Richard Combs, former chief of police in the small South Carolina town of Eutawville, was on trial for the murder of Bernard Bailey. Though nine jurors voted to convict Combs of murder or voluntary manslaughter, the jury failed to reach a consensus, even after several hours of deliberation, which began Monday afternoon and ran until 2 a.m.
“It’s close, but you need 12,” said prosecutor David Pascoe.
A Familiar Confrontation
Early one March morning in 2011, Combs issued Bailey’s daughter a traffic ticket for a broken taillight. Bailey arrived on the scene – belligerent, according to Combs – and received a citation for obstruction of justice.
On May 2, Bailey went to the town hall to discuss the citation. Seeing him on the premises, Combs tried to issue an arrest warrant, but, according to witnesses, an angry Bailey attempted to storm off.
According to Combs, Bailey shoved him in the town hall parking lot.
“He stood up straight and clenched his fists and clenched his teeth together and said, ‘Don’t put your hands on me,” Combs testified.
Bailey got into his Silverado pickup truck, cranked the engine, and, according to Combs, backed into the police chief.
“I thought I was going to die,” Combs said. “I thought I was going to be run over by the truck.”
He pulled his gun and fired three shots. Bailey was struck in the chest, abdomen, and head, and died on the scene.
Trial by Numbers
“An absolutely senseless act of violence,” Pascoe described the incident in his opening statement last week.
Following the mistrial, he said he will reevaluate the case, but plans to retry Combs.
While three jury members failed to convict, the other nine seemed convinced by the prosecution’s case, and a grand jury in November returned a murder indictment against Combs for the incident.
“You’re telling the court,” Pascoe said during the grand jury hearing, “that he’s coming toward you, after you shot him two times at point-blank range with a.40-caliber pistol in the chest?”
To which Combs replied, “Yes, sir.”
The judge in the grand jury hearing also expressed misgivings about the officer’s conduct.
“In a situation such as this, where the arrestee poses no threat to the public, there are other means of executing an arrest warrant if initial service is unsuccessful,” Judge Edgar W. Dickson wrote. “There was no need for Mr. Combs to act as he did on May 2, 2011, when Mr. Bailey refused service, as Mr. Combs expected would happen.”
While the death of Bernard Bailey occurred long before the police shooting of Michael Brown, the Ferguson teen whose death sparked a nationwide debate on police brutality, the trial echoes the difficulty in holding rogue police accountable.
Still, prosecutors for the Bailey family remain vigilant.
“We just had three jurors we couldn’t convince,” Pascoe said. “We’re going forward.”
