SANDY SPRINGS, Ga. — Editor's note: The video above is from jury selection in the case.
Five years after a man was charged in a deadly road rage incident over a golf ball, the Georgia Supreme Court rescinded the conviction, stating the trial jury wasn't properly instructed on how to evaluate the case.
The case dates back to July 2019, when Bryan Keith Schmitt, a lawyer, was arrested for driving his car into the driveway of 60-year-old Hamid Jahangard, a real estate investor's home, hitting and killing him.
Schmitt was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after a jury found him guilty of malice murder, two counts of felony murder and two counts of aggravated assault.
Why did the Georgia Supreme Court overturn the decision?
Schmitt's lawyers argued that the trial court should have told the jury that it could consider whether Jahangard's death was accidental.
"Under state statute and prior case law, an accident defense is available in the context of malice murder 'when there is evidence that the defendant caused another’s death but acted without an express or implied intent to commit an unlawful homicide,'" the court's opinion read in part.
They said there was enough evidence to suggest it might have been an accident, so the jury should have been told to consider that possibility.
"The undisputed evidence showed that Schmitt turned his car left, accelerated his car to between 15 and 16 miles per hour, veered his car to the right and away from Jahangard, at some point tapped his brakes, and that the left edge of Schmitt’s car struck Jahangard," Presiding Justice Peterson said in part.
The justice added: "Evidence of Schmitt’s criminal intent was conflicting and far from overwhelming, and the harm from the trial court’s failure to instruct the jury on the defense of accident was compounded by the trial court’s express instruction that the jury must ‘disregard’ that accident was a key legal principle."
The Supreme Court of Georgia said that it was a mistake not to instruct the jury on the accident defense since "a rational juror could find from the evidence that this was an accident," leading to the conviction being reversed.
"Because the trial court also erred in declining the accident instruction as to the related counts of felony murder and aggravated assault, those verdicts also cannot stand and are reversed, the Court has further concluded," Georgia Supreme Court said in part.
Where does the case go now?
The court said that the evidence was “legally sufficient to sustain Schmitt’s conviction" and that the State may re-try him.
No information was given on when Schmitt would possibly be re-indicted or when a potential retrial could take place.
It's unclear if Schmitt will walk free in the meantime.
More on the case
Prosecutors previously said the 2019 incident started as an argument over a golf ball.
"The ball bounced into the road as Schmitt’s Mercedes drove by. Schmitt made a U-turn and accused Jahangard of throwing the ball at his car- the confrontation led to Schmitt steering toward and striking Jahangard with the car," a release from the Fulton DA stated.
According to the Fulton D.A., the collision broke Jahangard’s left leg and fractured his skull. He died due to his injuries in August 2019 at North Fulton Hospital.
"During the trial, Schmitt claimed that he simply misjudged the turn and his car’s turning radius. The State argued that he was lying to the police about the victim’s actions to deflect responsibility and mislead investigators about his intentions," the release stated. "Both sides presented expert testimony from accident reconstruction experts. Both experts agreed that once the Defendant began making a turn towards the victim, a collision with the victim was inevitable."