GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — In a 25-page report, the Michigan Court of Appeals found that there is enough evidence for former GRPD officer Christopher Schurr to go to trial, denying his appeal to throw out his second-degree murder charge for the killing of Patrick Lyoya.
Schurr's lawyers took to the Michigan Court of Appeals, claiming that the district court wrongly applied the law against Schurr.
However, the court of appeals found nothing wrong with the district court's decision.
Lewis Langham, a former MSP trooper and detective of 25 years, is now a law professor at Cooley Law School. He said the court found there to be enough evidence for a jury to decide if Schurr's actions were justified.
"The appeals court is actually saying that, 'We are not the ones to make that determination. We've looked at the case file, we've looked at the bind over the court, the district court didn't abuse its discretion, and therefore, there is enough evidence here for a jury to make the decision,'" Langham said. "The jury will make that decision based upon the testimony and the evidence that they hear throughout the criminal trial."
Attorney Ven Johnson, who represents the Lyoya family, said the ruling means the court believed there to be enough evidence that a jury could conclude that Schurr did not reasonably believe his life was immediately at risk.
"The family remains distraught about the cold-blooded killing of their son, and any of these delays adds more insult to injury as it would with any parent, any family member, of someone who was wrongfully murdered," Johnson said.
He said the family would like to see no further delays to Schurr's standing trial.
In a statement, Kent County Prosecutor Christopher Becker said his office expects the defendant to appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court, and they have 56 days to do so.
Both Langham and Johnson said the Michigan Supreme Court has the choice whether or not to hear the case, stating that the decision made by the Court of Appeals will stand if the case is not heard, or if they make the same decision.
"If the Michigan Supreme Court decides not to take it or hear it, or even if it's even presented to them that way, and if they decided not to hear it, then the appeals court decision would stand and the matter would go directly to trial, sometime in the future," said Langham.
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