After reading the details of the case, it’s no wonder that a jury found 64-year-old Marvin Humphrey not guilty of murder. The real question is why on earth prosecutors ever charged him in the first place.
Back on Thanksgiving Day in 2019, Humphrey stopped at a Love’s Travel Stop in north St. Louis to pick up a 12-pack of beer. The man behind him, 33-year-old Shawn Stewart, apparently thought that Humphrey was taking too long with his transaction and began arguing with him before eventually leaving the store. Instead of leaving the property, however, Stewart was waiting for Humphrey, and when the older man walked outside Stewart attacked.
Stewart punched Humphrey at least 12 times and kicked him after he fell on the ground, defense attorneys said.
Eventually, Stewart’s father tried to intervene, but as Humphrey stood up from the ground, he shot both men multiple times. Stewart died. The father survived.
Prosecutors charged Humphrey in January 2020 with first-degree murder, assault and armed criminal action roughly two months later, arguing he had plenty of opportunities to leave without firing his gun.
On Wednesday, Assistant Circuit Attorney Alex Polta repeatedly said Humphrey was responsible for escalating the situation. He alleged Humphrey walked up to Stewart and shot him in the head even after the encounter was over, showing criminal motive.
“There was no threat to his life,” Polta said. “It’s obvious nobody is armed; it’s obvious this is a fistfight.”
That’s absolute nonsense. People die from beatings all the time. According to the FBI, there were more homicides in 2019 in which hands, fists or feet were the murder weapon than killings in which a rifle was used.
When Humphrey drew his weapon and fired, he had already been repeatedly punched and kicked, and had no idea whether his attacker’s father was coming to join in or to try to stop his son from going further. Clearly the jury felt that Humphrey had a justifiable fear of death or great bodily injury at when he drew his gun, and it’s hard to argue otherwise given that he had just been pummeled to the ground by a man half his age for no reason whatsoever.
Humphrey wasn’t the aggressor in this dispute. He was jumped by Stewart as he was leaving Love’s and hoping to get on with his Thanksgiving, and yet prosecutors portrayed him as a cold-blooded killer who acted with premeditation in shooting and killing the younger man.
The tragic events that Thanksgiving day were indeed avoidable, but not by Marvin Humphrey. Shawn Stewart was the person who made the ill-fated decision to wait outside the gas station so he could give Humphrey a beatdown instead of simply driving off with his dad. He was the one who put into motion the chain of events that led to his death and the wounding of his father, not Humphrey. I have a lot of sympathy for Stewart’s family, but that doesn’t change the fact that it was his bad decisions that directly resulted in his death.
Humphrey’s attorneys Brandy Barth and Talmage Newton said in a post-acquittal statement that their client never should have been charged with murder because he was acting in self-defense, and while I too find that decision inexplicable I’m glad that justice has finally been done.
Read the original article in its entirety at bearingarms.com.
I’m 87 years old and never leave the house unarmed – Most especially since the Bidens and democrats came into power!
I recently had an encounter with a south of the border Illegal. I wasn
t bothering him but he became forceful and got in the middle of my business. I grew up in LA, California, and told this Hispanic fellow a few choice words. He told me what he was going to do to me. He started taking off his long sleeve cotton button-up shirt. I didnt wait and pulled his shirt down to his elbows. When I had him on the ground here comes his compadres. I asked them if they wanted me to call the police. All of a sudden everybody got nice. They said the man was just drunk on wine that’s all. It is a fact they think caucasian males are all cowards. Not all of us but this stuff has got to stop.Good for the jury….justice served.
I am seventy-five years old. I was a peace officer in California for seventeen plus years. There is no way I will take a beating from a man 40 years my junior much less being attacked by two men who are more powerful than I am.
It is apparent to me that the two prosecutors in this case have never been in a street fight and do not understand just how quickly an attack can go badly when one is taken by surprise like Mr. Humphrey was.
Dittos here on age & LE experience. I too will not take a beating from anyone so, if anyone attacks me, they need to be aware of the incoming at 1200 feet per second. Stay safe out there among the savages, Bruce.
I agree with the jury and the defense lawyers. Humphrey should never have been charged in the first place. Lying in wait for Humphrey to exit the gas station justified Humphreys killing him in self-defense after being jumped and beaten.
Liberals love murderers and other criminals but hate their victims.
That’s “WHY” we need to vote as many of them out as we can the next election!!!! Please God put sense into people whether they believe in you or not to give these liberal heathens the boot!
The prosecutor in the case sounds much like the prosecutor in the Kyle Rittenhouse case. In his closing arguements the prosecutor stated that Kyle brought a gun to a fist fight. That he should have just accepted his beating. It is one of the most foolish statements I’ve ever heard. During that same riot, over a dozen people were killed by the mob beating them to death.
When good people fight back, these Soros ADs will indite them on murder charges. But when the criminals kill good people no justice is served.
Unlike the author of the article above, I don’t have sympathy for Stewart’s family. If they didn’t want their son shot dead in the street, they should have taught him to control his anger and to value other people. The man and family I have sympathy for is Humphrey’s. This incident took place in 2019. For three years this man and his family had a cloud over their head. And the cost of defending himself from the prosecutors was far higher than the cost of defending himself from Stewart.
It is obvious the younger man thought he had an easy target. He wasn’t going to stop. His father may have tried to stop him, but he was waiting for his target to get up then finish the job. One question not answered, what he was under the influence of, he wasn’t going to quit. JUSTICE SERVED…
Suppose somebody jumps the DA and beat the hell out of him and see what he does.
Now, that would be a very good article!
I love a story with a happy ending.