Breaking months of silence, the teen acquitted two weeks ago of manslaughter in the death of a Pasadena youth struck back yesterday at those who contend the fatal brawl was racially driven and against his one-time friend who testified against him.
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“My friends and I were attacked by a group of armed men. My friends and I did nothing wrong,” Jacob Tyler Fortney said in a brief, tightly controlled meeting with news media. “I am innocent, and I am glad the jury agreed.”
An Anne Arundel County jury found Fortney, 19, who is white, not guilty of any role in the death of Noah Jamahl Jones, who was black, in a melee outside a Pasadena house last summer. Having recently lost what they considered to be the strongest of their manslaughter cases in Jones’ death, prosecutors this week dropped all charges against four of Fortney’s friends who were also accused of being involved in the melee.
Charges against a fifth youth, Joshua David Bradley, were dropped after Bradley testified against Fortney.
Prosecutors have said that they believe Bradley. His lawyer, Richard Finci, said yesterday that Bradley passed a lie detector test.
“He told the truth about what he saw,” Finci said.
Some segments of the African-American community, including the victim’s mother, Robin Jones, believe the brawl and much of what followed – from the dropping of murder charges against four defendants last year to the all-white jury’s acquittal of manslaughter and assault charges this month – were fueled by race.
Yesterday, Fortney and his family said they disagreed.
Fortney, like prosecution witnesses at his trial, said yesterday “race had nothing to do with” the brawl in which he feared for his life.
Fortney said he knew Jones, 17, who would have been a senior this year at Pasadena’s Northeast High School.
“I never had a problem with him,” said Fortney, who didn’t take the stand in his own defense. “My condolences go out to his family.”
With a federal civil rights probe pending, lawyer David Fischer said Fortney and family members would not discuss specifics of the July 24 brawl. Fischer said he doubts anything will come of the investigation and that federal authorities have contacted him.
Fortney, who said it was “really difficult going through a trial for something you didn’t do,” said threats have been made against him and his family. His stepfather said he emptied bank accounts to pay for Fortney’s defense.
Fortney’s stepfather, James Turner, 46, said the racial remarks have been upsetting because they omit circumstances of the brawl. It’s also upsetting, he said, because he has an African-American brother-in-law and nephews. The family has considered moving.
“A lot of groups seem to think they can make a lot of mileage out of the race issue,” Turner said. He blamed them for “trying to incite racial tension. This is not a racial issue.”
Carl O. Snowden, a black community leader and aide to County Executive Janet S. Owens, disagreed, saying race has loomed over the case “from the very beginning.” He said many in the black community feel that justice wasn’t served, and noted that two black alternate jurors said they disagreed with the verdict in the Fortney case.
“At the end of the day, the one indisputable fact is Jamahl Jones died … and to date no one has been held responsible for his death,” Snowden said.
Jones and three friends went to a backyard party, apparently thinking they needed to a rescue a friend whom they feared might be jumped by a group that included Fortney, according to trial testimony. That friend had gone inside to avoid Fortney’s group, witnesses testified.
Marion Shepherd, who arrived at the party with Jones, was charged with bringing a handgun. Another of Jones’ friends was accused of having a stun gun, though that charged is being dropped. And the third friend testified that he hit someone with a hammer who attacked Jones.
Shepherd was accused of pistol-whipping one of Fortney’s friends, pounding on doors after being told the group was locked out and pointing the weapon at people, according to witness testimony. Bradley, a party guest, testified to then punching Shepherd, and the melee began. Jones and his friends were black; the six former defendants are white. Within minutes, Jones lay dying of brain injuries in the street, according to testimony.
The sole charge not dismissed from the fight is a weapons charge against Shepherd.
Asked if he thinks the prosecution against Shepherd should continue, Fortney replied, “I am not going to blame anyone for anything, but you come somewhere with a deadly weapon. … I think you should be charged.”
Some segments of the black community have contended that prosecutors botched the trial in part by omitting race as an issue. A group of black clergymen has called for the state’s attorney to resign. Other African-American leaders say nobody being held responsible in the death of a black youth and prosecutors pressing a handgun charge against a young black man appears unfair.
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Fortney also lashed out at Bradley, who agreed to testify in exchange for having charges against him dropped.
The key prosecution witness, Bradley, said he saw Fortney take a running leap onto Jones’ face after another friend said Jones had had enough, followed by seeing Jones’ body shudder.
“I know for a fact that his testimony was false, and I think he made that testimony up to get out of the charges against him,” Fortney said.
Bradley stands by his sworn testimony, his lawyer said.
<!– ART CREDITANDRÉ F. CHUNG : SUN STAFF
ART CREDIT–> <!– CUTLINE TEXTJacob Tyler Fortney held a news conference yesterday, breaking his silence on the death of Pasadena teen Noah Jamahl Jones.
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