Georgia - Defendant will appeal life sentence
WATKINSVILLE - An Oconee County Superior Court jury convicted a Bogart man Monday of murder and aggravated assault for shooting a motorcyclist in the back and killing him last winter.
Richard Harold "Ricky" Gear was sentenced to life plus five years in prison for malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime in the Feb. 25 death of Bryan Joseph "B.J." Mough of Winder.
Gear, 46, claimed he shot in self-defense after 21-year-old Mough followed his daughters home and tried to run him down as he stood in his own driveway.
But District Attorney Ken Mauldin argued Gear acted with premeditation when he shot Mough.
After listening to 46 witnesses and reviewing more than 500 pieces of evidence since the trial began Nov. 17, a jury of nine women and three men took just three and a half hours to return a guilty verdict.
The victim's father, Mike Mough, had mixed emotions at the end of the trial.
"We're ecstatic with the outcome of the trial, but it still doesn't bring Bryan back," Mike Mough said. "(Gear) took the law into his own hands, and he got the verdict that he deserves."
Jurors returned from a four-day Thanksgiving break to hear attorneys' closing arguments Monday morning.
Defense attorney Edward Tolley said he wasn't surprised by the verdict, and that he will appeal.
"I knew (a conviction) was a possibility," Tolley said. "The facts were very difficult."
Jurors probably returned a quick verdict because they thought about the case over the holiday weekend, Tolley said.
"I think they came back pretty much knowing what they were going to do," he said.
Mauldin said the conviction provides some solace to Mough's survivors - his parents and two brothers.
"I think the jury's verdict provides some sense of justice," said Mauldin, district attorney for the Western Judicial Circuit.
During his closing argument, Mauldin told jurors how Gear had time to think before pulling the trigger.
Although his daughters called home to say a man was following them on Atlanta Highway and collided with their car, Gear had time to dial 911 or make sure his relatives were safely in the house, the prosecutor argued. Gear also didn't know the man his daughters called about was driving a motorcycle.
"(Gear) didn't know that a motorcycle had anything to do with his daughters," the prosecutor said. "He didn't know if (Mough) was someone who happened to turn down the wrong place at the wrong time.
"His first instinct was to shoot" before getting more information from his daughters, Chelsea and Samantha Gear, Mauldin argued.
Gear fired his gun twice as Mough drove by, and a third time when the biker made a second pass from the other direction.
"This case was about a man who shot first, who shot last and shot in between, and didn't ask questions before and didn't ask questions later," Mauldin said.
Tolley argued Mough was the aggressor, and the motorcyclist could have continued straight on Atlanta Highway toward home instead of following Gear's daughters into Bogart.
Even after Gear fired two warning shots at the passing biker, Tolley argued, Mough turned around and drove straight at Gear, who jumped backward and fired a third time, killing Mough.
"The only reason we are here is because this man did not want to back down," Tolley told jurors. "We are here because Bryan Mough did not know how to back down."
A medical examiner testified the fatal gunshot wound was 61/2 inches to the right of Mough's spine, though Tolley tried to convince jurors Gear had fired as the biker tried to run him down.
Prosecution witnesses testified that bikers wearing a full helmet and face mask might not hear gunshots, especially over engine and wind noise.
Although Chelsea Gear admittedly made a vulgar hand gesture at Mough while on the highway, Tolley argued that was irrelevant.
"I wish she hadn't done it, but that's not what this case is about," the defense attorney said. "You have to know what Richard Gear knew at the time, not what Chelsea Gear did on the highway."
Mauldin argued the evidence didn't fit a self-defense claim because, among other things, investigators found Mough's motorcycle never drove onto Gear's property.
"It was on the roadway, where it had every right to be," he said.
After the jury returned a conviction and before Superior Court Chief Judge Lawton Stephens sentenced Gear, the judge heard from the victim's parents, Mike and Tani Mough.
Mike Mough told the judge about the void B.J. leaves in the family, and how his son never will achieve his dreams, like owning a cafe-gaming store.
"We were starting to see the fruits of our labors of raising Bryan, and that was taken away from us," Mough said in an interview Monday evening.
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