(SIREN BLARING)
(WOMAN SPEAKING)
(MAN SPEAKING)
(GUNSHOT)
I know what he's capable of. I know what he can do.
I know what type of person he is.
Clintuan is facing very serious charges.
I don't know how it got here,
but all I can do is try to stop it.
CLINTUAN DOCHER: I feel like in that situation,
I had to do what I had to.
I had to protect myself. I had to protect my family.
MEADOWS: My name is Amanda Meadows.
I'm a defense attorney in Columbus, Mississippi.
I represent Clintuan Docher.
Uh, Clintuan is a 22-year-old young man
charged with aggravated assault,
and in Mississippi, aggravated assault,
uh, is one of the more serious crimes,
and it carries up to 20 years, mandatory,
in the Mississippi State Penitentiary system.
My client claims that on May 15th of 2020,
around 11:00 at night,
there was an altercation
at a local drive-thru restaurant.
Clintuan and his girlfriend were driving around
trying to get their baby to sleep.
They had just gone into the drive-thru
hoping to get a milkshake while they were out,
before they headed home.
As they were in line,
Clintuan noticed a car pull behind him.
It was a former friend of his.
Clintuan alleges that the man in the vehicle behind him
had a history of bullying him
and being aggressive towards him.
Even beyond bullying, actually shooting at him
and beating him up a couple of times.
He knows that this individual
is coming after him.
Clintuan claims
he immediately felt nervous,
scared, not only for his own safety,
but for the safety of his girlfriend and the infant that was in the back seat.
This guy gets out of his vehicle,
starts screaming and shouting at Clintuan.
Clintuan felt extremely threatened,
extremely scared 'cause of what's happened in the past.
Clintuan had an actual gun on his person,
in part because of prior threats from this very individual.
He was authorized.
It was legal for him to carry it.
The former friend approaches the vehicle.
At that point, Clintuan lowers his window
and shoots two rounds.
And those were warning shots,
'cause his position was, he felt he had no options.
He's scared. He's trapped.
It was only when the shots were being fired by Clintuan
that the other vehicles around started to move,
and at that time, Clintuan was able to drive off
and leave the scene.
The aggravated assault charge comes from,
when Clintuan fired the warning shots,
unfortunately, one of the shots,
as alleged by the State,
entered into the panel
of another vehicle that was in line.
The allegation is that that bullet came in through the door panel,
allegedly grazed this individual's leg
and caused some damage.
The alleged aggressor
told police he was involved in this altercation,
but he had no idea who the other person was.
He denied knowing anything.
The alleged victim in this case said,
"I saw these guys arguing."
He indicated that he did not want medical attention.
He indicated that he did not want
to be involved, in essence.
The State's theory of the case is that
Clintuan Docher was not acting in self-defense,
that he had no right to be shooting this gun,
and that the bullet that actually entered the second vehicle
was a result of a reckless or a dangerous, willful action.
The other part of the State's theory is that
there wasn't a reasonable fear
for Clintuan to impose self-defense.
But we feel that Tuan did have a right to self-defense,
that he was in imminent fear
because he had a history with this person, his former friend.
And under Mississippi law,
he had a right to defend himself and his family in his vehicle.
If you are in the course of protecting yourself
and someone else is injured,
it doesn't sever the self-defense claim.
The system failed Clintuan.
He shouldn't be involved in this.
He shouldn't be charged with this
because he does have a valid self-defense claim.
Clintuan says, "I know I didn't do anything wrong,"
and we stand behind that.
DYANA: Good job, Karmen.
DOCHER: Karmen, it's Kasen's turn.
DYANA: Let Kasen jump, Doody.
(CHILD BABBLING)
DOCHER: I grown up a lot since becoming a dad.
It's fun, but it's tough at the same time.
Probably the best thing that happened to me, honestly.
You learn from each one of 'em.
With the first child, I had trouble fixing the bottle,
but now I'm like an expert at fixing bottles
or changing Pampers, you know?
So...
DYANA: You wanna go higher?
DOCHER: All my goals,
everything that I set to accomplish, it's for them.
It's not for me, it's for them.
I just want them to have the best life.
You know, the best future.
It's vital for me to be around for them to have that.
Five seconds. One. Two. Three. Four.
