A man facing up to life in prison for fatally shooting a woman outside a Pensacola-area bar had his motion for a retrial denied.
Christian Ketchup and his attorney Thomas McGuire filed a motion for a new trial after a jury convicted him of second-degree murder for fatally shooting Tierra Binion in the Mugs & Jugs parking lot Aug. 23, 2023.
“Considering all of the arguments individually as well as collectively, I do not find there to be a cumulative effect that Mr. Ketchup did not receive a fair trial in this matter, so I’m going to deny the motion for a new trial,” Circuit Judge Amy Brodersen said during a Nov. 12 hearing on the motion.
Other than bringing up motions in which Brodersen previously ruled before the trial, McGuire said one of the reasons his client’s trial was a “manifest injustice” was the the court’s ruling to exclude the testimony of Anthony Fairbanks, a witness the defense said was a video analysis expert on object motion tracking. McGuire said Fairbanks’ testimony could provide “scientific evidence tending to exonerate the defendant.”
Brodersen stood by her earlier ruling, saying Fairbanks had never previously testified on his expertise on object motion tracking and “he had trained himself by watching YouTube videos.”
After quickly denying the motion for retrial, Brodersen confirmed Ketchup’s sentencing hearing for Nov. 19 where he faces up to life in a Florida prison.
What did Christian Ketchup do on Aug. 23, 2023?
On the night of Aug. 23, 2023, Ketchup and his girlfriend Rachel DeRise arrived at Mugs & Jugs just minutes before a parking lot brawl broke out. Ketchup said in a hearing he decided to get his girlfriend and leave, but he claimed as they were leaving Binion grabbed him by the shoulder, turned him to face her and started yelling angrily at Ketchup “about her gun.”
Video surveillance from Mugs & Jugs shows a portion of the fight between Binion and DeRise, as well as Ketchup punching Binion in the face, causing her to fall to the ground in a possible semi-conscious state. DeRise then jumped onto Binion and began punching her.
Ketchup pulled DeRise off Binion, brandished his firearm and shot Binion 10 times as she lay on the ground. Ketchup confessed to shooting Binion at a previous hearing but claimed it was in self-defense.
Judge denied Christian Ketchup’s pretrial Stand Your Ground motion
During a Stand Your Ground hearing before the trial, McGuire argued his client was in fear of his life because Binion’s boyfriend, Marquis Chapman, allegedly threatened Ketchup with a firearm while in the Mugs & Jugs parking lot.
Ketchup testified on his own behalf during the hearing saying Chapman threatened him at gunpoint saying, “Somebody is going to die tonight.” Ketchup also said he heard Binion yelling something to the effect of, “Hand me my gun.”
Chief Assistant State Attorney Bridgette Myers Jensen disputed McGuire and Ketchup’s retelling of events, saying a reasonably cautious and prudent person in his situation would not have acted in the same manner.
“This victim was punched in her face by a large man, she was jumped on by his girlfriend, but somehow the defendant wants this court to believe, like some superhero, (Binion) rises up and starts attacking his girlfriend and him again,” Jensen told Brodersen, “and then she’s reaching for a gun that we know she doesn’t have.
“This defendant essentially interjected himself into a fight that he had absolutely nothing to do with, or his girlfriend,” the prosecutor added. “And then he wants to be the big man on campus, and he brandishes that firearm several times throughout the video that we saw from the surveillance.”
Brodersen agreed with the state’s view of the facts in the case and ruled Ketchup did not have immunity from prosecution under Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law.
“Considering the evidence that’s been presented today, I do find that the state has proved by clear and convincing evidence that the defendant was not justified in his use of deadly force against (Binion),” Brodersen said during the hearing after a full day of witness testimony. “His actions were not in self-defense or the defense of another, so this motion to dismiss is denied.”
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Man convicted of shooting woman to death in Pensacola bar parking lot denied retrial
Reporting by Benjamin Johnson, Pensacola News Journal / Pensacola News Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
