(PHONE RINGING)
(OPERATOR SPEAKING)
(WOMAN SPEAKING)
(DIALING)
(OPERATOR SPEAKING)
(MAN SPEAKING)
(OPERATOR SPEAKING)
JIM MOSIER: As I was getting off the motorcycle,
this man starts yelling out the window to me.
Profanities.
"You ride like an ass (BLEEP)."
You know, and he started
very aggressively approaching me.
JAKE BALDRIDGE: This case is interesting because it is all on camera.
And it shows everything.
MICHAEL CROCKER: The person that escalated it to firearms
was you.
To go from a fistfight
when he came towards you to do so,
-you shot him, correct? -Yes.
There's this guy with a gun.
This guy was trying to (BLEEP) kill me.
Put your BB gun away.
-Now! -Dude, stop!
-Put it away! Put it away! -Stop!
MOSIER: Fighting for my life put me in this situation.
I survived once and I have to fight again now.
BALDRIDGE: My name's Jake Baldridge,
I'm an attorney here in Mohave County, Arizona
and I am defending Jim Mosier.
He's 24 years old.
He doesn't have a criminal record,
and he's accused by the State of second degree murder.
If he's found guilty,
the State can punish him
up to 25 years in prison.
Back on May 19th, 2021,
Jim was going to the grocery store.
He rode his motorcycle.
And the State believes that on the way
Jim was driving erratically,
weaving in and out traffic, speeding.
He went on to the grocery store
and was parking his motorcycle
when a man named Mr. Marcum,
who had been driving a van on the highway,
yelled at him basically about his anger
at how Jim was driving.
Jim responded, used an expletive,
and basically said, "Get out of here."
Mr. Marcum did a U-turn,
got out of the van and approached.
Jim is terrified.
He drew a firearm
and stood in a defensive position.
But Mr. Marcum drew his own firearm and kept on coming.
He tried to attack Jim.
Jim shot him.
Mr. Marcum's stepson, who was 13 at the time,
was in the van,
in the passenger seat,
and unfortunately saw the shooting.
I still can't imagine the type of stress that that is.
The basis of Jim's defense is,
he was defending himself from attack by a man
who was enraged with a gun,
kept coming at him, and ultimately,
Mr. Marcum chose to assault him.
At the simplest level,
it's self-defense.
I think it's a tragedy
that Jim shot and killed a man,
but...
I don't think he committed murder.
And, in fact, I don't think he committed a crime.
I think he's innocent.
MOSIER: I'd just turned 23
when this incident happened.
I never expected anything like this to happen to me,
especially at such a young age.
This whole case, from the moment it began, it's...
The only word I could use is traumatic.
You know, for me,
and for the other family involved.
Before all this happened,
I was, I guess, just a normal, average guy.
But ever since day one,
I was on the front page of the newspaper.
The general opinion
is that I'm a punk kid on a motorcycle.
Being publicized as this bad guy,
it makes it hard to accept that I am a good person
when everything around me is saying I'm not.
This whole incident, it's not only affected me,
it's very severely affected my mother.
She kind of sees me as her support right now,
and the thought of losing me,
it's really made her shut down a lot.
Kind of had a rough childhood.
Parents were separated when I was younger.
And I have a sister. She's five years older than me.
We still keep contact, talk often.
But she's in a different state, so,
a little bit spread apart.
I love coming out here just to connect with nature,
get away from society and just be free,
away from drama.
Being able to get out and kind of get lost
in a good sense of the word.
It's terrifying I may lose this.
I'm looking at up to 25 years in prison,
so, it's a possibility.
BALDRIDGE: Jim's coming in today
to talk about what he's been charged with.
I want to hear what he has to say,
so that we can start putting together our defense.
All right.
The State of Arizona
has charged you with one count
of second degree murder.
The State thinks you killed a man
unlawfully and unjustifiably,
and that you intended to kill him.
I just want you to tell me what...
What happened from your perspective, okay.
So, just talk to me.
I was on a motorcycle making my way to the Walmart.
Went in to park my bike.
As I was getting off the motorcycle,
this man just starts yelling out the window to me.