Five. (LAUGHS) Good job, Doody!
This situation just got me feeling scared.
You know, I'm scared for Tuan
and I, you know, just don't...
I don't wanna be left alone with the kids.
DOCHER: Might be the back. Yeah, it's the back.
DYANA: I really don't want that to happen,
because he don't deserve it.
(BREATHES DEEPLY)
'Cause he's a good guy,
a very nice guy,
and he don't mean harm to anybody.
BILLIE: Family is everything. It's everything.
I love my family, I really do.
And to see my son go through something like this,
it hurts me. It really does.
I don't think I could handle it
if Tuan was to go to jail.
For him to be doing 20 years?
I'm just gonna be honest,
I don't think my son will make it out of there.
I really don't.
A lot of what we've been working on in Clintuan's case
is the reasonableness of the shots that he fired
and how those fit into a self-defense claim.
We want to understand
why he felt that he had to shoot at his former friend.
-Hey. -Hey, Clintuan.
-DOCHER: Hey, how you doing? -How are you?
-I'm good. -Hey, have a seat right there for me.
Clintuan, as we're getting closer to trial date,
I wanna walk you back through
what you remember specifically about that night
and kind of really drill down on some of the details.
Can you take me back to May 15th of 2020?
I was ordering my food,
and as I let down my window,
I hear somebody from the car behind me yelling, screaming,
just trying to get my attention, I guess.
And that was your former friend, right?
Yes, ma'am.
MEADOWS: I know you told police
that you two had this history.
What was that history and what did it make you feel
that he was doing this that night?
Well, we was friends at once point in time since high school.
We was close friends. Like, best friends,
like you could basically say at one point we were like,
almost brothers.
But I don't know, just over time,
he just started to change.
His behavior start to change.
He started becoming worse, worse, making worse decisions.
And I guess, when you see
me not wanting to do the same thing that he wanted to do,
I guess he didn't like that.
Okay.
There were multiple times he tried to intimidate me.
He would see me and try to start fights.
Were you saying stuff back to him?
DOCHER: Oh, no, ma'am, I never bothered him.
I never gave him a reason to wanna bother me.
I just always mind my business.
So, I think the State's gonna make a big deal about this,
so I wanna hit it head on.
At any point in time, did you notice
if he had a gun on him?
I noticed when he was getting out of the car,
like he had, he was like just reaching down or something.
I know he had something.
I couldn't identify if it was a gun or not,
but I knew he had something.
Was there a time where he had threatened you with a gun before this incident?
He has pointed a gun at me more than once.
He actually shot at me while I was working,
while I was delivering pizza.
As I was driving,
he was behind me
and he was yelling, yelling again, yelling,
screaming, trying to get my attention.
He stuck his arm out the window to flash his gun.
So that's when the light changed.
I started to drive.
He takes a right and he stops and shoots at my car.
All right, and when you were interviewed with police,
did you tell them all this?
-About this whole thing going on? -The history?
-Yeah. The history? -Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am.
And what did they say when you told them that?
I don't think they really care too much about
what was going on or the history of it, honestly.
So, when you see him pull up behind in the drive-thru,
did it immediately scare you
or was it a situation where you're like,
"Oh, it's just him cutting up"?
I was like, "Oh, here we go again."
Go ahead and tell me,
what do you remember him yelling at you?
Anything he could do to get me mad
and get my attention. "Eff you, eff you..."
What did he say that you thought was a threat?
Well, he said, "I'm gonna burn you. I'm gonna burn you."
What does that mean? For... So I make sure I understand.
Which means, "I'm gonna shoot you" or "I'm gonna kill you."
We know that, you know, you shot at him.
At what point did you do that?
Um, I shot him once he approached my car,
and that's when I shot right at the ground towards his feet.
Okay.
So, you shooting at him that first time,
-you shot at the ground? -Yes, ma'am.
He didn't leave? He didn't get away from you?
No, ma'am.
And at that point, did you shoot a second time?
Uh, yes, ma'am.
Okay. Where did you shoot at?
Uh, it was towards the air.
-It was upwards. -Okay.
I was just trying to be careful
and just trying to get him away from me.
I wasn't trying to harm him.
I have my kid in the car,
so I'm trying to protect my child,
protect my girlfriend.
But I was... I was scared for my life, their life.
