An Athens man who shot and killed one of two people who set him up for an armed robbery at an eastside apartment complex three years ago was acquitted of murder following a trial last week in Clarke County Superior Court.
Though a jury found 22-year-old Santonio Raymond Hall Jr. was not criminally responsible for the 2013 shooting death of David Mack Collins, they convicted him of gun and drug offenses stemming from the deadly encounter. He was not immediately sentenced.
Hall’s attorney said his client regretted Collins died, but he did what he needed to in order to defend himself.
“He appreciates that a jury understood his actions in response to the attack upon him,” Edward Brumby said.
The incident occurred July 7, 2013, after Collins and Anthony Gray Coleman lured Hall to Tivoli apartments off Cedar Shoals Drive under the pretence of selling him $700 worth of marijuana that was actually a bag of lawn clippings.
While Coleman pretended to be weighing the “marijuana,” Collins yanked open Hall’s car door and put a gun to Hall’s head. In an exchange of gunfire, Hall shot both of the would-be robbers.
Police found Collins alive in the parking lot, but he later died at the hospital.
Though wounded, Coleman made it back to the home of Collins’ girlfriend, who drove him to the hospital.
Coleman in December 2014 struck a plea bargain in which a felony murder charge was dropped in return for him pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter. In accordance with the plea deal, a judge handed a Coleman a 20-year sentence, with the first 15 years to be served in confinement.
Hall was never charged with shooting Coleman.
At the time of the shooting, Hall was on probation for an aggravated assault conviction that stemmed from his arrest for an alleged armed robbery in 2012.
Probation was revoked after Hall was arrested for the Tivoli shooting, and a judge subsequently ordered the defendant to serve out the balance of his 10-year sentence behind bars.
Hall was returned from Ware State Prison so he could stand trial. He was acquitted of murder but convicted of criminal attempt to purchase more than an ounce of marijuana, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime.
Brumby asked the judge to delay sentencing until he was able to prepare for Hall’s family members to make a presentation asking for leniency.
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