Profanities.
"You ride like an ass (BLEEP)."
And I was like, "Well, what's going on?"
You know, I was completely caught off guard.
BALDRIDGE: Let's go back to the highway.
How were you driving?
Um, nothing crazy.
Just, you know, standard riding.
You know, it was rush hour traffic.
You know, probably 50, 55 miles an hour.
So I just told him, you know, to get out of here or something,
leave me alone.
And he kind of like whipped his van around,
you know, very, very violently
and just, you know, slammed on his brakes,
got out of the car
and started, you know, very aggressively approaching me.
You know, I was pretty much terrified.
And he just keeps coming at me,
he won't stop, won't stop, won't stop.
-He kept screaming? -Yeah.
I ended up drawing my firearm
at, like, a down-and-ready position.
And why'd you do that?
Let him know I have a gun and just leave me alone.
What were you saying as he was approaching?
It was a plead
of, "Dude, please stop! Stop!"
And then he pulls out his gun.
Did he indicate a willingness to withdraw or stop this?
No, not at all.
He was actually yelling at me to put my (BLEEP) BB gun away.
I'll never in my life know why he said that
or why he thought I had a BB gun
or if he actually did think I had a BB gun.
BALDRIDGE: But that's basic
-gun safety 101. -Yes.
You assume a gun can harm you.
Right.
What happened next?
I was cornered,
and I was continually taking steps back,
and then he tried to kick my gun out of my hands,
and that's when it just,
out of pure instinct,
um, I pulled the trigger.
I felt like I had to.
I was... I was...
(EXHALES) I was just terrified.
I felt like this guy was just going to try to kill me, harm me.
So I did what I had to do.
Did you want to shoot him?
No.
I think the State will argue
that you're a young kid,
you like guns, like driving fast,
and you were waiting
for an opportunity to use that gun,
because you were looking for a gunfight.
It's unfortunate people see me that way, but...
It just all feels wrong.
I mean, in what instance are you not able to defend yourself?
Everything has to do with the State
wanting to make Jim look bad.
Make him look like the aggressor.
I will have to convince the jury
that Jim is not this bad boy on a motorcycle.
BALDRIDGE: My client killed a man.
That's true.
This is a tragic event,
but the issue is
whether or not he was justified in doing what he did.
This case is interesting because it is all on camera.
I'm meeting with Michael.
He is co-counsel on this case,
and he's a former prosecutor.
I want to know what he thinks
the State is going to really hammer us on.
All right, let's do this.
This is where Jim arrives at the store on his motorcycle.
Jim pulls in,
takes off his helmet, takes out his earbuds.
Here is when it looks like Jim hears somebody yell at him,
the deceased.
I think the worst thing that hurts us
is the lack of audio.
So we have no idea what Mr. Marcum said.
CROCKER: Okay, here's the easygoing Jim,
he clearly sees something.
Boom!
Jim's giving him the bird.
It's the first aggressive gesture.
BALDRIDGE: But Jim is adamant
he wasn't being aggressive.
You mean, the guy on trial for murder
is gonna say that it wasn't aggressive.
Okay. I don't think that's going to fly.
The next thing I don't like at all,
how far he walks towards him.
BALDRIDGE: Why?
Because he's clearly advancing towards the deceased.
He walks into the conflict.
I mean, I'm going to hammer that all day long
if I'm the prosecution.
BALDRIDGE: Well, what do you make of him backing up out of it?
CROCKER: I think that's our best thing
to try and neutralize
that argument of him walking into it.
But I'm afraid that once he was walking forward,
he was the aggressor at that point.
BALDRIDGE: Do you think the State's going to say
-he was looking for a fight? -CROCKER: Absolutely.
BALDRIDGE: Then Jim draws.
He's holding his gun in a defensive posture.
CROCKER: I think it's going to definitely be argued that
Jim pulled his gun out first.
BALDRIDGE: That's when the deceased takes out his own gun,
and within a matter of two seconds
puts it back.
You have to address the fact that he put it away,
but Jim never puts his away.