I was confused.
I just wish I could just (SNAPS FINGERS) teleport
and just get away, honestly.
After the second shot,
that's when the car in front of me moved up.
So now I have the opportunity to escape, to get away.
MEADOWS: When did you find out that another person had been hit?
When I went to the police station,
and that's when they told me that another person was shot.
Okay.
Had you met this alleged victim before?
No, ma'am.
You weren't aiming at the alleged victim, correct?
No, ma'am.
You know, we've talked a lot about your defense,
which is self-defense, saying, "I have a right,"
and under Mississippi law
there is this provision called Castle Doctrine,
which basically says you have a right to defend yourself
against harm, not only in your home,
but also in a car,
which is an extension of your home.
So our argument, kind of going to trial,
and what we've always talked about on this case
was saying, "I wasn't trying to hurt him. I'm trying to defend myself."
I felt like I had no choice, like, I was forced to do that.
That was probably the only way to get out of that situation.
I feel like.
I think that we have
a really strong self-defense claim.
I always have,
and I think we just continue to build on that
as we get closer to trial.
So...
Clintuan is facing very serious charges.
I feel the police saw one storyline,
and that storyline was based on
two young Black kids shooting at each other.
They didn't dig any deeper than that.
And there's obviously layers here
that were never investigated, never explained.
And had they have done that, I don't think it would have gotten this far in the process.
I think the entire process of him going to prison
would be devastating on every level,
and I'm gonna do my damnedest to prevent it.
DOCHER: I go to sleep at night
and sometimes I have dreams about, you know,
the worst possible situation.
It's like, it's always in the back of your mind, like, what can happen.
It can be real depressing at times. It can be real sad.
The best way to get this out of my mind is to work.
So that's what I do. I try to do...
I try to be as busy as possible.
After that situation happened, I actually went to school.
Graduated from college. Got my degree.
I got a better job, also.
(DRILL WHIRS)
To be accused of this crime
is actually pretty scary, you know?
You don't know what they can do. You don't know what can happen.
You don't know what to expect.
I've been pretty much clueless for the past three years.
You want to progress and, like, go ahead with your life,
but you can't because you got something just holding you back.
So you have to literally wait
until these people make a decision on your life.
You know, it's tough. It's scary.
You don't know what can happen.
It's very, very stressful.
-Hey, Haley, you wanna look at this with me? -BRIDGES: Sure.
This is the video they turned over from
the actual drive-thru.
Tuan pulled in first.
Clearly in line to get food.
We immediately see the alleged aggressor come in.
He's coming into this drive-thru,
not casually, "I'm gonna get some food."
It appears to be aggressive.
So here comes the alleged victim in this gold-looking car,
and he pulls in behind Tuan's old friend.
He's in this silver car.
And then right up...
I mean, look how closely he is parked to the bumper of Clintuan's car.
-I mean, he's right up on him. -BRIDGES: Yeah.
So Clintuan was boxed in.
There's no way he could have backed up without hitting that car.
And he's yelling.
Now he comes over.
That's the first shot, and then the victim leaves.
So, arguably, they're saying the first shot is the one that would have hit his car.
But even as he drives away,
you can't see the bullet hole in the side of his vehicle.
BRIDGES: You can't even tell his vehicle's gotten hit.
Because they're claiming it went through his door.
Do we have any photos or anything of the door or...
We don't have photos of the door,
they didn't take them that night.
The only thing we have is a document showing
they took in two shell casings and the projectile.
The alleged aggressor stays on the scene,
continuing to harass them.
There he is, pulling on the doors,
hitting the car windows with the baby in the back.
I can't imagine being in that car...
-No. -...with him acting like that.
And it's only now we see the other car move
-that Clintuan is able to move. -BRIDGES: Mm-hmm.
And he runs after Docher's car.
This one really shows the degree of how aggressive he was being that night.
And that supports Clintuan being so afraid of him,
-because this is over-the-top behavior. -BRIDGES: Clearly.
Unbelievable.
It's pretty damning to me on the State's, like,
why they don't see this as self-defense.
So, yeah, I think that we're gonna have to deal with
the State's argument that it was reckless to shoot at him regardless,
and that's gonna get into
-some of the history that they have. -Mm-hmm.
What had happened in the past.
