Report: Shooter discussed getting away with it

PANAMA CITY — He had a disability that significantly limited his movement, so when his wife’s boyfriend came at Michael McCoy early on Feb. 5, he feared for his life and shot him four times. His wife was caught in the crossfire and accidentally shot twice.

That’s the story McCoy, who now is charged with murder and attempted murder, told investigators after the shooting.

But it didn’t match Susan McCoy’s account; she said her husband turned and fired specifically at her after shooting David Walker without provocation.

When he told investigators he fired in self-defense it wasn’t the first time he’d talked about using his disability to conceal a homicide, according to a Bay County Sheriff’s Office investigative report released by prosecutors.

Several people who knew McCoy told investigators he had a tendency to throw things when he was angry. An acquaintance came forward and said McCoy faked his disability, and he’d seen McCoy walk and move without difficulty, the report says.

Susan McCoy’s father told investigators McCoy had once cooked up a plan to shoot his step-daughter’s father and “get away with it by claiming self defense because of his physical disability.”

In that incident, the family was discussing as a group the problems they were having with the father of Susan McCoy’s daughter.

“During the conversation, Mr. McCoy suggested for his wife to invite him to the house and that, when he came in the door, he would shoot him and he’d be able to ‘get away with it’ by claiming that he ‘came at him’ and he shot him in self defense,” the report says.

McCoy has pleaded not guilty to a count of second-degree murder with a firearm and attempted second-degree murder with a firearm.

McCoy's attorney Kim Jewell declined to comment.

If his case goes to trial jurors likely will face a decision between the story of a man who killed and doesn’t want to go to prison, the story of a woman shot twice by the husband she intended to leave, and the story the physical evidence tells.

Locally at least, homicide cases without eyewitnesses have been difficult to prosecute. When there are no witnesses and the victim is dead, the only person left to tell the story is the accused.

In 2011, Steven Thompson was acquitted by a Bay County jury of murder for shooting his friend after a fight in a motel room on the beach by claiming self defense in a case where no one saw the shooting. No one saw who killed Terry Brazil in 2012, and three juries have deadlocked trying to reach a verdict in the case against his accused killer, Phillip Brock.

The fact the only eyewitness to the shooting survived and was able to make a statement helped investigators make their case against McCoy, but investigators do have other avenues to prove or disprove a self-defense claim regardless of whether a victim survives, said BCSO Maj. Tommy Ford. Ford wanted to keep his comments on investigative techniques general lest this report become a sort of how-to guide for getting away with murder, but he said even when there are no eyewitnesses physical evidence still can tell a story.

“If there is a claim of self defense we’ll first … look at the totality of the circumstances,” Ford said.

Reasonableness is the key to determining whether a homicide is justified, Ford said. Did someone reasonably fear for their safety when they killed?

Injuries to the dead can tell investigators where people involved in a shooting were in proximity to one another in some cases, as can the position of pieces of physical evidence, such as shell casings and bodies, Ford said. In many self-defense cases, a subject will sustain injuries defending themselves, so investigators look to see if the injuries are present and consistent with the individual’s version of the events.

“If he said, ‘he was on top of me,’ and we don’t see certain things that support that — that would certainly cast doubt on a claim of self-defense,” Ford said.

McCoy’s next court date is June 11.