I think they're going to try to show to the jury
that Mr. Marcum wanted this to be a fistfight.
It wasn't going to involve firearms anymore.
And in a matter of seconds,
he kicks.
And that's when Jim shoots.
The deceased kicked so hard that he kicked his own shoe off,
and it landed, like, 15 feet away.
CROCKER: But again, we've got no audio there.
We're going to have to rely
on Jim giving his account.
The problem, too, though, is every time you explain it
and what happened and who was aggressive,
it all ends at this point.
There's a man who died
because of Jim's actions.
I guess I've just been in cars
pretty much all my life since I was a little kid.
I think they're incredible machines.
Something I just enjoy.
Seem to be pretty good at it.
SHAWN GLAZE: Hey, Jim. MOSIER: Yeah.
Can I get you to go look at that Jeep over there?
Check out the shifter.
MOSIER: Jeep? All righty.
Shawn and his family pretty much, you know,
had a great liking for me right away.
GLAZE: This Jeep, it's popping out of first
and second gear as you're going on the road.
MOSIER: Oh, is that the one that we're thinking needs the...
-The bushing? Yeah. -...that shifter bushing?
Yeah.
MOSIER: The people who work here, they kind of took me in.
They definitely understand what I'm going through.
Let's see what the underside of this thing looks like
-real quick. -Good.
-Just check it out. Let me know... -All right.
GLAZE: He's a special kid.
Whenever he needs something,
I'm there to talk to him about it.
The weight of the world's on his shoulders right now.
He's scared to death.
When you talk to him about it,
the look on his face,
it's just... It's like he's scared.
He can't believe it happened.
I'll just pray and hope that everything works out for him
and I'll support him.
MOSIER: I guess you can call me a workaholic at this point.
This keeps me busy, keeps my mind occupied,
and that's what I need to do.
BALDRIDGE: The plan for today is to watch the interview
that Jim did with detectives on the day of the shooting.
BALDRIDGE: What's good about it
is that Jim truly thought
Mr. Marcum had a gun in his hand.
But we know from the surveillance video
that Mr. Marcum didn't have a gun in his hand,
and I think we're going to have to address that.
Absolutely.
(DETECTIVE SPEAKING)
I don't like the fact that he kind of
brags about knowing all the laws.
The State is going to say he knows
that he has to convey he felt threatened.
He just says things that seem to fit the perfect narrative.
(JIM SPEAKING)
BALDRIDGE: Maybe Jim does know the law.
Maybe he does know that he can't pull his gun
until he's threatened physically.
Well, guess what? He was threatened physically
and he chose to shoot
at the very last second possible.
CROCKER: I just feel that they're going to spin that to,
"He knew exactly how to play this thing,
"from the moment that he yelled at him,
"and the moment he gestured...
"He wanted to kill this guy.
"That was his intent."
BALDRIDGE: We got some pretty big news today
that could change the course of this case.
The State extended a plea offer to Jim.
It is a big decision,
so I now need to relay that to him
and see what he thinks about it.
(CELL PHONE RINGING)
Hello.
What's going on?
(JAKE SPEAKING)
Oh, all right.
(JAKE SPEAKING)
Okay, so I'd be signing a felony
that says I,
you know, unlawfully, you know, killed somebody
when all I was doing was defending myself.
(JAKE SPEAKING)
Okay, thank you.
All right, bye.
I don't really like a plea deal.
With trial, there's a big risk,
but there's also the ultimate reward
of being acquitted of all charges.
Six and a half hours after it happened,
I was actually taken into custody,
booked into the jail.
I ended up doing 194 days of that...
Which, you know, is only a portion
of the sentence I could be looking at.
Every day in there was hell.
And I'm willing to risk it all to never go back.
BALDRIDGE: Jim told me that he'd decided
to reject the State's offer.
It is a big moment.
Rejecting an offer like that
has to be tough for him.
And there's a lot of pressure there
because of the extreme difference in sentences.
The risk is huge.
Because he's turned down a guaranteed offer
to roll the dice in front of a jury
that we haven't even chosen yet.
But there's video of him shooting a man in self-defense.