Was it reckless for him to shoot more than once?
-I don't think so... -BRIDGES: I don't think so.
MEADOWS: ...because I feel like he keeps coming.
Why didn't he leave?
-Well, obviously he couldn't. -Mm-hmm.
Why didn't he try to call police?
This happens in less than two minutes.
For a claim of self-defense in Mississippi,
you are gonna have to show
that the person who's claiming self-defense
had a realistic belief
that they were gonna be harmed.
I think the aggressive acts that you can see in this video
would support that this was someone
who was over-the-top.
This is someone who's aggressive,
and it was reasonable
for Clintuan to do a warning shot,
"Get away from my vehicle
"with my girlfriend and my baby inside."
MEADOWS: One of the issues that's come up
is Clintuan saying, "I've had a history with the alleged aggressor."
And we wanted to establish that and go back and verify that
through either police reports or through school records
or some kind of documentation.
And the reason why that's important
is because we want to help further establish
Clintuan's fear of the alleged aggressor.
Unfortunately, when we went to the police department,
they were not able to find any of those reports.
These are several years old. They may have been purged.
They may have been filed under a different name.
But what we did find was a report
that the Docher family themselves actually filled out
roughly 17 days after the alleged incident in the drive-thru that night.
So, this report was filed on June 2nd, 2020
by Clintuan's mom and dad.
They actually called police
and indicated that a individual
with a yellow-orange two-tone car
kept driving back and forth in front of their home.
This is consistent with the description of the alleged victim's car,
and in addition to seeing this car,
this very distinct-colored car,
they also noted that the alleged aggressor
is riding in that car with the driver.
So that's interesting to us
because it shows that maybe the alleged victim
is really not just a happenstance person
in the drive-thru that night.
Maybe the alleged victim is someone who really knew the aggressor
and may have been involved in this, too.
This is a very residential neighborhood that the Dochers live in.
It's a closed-off neighborhood.
It's not like they would be going down the street
to get somewhere else.
So they had no reason to be in that neighborhood
other than potentially, what I would argue,
to intimidate the Docher family.
So it's definitely helpful.
It's something that we would bring up at trial.
And that's the gateway into establishing
that there was an ongoing threat.
There was an ongoing aggression.
And there actually was fear, not only with Clintuan,
but his family.
DOCHER: Amanda called me to the office
and talked to me about the trial and the case.
I mean, I have three kids,
and missing out on five years of their life would be crazy to me.
I couldn't imagine doing it. I can't do that.
Amanda, she's real confident in the case
and believes we should take it to trial
other than take the plea deal.
I talked to my mom about the plea deal.
You know, she's a mom. She didn't agree with it.
She don't like the the length of it, or the terms of it.
She thinks I should take it to trial
and see where we go from there.
I believe me and Amanda have a strong case,
but you just never know.
Once you actually get in the courtroom,
you never know what may happen.
I'm gonna take Amanda's advice on how to go with that,
and hopefully everything works out fine.
MEADOWS: This case is very limited on what evidence we have
and what was documented by police three years ago when this crime occurred.
What we've been shown
looks like an injury to the thigh,
but we don't know what it is.
So, I want to talk to my sister, who's a nurse.
She's very familiar with what a bullet wound
as well as a grazing is gonna look like.
Hey. So, I wanted to talk to you
because you have the experience
looking at gunshot wounds,
and this case supposedly involves
a 9mm gunshot that went through the door panel
of a Hyundai Sonata
and grazed the top of this guy's leg
and then lodged in the back seat, is what they're saying.
But the pictures I sent you,
there's a lot of bruising and other stuff,
and I don't know what I'm looking at.
So, I wanted you to tell me what you thought.
(DONNA SPEAKING)
Just so I know, and make sure I'm clear,
the bruising you saw,
you don't think that would have happened within
30 minutes, an hour of this alleged grazing?
(DONNA SPEAKING)
MEADOWS: We don't know when the picture was taken.
They haven't told us, but our understanding,
it was taken, like, that night.
(DONNA SPEAKING)
Okay, that's what I need to know.
All right. Well, thank you. I love you. I hope you all have fun.
-Love you, too. Bye, y'all! -Bye. See you later.
Having talked to Donna,
she had the same feelings we had. It's not fresh.
