The case is finally going to trial on Feb 7, 2022.
A judge in Pasco County is hearing several motions in the case of Curtis Reeves.
Reeves is the retired Tampa police captain accused of opening fire inside a Pasco movie theater in 2014, killing Chad Oulson.
The two men were arguing over Oulson’s texting during the movie previews.
It’s been eight years since this shooting happened.
Since then, Curtis Reeves’ motion to have the charges against him dismissed based on a stand your ground defense was denied, and Reeves has been living at home under house arrest.
Despite concerns over COVID-19, the judge says this trial has to finally get underway and has set aside the next few days to handle some last-minute motions.
Reeves, now 79, was not in court Wednesday, but his lawyers were.
“We’re eager. We’re ready to go. We’ve been ready to go for quite some time,” said Reeves Defense Attorney Richard Escobar.
Judge Susan Barthle has made it clear that she wants these legal issues cleared up in time for jury selection, which is slated for Feb. 7.
As the case moves forward, the Judge Barthle recognizes the challenges of dealing with COVID.
The judge has set up parameters for how the jury will be selected in this case and will allow for four alternative jurors - rather than the standard two - to help ensure they won’t run out of panel members if some of them were to become ill during the course of the trial.
“Two and a half weeks,” said Escobar. “February 7th we’re ready to go.”
It started with a father sending text messages to his daughter during the previews of a movie.
It ended with the 43-year-old man shot dead amid the theater seats, and a 71-year-old retired police officer in custody.
The shooting Monday during a 1:20 p.m. showing of “Lone Survivor” at a Wesley Chapel, Florida, movie theater escalated from an objection to cell phone use, to a series of arguments, to the sudden and deadly shooting, according to police and witnesses.
As a male moviegoer texted, the man seated behind him objected, and asked the texter to put his phone away.
They argued several times, according to police and witnesses, and the man who was texting watched as the other man walked out of the theater. Curtis Reeves, a retired police officer, apparently went seeking a theater employee to complain about the texting, police said.
Two seats away Charles Cummings and his son watched the squabbling.
When Reeves returned, he was without a manager.
“He came back very irritated,” Cummings said.
The man who had been texting, Chad Oulson, got up and turned to Reeves to ask him if he had gone to tell on him for his texting. Oulson reportedly said, in effect: I was just sending a message to my young daughter.
Voices were raised. Popcorn was thrown. And then came something unimaginable – except maybe in a movie. A gun shot.
Oulson was fatally wounded. His wife was hit, too, through the hand as she raised her hand in front of her husband as the shooter drew a handgun.
Oulson staggered toward the Cummings and fell on them, Charles Cummings said.
The shooter sat down and put the gun in his lap.
Oulson later died. His wife, Nicole, suffered a non-life threatening wound to her hand.
CNN affiliate Bay News 9 reported that Reeves was arrested on a charge of second-degree homicide. It could not be determined Monday night whether he had retained an attorney.
Reeves retired in 1993 as a captain with the police department in nearby Tampa. He was also director of security at Busch Gardens until 2005, the station reported.
On the theaters’ website is a list of prohibited items and actions. Among them: No cell phone use, including texting, in the theater auditorium. And no weapons allowed.
Reeves tried to use a "stand your ground" defense but the judge said ... uh, no.
Video of shooting in the below article.
A retired Tampa police captain who shot and killed a man in a movie theater will face a second-degree murder charge after a judge ruled that Florida's controversial "stand your ground" law does not apply in this case.
After two weeks of pretrial testimony, Judge Susan Barthle cast doubt on Curtis Reeves' assertions that he was acting in self-defense when he drew and fired his gun.
"Because the defendant's testimony was significantly at odds with the physical evidence and other witness testimony, this court has considerable doubts about his credibility, and is not willing to come to the conclusion that these circumstances are those envisioned by the Legislature when the 'stand your ground' law was enacted," Barthle ruled.
A trial date has not been set, CNN affiliate WFTS in Tampa reported.
The case dates to January 2014 when Reeves, then 71, confronted a man in a suburban Tampa movie theater about texting during the previews before a showing of “Lone Survivor.” The two argued, and then Reeves walked out of the theater to complain to an employee. When Reeves returned, he and the man, Chad Oulson, began arguing again.
Oulson threw a bag of popcorn at Reeves, according to a criminal complaint, and Reeves then took out his handgun and fired at Oulson, killing him.
Defense attorneys asked the judge to dismiss the murder charge under the “stand your ground” law that allows residents to use deadly force when they fear death or great bodily harm.
‘Oh shoot, that was stupid’
Reeves and his attorneys have argued that Oulson threw a cell phone at Reeves’ head and was aggressively leaning over a chair toward him at the time of the shooting. On the stand, Reeves testified he “perceived” that Oulson was getting ready to punch him, according to WFTS.
In addition, prosecutors played audio of Reeves talking to detectives shortly after the shooting.
“As soon as I pulled the trigger I said, ‘Oh shoot, that was stupid.’ If I had to do it over again, it would have never happened,” he said. “If I had to do it over again, it would never have happened. I wouldn’t have moved. But you don’t get do-overs.”
Oulson was checking his phone to text his daughter’s babysitter, his wife has said.
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