That's what I see.
And that's what I have to convince the jury of.
BALDRIDGE: All right.
I want to reenact what happened.
When Mr. Marcum kicked you,
had you seen his right hand
-without a gun in it? -No.
I thought he had it in his hand the whole time.
So I want to go through what you could and could not see
based on the circumstances, okay?
Okay.
I'm going to move back over here a little bit now,
-and I'm going to be pretending I'm Mr. Marcum... -Okay.
...and I'm walking at you.
All right. Sounds good. Let's do it.
All right, here I come.
What are you doing? You're driving like an idiot!
Put your BB gun away.
-Stop! -Now!
Put your BB gun away. I told you. Put it away.
-Stop. -Put it away!
-Stop! -Put it away!
BALDRIDGE: I thought that was really good.
I think, even in that moment,
Jim was a little frightened
because Terry just kept coming,
and I don't think you were expecting it.
I didn't even have a real gun.
-Right. -And you knew that.
-Right. -But I knew you weren't looking
-at my hand. -Right.
-You were looking right here. -Yeah. Just overall,
overall body.
Is it plausible that Jim didn't see Mr. Marcum
put his gun back in his pocket?
Yes, very much so.
-Were you in fear of your life? -Absolutely.
He was either there to, you know, severely assault me
or ultimately, you know, kill me.
I didn't want to shoot him.
Truthfully, at the absolute last second, is when I did.
FLANAGAN: I think Jim showed a whole lot of restraint
letting him come at him with a gun in his hand.
Once I saw that gun,
he never would have got that close to me.
Is it your opinion
that Jim was justified to shoot him when he did?
Yes.
BALDRIDGE: These witnesses were going to Walmart
like anybody else there that day.
They stayed in the parking lot
until after the incident,
and then one of them approached immediately
and began rendering aid to Mr. Marcum.
What's really good about these witnesses
is that they were so close to the incident.
If they corroborate what Jim tells us,
that absolutely could be a game changer.
So, today, Terry and I did the interview of the EMT,
first on scene.
So, did you get an opportunity
to talk to him about what he could hear specifically
from which party?
What did he say as far as that goes?
So, what he saw was the deceased
continue forward, continue yelling.
And Jim continuing to back up
closer and closer to his motorcycle,
which was in the corner.
Okay.
He does say, too, that Jim says,
"Don't keep coming at me.
"I will shoot you."
CROCKER: So he confirmed that?
BALDRIDGE: Yes.
CROCKER: Which is fantastic.
Did he characterize who he felt was the aggressor?
Absolutely.
The entire interview
was focused on the deceased being the aggressor.
BALDRIDGE: He said it over and over again.
Aggressor. Aggressor. Aggressor. Aggressor.
CROCKER: Wow.
So, aggressiveness on the part of the deceased,
-huge for us. -Right.
BALDRIDGE: I'm gonna show you the video.
(INDISTINCT CONVERSATION)
WOMAN: Hey, stay over here.
Stay over here.
WOMAN: Stay over here.
Stay over here.
WOMAN: Stay...
-CROCKER: Wow! -Yeah.
CROCKER: The audio changes everything.
He's screaming at Jim.
BALDRIDGE: The audio is important and shows the intensity
and how loud he was
and kind of reminds us who the aggressor is.
WOMAN: Hey. Stay over here. Stay over here.
Stay...
The woman who took the cell phone video
told me she prays for Jim every night.
She thinks Jim is justified.
I'd say that's two pretty big wins for Jim today, though.
-Absolutely. It is. -Absolutely.
We have two witnesses
that say he was justified.
BALDRIDGE: It's uncommon for defendants to take the stand.
But putting Jim on the stand means we own the facts,
we know what happened,
and here's why it's not a crime.
All right. Why don't you have a seat there?
BALDRIDGE: I've asked Michael
to be as tough on Jim as possible.
And however uncomfortable he is,
it will be nothing compared
to what he faces at trial.
All right. We're ready whenever you are.
CROCKER: So, Mr. Mosier,
you would agree that you were engaged in an altercation,
-correct? -Yes.
