, was released after treatment.
In an appearance on ABC’s Good Morning America in 2014, shortly after the shooting, Nicole Oulson said her husband was checking for messages from their babysitter before the movie started, and planned to put the phone away when Reeves confronted them.
“It was a couple of words. No threats. No harm. No nothing,” she said.
Grimaldi told CNN on Monday that Nicole Oulson would tell her story to the jury. “While going through a trial forces her to relive this situation, that she would rather forget, she can’t wait for the day that justice is served – Curtis Reeves is found guilty and spends the rest of his natural life in prison paying for his crimes,” he said.
During jury selection last week, Reeves entered the courtroom walking slowly with a cane. In opening arguments on Monday, according to reporters at the Pasco county courthouse, prosecutor Scott Rosenwasser asked the jury to compare the defendant’s insistence that he suffered from arthritis in his back to witness statements and videos from the auditorium that show him moving freely, and lunging at Oulson with his gun.
Attorneys for Reeves, a former captain with the Tampa police department, described by neighbors as “a good guy”, failed to persuade Judge Susan Barthle five years ago to dismiss the charge. The circumstances of the case, she said, were not “those envisioned by the legislature when the stand-your-ground law was enacted”.
George Zimmerman, a white neighborhood watchman who was acquitted of murdering Trayvon Martin in 2012 in another Florida case with many similarities, did not rely on the stand-your-ground law, but successfully argued he was forced to fire the fatal shot in self-defense.