This is something that, based on the bruising
and based on the scabs on the wound,
occurred maybe 24 to 48 hours prior to being photographed.
The reports indicate that the alleged victim
only cooperated with police that night,
so we would assume that these were taken that night.
I believe the victim's credibility as a witness
is so questionable at this point.
It's just, none of it adds up. None of it seems to make sense.
It just confirms a lot of the issues
we have about the investigation,
and if the State can't prove
that this is a result from Clintuan's gun,
their case falls apart.
MEADOWS: We are headed right now
to the Columbus Police Department,
which is holding the evidence
that was collected in Tuan's case.
We don't have actual photos of the evidence,
which is kind of unusual, because usually
they would have it photographed where it's found, right, Sed?
When you were a cop, isn't that standard, though?
SEDRICK: The first thing you do is secure the scene.
Find any evidence. Mark it.
It's been 28 years since I've been a patrolman,
and I still remember.
I'm just seeing the mistakes that were made.
It's really embarrassing.
MEADOWS: It gives us an extra layer to challenge the case, to say,
in addition to the self-defense,
there may be questions about
how this whole thing was handled.
You ready?
BRIDGES: So what'd y'all find out?
MEADOWS: We met with the head of investigations.
-He pulls out the bag. -BRIDGES: Yeah.
-That has never been opened... -Mm-hmm.
...since the night of the investigation.
Inside are three boxes.
The first two are the shell casings.
And then, the third one,
we said, "Well, can you go ahead
"and open the one with the projectile?"
And I wanna show you what he showed us.
BRIDGES: The one that they allegedly found in the back seat,
-right? -Yes.
Look at these.
Look how huge this is.
That's not a 9mm.
SEDRICK: No.
MEADOWS: There's no way that came out of a 9mm. BRIDGES: That is... No way.
I asked him, I said, "Is that a .45?"
He was like, "No, it's a 9mm."
And I'm thinking, "There's no way,"
because that projectile will not fit into a 9mm.
It's too big.
BRIDGES: It's too big. SEDRICK: It's too long.
MEADOWS: Projectiles are usually just little tiny bits, right? SEDRICK: Right.
-Little pieces of metal that are left. -Right.
And the head of investigation said,
"I picked it up because it was so unusual. I've never seen one like it."
And just to be clear, they did take
Tuan's 9mm into custody.
He admitted he had a 9mm.
But it's really shocking to me
to actually look at it in person,
to know that nobody's looked at it since three years ago.
It's a mess.
-The whole thing's a mess. -BRIDGES: This is crazy.
I think the biggest thing that we can use for this case is, one,
showing the poor investigation that was done,
but also two, that it's just not reasonable
that Clintuan's gun caused that injury,
and if they can't connect it, they don't have a case.
We were shocked
when they opened up the evidence box
and we saw this huge chunk of metal.
It blows my mind. Nobody's looked at it since that night.
It's never been sent to Ballistics,
never had been photographed
until I photographed it for trial purposes.
It's just really clear to us
that that could not have come from Clintuan's gun.
It's a game-changer.
It's a hundred percent a game-changer.
MEADOWS: Hey.
Hey. How are you?
I'm good. I'm good. I'm good.
I'm going back through my notes again.
I feel at this point, I mean,
we... we're holding all the cards on this one.
-Yeah. -I mean, we have everything posited.
I'm thinking about going to them and really talking to them,
just to lay the cards on the table and say,
"Look, we know there's a good self-defense claim.
"It's been there from the beginning."
And then, combined with what they're saying is the bullet,
which looks like a fishing weight.
Doesn't look like a bullet at all.
And everyone we've talked to is questionable about
if that even is a bullet or how it could have potentially even gone through the car door.
So they can't even prove, the DA can't even show
that there was a bullet that went through that man's car door.
Combined with the evidence we have of the injury,
to say this injury doesn't even look consistent with
-what they're trying to say it does. -Mm-hmm.
So all this combined, I feel like we are...
I think we're well within our rights to go to them
and say, "Either drop it or potentially drop it to a misdemeanor."
I don't see how they can establish a case,
and knowing what we know,
if anything, kind of coming to them like this
I think will make them see
we're extremely prepared for trial.
I agree.
Right now, the DA has offered him
the 10 years, five to serve.
