Jury selection begins in Abshire trail

By Krystal J. Carman The Claremore Daily Progress Tue Dec 08, 2009, 10:11 AM CST

December 8, 2009 — Jury selection in the trial of a Collinsville man accused of shooting and paralyzing another man began Monday in Rogers County District Court.

Mark Abshire, 39, is charged with shooting with intent to kill and maiming in connection with an incident that occurred September 2007.

The state is alleging that Abshire shot Robbie Case twice with the second bullet causing him to become paralyzed.

During a preliminary hearing in February 2008, Case testified the first shot, allegedly fired by Abshire from a .40-caliber handgun, entered his chest and exited his body near his collar bone. The second shot, according to Case, is lodged in his spine and caused the paralysis. Case added he spent one month in a Tulsa hospital and then several months in rehabilitation.

The shooting allegedly began as an argument over speeding through Abshire’s neighborhood of Cedar Bluff off Highway 20 west of Claremore. Case testified while driving to his home, he heard people at the Abshire home “yelling stuff” and one of his passengers told him something was thrown at the vehicle.

Case told the court he turned his Jeep around to confront Abshire. Abshire told deputies during the investigation that Case and his passengers had been speeding through the neighborhood earlier that night and had yelled at himself and his friends.

An argument broke out between Abshire and Case’s passengers, according to testimony, and when a friend allegedly yelled he had been sprayed with Mace, Case said that’s when he exited his vehicle.

Case said he ran and tackled Abshire when he thought he may be sprayed with Mace as well. He added that Abshire got off the ground while Case stayed down and that’s when he says Abshire fired a shot. In addition, Case testified he tried to crawl away from Abshire at that point but was shot a second time.

Defense attorney Jack Gordon Jr. says his client had a right to use the handgun that night because he was on his own property protecting himself and others, including three children. To back Gordon’s stance on the case, he cites the “stand your ground law” which states a person has the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, “including deadly force,” if he or she feels threatened. The statute protects the person using force from criminal prosecution or civil action as well.

Investigating at the crime scene was then Rogers County Chief Investigator Darrin Hester, now chief investigator with the Verdigris Police Department. Hester told Gordon at the preliminary hearing in February 2008 that he and other investigators and deputies interviewed several of Case’s passengers and friends and family at the scene, but not the friends that were present at the Abshire home at the time of the incident. Those witnesses were interviewed at a later date, according to Hester.

Gordon said he plans to call to the stand several of the state’s witnesses, mostly passengers from Case’s vehicle, because their written statements differed from Case’s testimony at the preliminary hearing.

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