Juror Changes Verdict

JoAnn Maguire Talks With The DA

A Fulton County, Georgia jury acquitted murder defendant Anthony Tutman in a random Buckhead slaying, but a sobbing juror stunned the crowded courtroom by changing her mind at the last moment.

The judge then declared a mistrial.

The startling turnaround Friday — which prosecutors and the public defenders said they had never seen before — was a break for prosecutors, who nearly lost the troubled 1999 murder case.

"By providence, this gives us the chance to find more evidence, more witnesses," Fulton District Attorney Paul Howard said outside the courtroom. "We knew it was a difficult case, but we believe the evidence shows Anthony Tutman murdered Gordon Bynum, and we believe he should be held accountable," Howard said.

The family of slain business executive Gordon Bynum Jr. now must endure another trial — more than five years after he was shot while walking from the Lenox MARTA station to his car on East Paces Ferry Road.

"No verdict would bring my brother back," his sister, Paige Bynum Girardot said through tears. "I'm just grateful for that woman standing up and speaking her heart."

Tutman, who appeared stunned after the verdict reversal, will remain jailed while Howard's office plans to retry the case.

"I'm flabbergasted," said Rusty Mayer, one of Tutman's attorneys and a supervisor in Fulton's public defender's office.

Mayer plans to appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court. He said in 22 years of practice, he has never seen a judge reverse an acquittal.

Earlier, juror JoAnn Maguire had looked tearfully at the victim's family as Chief Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Long first repeated "not guilty" to all of the charges against Tutman, 26.

Fulton prosecutor Ron Boyter then asked the judge to poll the jurors individually to determine whether each stood by the verdict.

The judge first called on Maguire, who reluctantly stood and began to sob.

"It is important that this was your verdict and that you freely and voluntarily entered it along with the other 11," Long advised her.

Maguire then asked to speak to the judge.

When the bailiff asked Maguire, "Is this your verdict?"

She replied, "No, it is not."

By noon Friday, 11 jurors were ready to acquit Tutman.

They spent nearly five hours trying to convince the one holdout. By 5 p.m., Maguire had conceded and said she, too, was ready to vote "not guilty."

"I feel sad for the [Bynum] family because I feel we were not able to provide closure for them, but we felt the evidence wasn't there," juror Bev Stern said outside the courtroom. "We're not saying he's innocent, we have no idea."

Juror Al Moses agreed. "We felt we couldn't convict on shoddy evidence," Moses said. "It was weak."

Stern and Moses said jurors couldn't trust the state's two key witnesses — one who admitted lying to police and the other Tutman's co-defendant who has a lengthy criminal history. The co-defendant, Christopher Michael Thomas, 28, initially faced his own murder trial in Bynum's death but will never serve a day in prison for the crime after turning on Tutman.

The state's other key witness, the defendant's younger brother, changed his story on the witness stand. Terrence Tutman, 22, initially told police in 2002 that he gave Anthony Tutman the gun used in the killing. But on Wednesday, the younger Tutman told jurors that he lied two years ago and falsely implicated his older brother because police threatened and pressured him.

Jurors said they also believed Anthony Tutman, a former U.S. Marine, could have been on a military base in North Carolina the week of the slaying.

Maguire later said she went along with the other jurors because there was no physical evidencelinking him to the crime.

"The entire time I completely believed he was guilty, but I realized you have to have hard evidence," Maguire said.

Maguire she said she told the other jurors: "I'm not going to be able to look at the family because I believe this guy killed their son."

"I just had such a conviction that he was guilty that there was no way I could leave and say he was not guilty," she said.

Mayer, Tutman's attorney, expressed bitter disappointment.

"You hear 'not guilty' and the judge turns it all around," Mayer said. "He stays in jail."
 

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