What we're countering with, basically,
if they drop it to a misdemeanor,
there's no jail time and it's not a felony.
He doesn't need to serve time on this at all.
-No, I don't ever wanna see this kid do a day for this. -Mm-mmm.
-I don't think they have a case. -No.
-How are you? -BRIDGES: I'm great.
-How are you? -Good.
So,
-you know I've been over at the courthouse... -Yeah.
...and the DA stopped me.
I said, "You know, I have a lot of issues with this case.
"There's some serious things."
And he says, "Yeah, I've gone back, I've looked,"
and basically gave the implication
they're considering dropping it.
-Yeah. -Like, actually dropping it?
They said at this point, they're gonna go back
and reassess some of the evidence,
and they are going to talk with the victim and see what's going on.
But what if they can't get ahold of him?
Because even in discovery, I'm looking at it right now.
I mean, before they've tried to contact him multiple times
and they were never able to.
So what...
What would happen if they can't get ahold of him?
Will they still drop it?
-Well... -Or consider it, at least?
Yeah, I think they can still drop it
because he actually mentioned that, that if nothing else,
he could actually tell the court
that they tried to get in touch with him,
and that would be an additional ground,
possibly, for dismissal was
not only is there some evidentiary issues,
but we have an uncooperative victim.
I think at this point, they have to look at it
-from an evidentiary standpoint... -Mm-hmm.
-...of, could they prove the elements? -Yeah.
And I think now that
they're matching everything up...
-They just see that they can't prove all those. -Yeah.
-BRIDGES: Wow. -Yeah.
-BRIDGES: That's exciting. -Yeah.
-BRIDGES: This is just so exciting. -It's very exciting.
I mean, at this point, you know, we know that
-nothing is set in stone until they sign it. -Exactly.
That's my hesitation to kind of get into it
-with Tuan right now. -Yeah.
Until we get a little more solid footing with them.
But at the end of the day,
if it's a situation where they acknowledge it's a weak case
and they acknowledge they need to drop it,
and Clintuan doesn't have to do a day in prison,
I'll take it all day long.
I just can't believe that
all this time, they had all this time to look at the evidence,
and it's like you said, how many other cases are they doing this with?
-All I can do right now is just focus on Clintuan... -Mm-hmm.
...and hope we can make it right for him.
MEADOWS: We were set for trial,
and the State asked for a continuance.
The assistant DA prosecuting the case actually said,
"We think we're gonna drop this.
"We just need time to talk to the victim."
The victim in this case had not really cooperated with police.
There wasn't a lot of information
about his position or his thoughts.
There had been no communication with him in the police file
since the incident occurred.
Everyone's kind of been on edge
because we don't quite know what else to do.
We've done everything we can to get resolution.
It's been put off.
And then, this morning, around 6:00 in the morning,
I had noticed that a filing had occurred in Tuan's case.
So I've actually asked Clintuan and his family to come in.
Hey, Tuan, how are you doing?
So, the last time we were in court,
the district attorney had made this big thing about
wanting this hearing and wanting the victim here.
And my whole position was, even if this guy shows up,
it's not gonna change anything.
And I kept pushing him and pushing him, and I hadn't heard anything.
And, um... (EXHALES)
This weekend, they filed a motion
to nol-pros and drop everything.
-They dropped it? Oh, my God! -(ALL LAUGH)
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
MEADOWS: So, today is getting in front of the judge
and having the judge enter an order
dropping everything against you this morning at 9:00.
-(ALL LAUGHING) -(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
(INAUDIBLE)
(BELL RINGS)
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
I'm very, very happy for Clintuan and his family
and knowing that they can put this to rest,
that the uncertainty's over.
BILLIE: Yeah. Now, get in here and put your hands on me.
MEADOWS: It saddens me that
the State was willing to give Tuan 10 years for this
without having looked at the evidence,
without having talked to this victim.
Things we now know.
So, 10 years of... A normal person
would have said, "Take it. It's a good deal."
And some people may have taken it.
But luckily, Tuan trusted us
and knew that we were gonna carry it forward to today.
(INDISTINCT CONVERSATION)
DOCHER: I'm happy to finally have all this over with,
and to know that I'm innocent
and what I did was the right thing
to do in that situation.
So I feel pretty good.