So, you have categorized it, along with counsel,
that you were very much trying to defuse the situation.
Yet you made some sort of gesture towards him, correct?
Correct.
CROCKER: And you would agree
that making hand gestures could be taken
as an escalation of an altercation, correct?
MOSIER: I don't see how.
Okay, if we're yelling back and forth
and I give you the finger,
did I just escalate it
with a hand gesture?
-I suppose, yes. -Okay. All right.
And when you approach someone physically,
have you escalated the altercation?
-Yes. -Okay.
And that's what you did in this case, right?
I approached his vehicle to have a conversation,
to, to hear things and better assess the situation.
CROCKER: When Mr. Marcum came out of the vehicle...
It was a verbal fight at that point, correct?
-Yes. -He was saying words.
-You were saying words. -Yes.
He was cussing. You were cussing.
I may have been swearing back. Yes.
And then the person that escalated it to firearms
was you, correct?
I... I drew a firearm...
-CROCKER: You drew your firearm... -...after that.
...after y'all were yelling at each other, correct?
After I was threatened as well. Correct.
He ultimately did show you that he had a firearm?
-Yes. -And at that point,
he put it away, correct?
I was not aware of that in the moment.
CROCKER: But now you've learned
that he actually put the gun away,
-correct? -Yes.
CROCKER: He was of no threat.
To go from a fistfight
when he came towards you to do so,
you shot him, correct?
-Yes. -CROCKER: You shot him in center mass.
-Yes. -CROCKER: You shot with the intent to kill.
-Correct? -Yes.
That was bad.
MOSIER: Okay.
My understanding is that
your intent wasn't to kill.
Your intent was to shoot.
MOSIER: Right.
But your intent was to shoot to stop the threat.
The intent was to stop.
-BALDRIDGE: Okay. -Okay.
BALDRIDGE: There were things about how Jim answered questions
that I didn't like.
So I think we need to work on a few things,
but I think he should take the stand
and testify in his own defense
so the jury see that he's not
this monster on a motorcycle that the State is,
I think, wanting to make him out to be.
MOSIER: Just having someone there I can trust unconditionally
is a good feeling.
My nephew, Apollo, is going to be there.
-(KNOCKS ON DOOR) -I'm excited.
-APOLLO: Uncle. -Hello.
-What's going on? -(APOLLO EXCLAIMS)
What's this?
Roar!
-Yeah. (LAUGHS) -Spider-saurus.
-Thank you. -He wants a big hug.
-I want a big hug. -Look, he's gonna be small now.
-Hi, buddy. -Aw.
Oh, you gonna run away?
(BRITTANY LAUGHS)
BRITTANY: We've always been just very close,
almost like twins.
Even when we don't see each other for a while,
we just jump back in, like...
Like it's always been us.
Do you remember that you were going to give
this special thing to Jim?
-Did you tell him what it says? -I love you.
I love you 3,000.
BRITTANY: I'm thankful that he's alive,
because I think it could have went
either way in that moment.
Ahh! He's got my nose.
He loves that dinosaur too much.
-BRITTANY: I told you. -You were right.
BRITTANY: Uh-huh. (LAUGHS)
MOSIER: Meeting with Apollo today,
I mean, it does give me something to look forward to,
but it also gives me something to fear.
You know, something to...
Something that hurts.
BALDRIDGE: Jury trials are always so scary.
There are bad facts in this case.
Jim killed a man
in the parking lot of a Walmart.
On the other hand,
I'm confident that Jim did not commit a crime.
MOSIER: I really don't know how I'm feeling.
It's gonna be tough.
The prosecutor's gonna be most likely hostile towards me.
Fighting for my life put me in this situation.
I survived once and...
You know, I have to fight again now.
MOSIER: It was stressful.
I was nervous and my hands were sweating
just being in the atmosphere.
It was hard seeing the son, um
crying on the stand.
That was probably the roughest part.
The juvenile testified about what he saw, what he heard.
Mr. Marcum died in front of him,
and that is awful,
no matter how you slice it.
So, that testimony can kind of hurt us.
But it was very clear, both on direct and cross,
that the juvenile, at the time,
was screaming at his stepdad,
"No, stop. Don't."
But Mr. Marcum kept going.
It's so powerful for the jury to hear that.
CROCKER: How do you think it went?
Probably the most damaging thing
that the State kept coming back to
was Jim defensively displayed his firearm
before Mr. Marcum pulled out his.
CROCKER: That's going to be difficult.
But at the end of the day, the State rested.
State's done. They've presented their evidence.
So, it's our case tomorrow.
BALDRIDGE: When Jim takes the stand,
he needs to tell the jury
that he was justified in what he did,
and acted reasonably under the circumstances.
CROCKER: What are your thoughts? What are you thinking?
MOSIER: I'm confident.
I think, just based off the course of the last couple days,
I think that...
I'm capable.
CROCKER: I'm just going to kind of bring you back down to the real world.
I'm so, so, so concerned.
You've been through three days of trial
and you think, "I've got this."
You don't got this.
I'm glad that you feel confident.
I don't want you to feel overconfident.
CROCKER: When you're on the stand,
do not get into a fight with the prosecutor.
Do not feel like that is your job.
It's not to convince them,
it's to tell them what happened.
You're courtroom Jim.
You're Jim on trial for murder.
That's what you are.
You defended yourself once,
now you're defending yourself again.
How are you feeling about everything?
Are you feeling confident about testifying?
It's really rare for a defendant to testify.
-Really? -Yeah.
I didn't know that.
You very rarely testify in your own defense.
-Really? -Yeah.
Because the prosecutor can tear you apart.
BRITTANY: I feel like everything's in your favor,
but what happens if they say you're guilty?
I'd be crushed.
I'd be taken into custody immediately.
Immediately?
Like, that's scary for me.
We could be saying goodbye.
Today, the plan is to have me testify first.
I know that I'm the only person that can convict myself right now.
Definitely nervous.
Today's the day we put Jim on the stand.
It's make or break.
He has to come across well or this could wreck the case.
That was was my chance to tell my side of the story
and prove my innocence.
It was certainly nerve-racking
seeing Mr. Marcum's family members there.
I felt bad, you know, I mean,
you guys lost your family member,
regardless of the circumstances, you know.
BALDRIDGE: Putting Jim on the stand was terrifying.
But he did a great job.
The prosecutor asked him
about taking out his firearm as escalation,
and Jim said,
"No, I was trying to de-escalate the situation.
"I was trying to stop it."
The off-duty EMT described Mr. Marcum's aggressiveness,
the anger, the agitation,
the approach, over and over again.
The woman who shot the cell phone video,
she really got across the point that this entire situation
was really scary,
and I think it really made an impact on the jury.
I worry about the lesser included
because the jury may think, "Well,
"we don't think it was second degree murder
"but he should be punished somehow for what he did."
That's the real risk.
I definitely think Jim's scared.
The reality is setting in.
We both don't know if he's gonna be coming back tonight
or if he's gonna be sitting in a jail cell.
MOSIER: It's weighing heavy today.
I think I've been taking it a little bit lightly
over the last few days and everything kinda...
It's coming together today.
BALDRIDGE: I explained to Jim that once the verdict comes in
and we walk into that courtroom,
he may not come out.
He needs to understand
that he should hug his sister and his mom.
And just know that it could be
your last time doing that for a while.
Michael, verdict's in.
I think my biggest worry is any conviction, really.
I think it's all on the table.
I hope it's a "not guilty" across the board,
but you never know.
Not guilty on all counts.
On all counts.
Jim's been acquitted of everything alleged.
And it's a good day.
I'm feeling light.
Uh...
I don't feel like I have weights on my back anymore.
Burden's gone.
I can restart.
BRITTANY: I'm feeling very good,
very relieved, of course. What else can you feel?
BALDRIDGE: I'm so happy for Jim.
But we have to remember that someone died.
Mr. Marcum is no longer here.
It's absolutely tragic.
On the other hand, the jury agreed
that he was justified in what he did.
And I'm happy that the trial ended this way.