Trials set for deputies charged in 6-year-old's fatal shooting
MARKSVILLE, La. -- A Louisiana judge on Tuesday scheduled separate trials for two deputy city marshals charged with murder in the fatal shooting of a 6-year-old boy who was strapped into the front seat of his father's car.
A spokesman for the state attorney general's office said Derrick Stafford's trial is tentatively set to begin Sept. 26. Trial for the other deputy, Norris Greenhouse Jr., is scheduled to start Nov. 28.
Stafford and Greenhouse pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges of second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder. State District Court Judge William Bennett set the trial dates during their arraignments.
Stafford and Greenhouse were arrested less than a week after the Nov. 3 shooting that killed Jeremy Mardis and critically wounded his father, Chris Few.
State Police said the deputies opened fire on Few's car following a pursuit that a third deputy and a Marksville police sergeant also joined. A police report said video from the sergeant's body camera showed Few's empty hands were raised and visible inside the vehicle when gunfire erupted.
Col. Mike Edmonson, head of the Louisiana State Police, has seen the video of the shooting. He told CBS News' David Begnaud in November how key the footage was to making the arrests.
"That video was incredible," Edmonson said. "I mean, as a father, much less head of the state police, I looked at that tape, I said this is incredibly disturbing."
Mardis had five gunshot wounds and his father had two, according to police.
A source told CBS News in November that Stafford and Greenhouse fired a total of 18 shots at both father and son.
Stafford, a Marksville police lieutenant, and Greenhouse, a former Marksville police officer, were moonlighting as deputy marshals on the night of the shooting.
Greenhouse's attorney, George Higgins III, said he believes that a fair and impartial jury can be picked in Marksville and has no plans to request for the trial to be moved elsewhere.
"I think the case should be tried in Marksville. It's a Marksville case," he said.
Greenhouse, 24, of Marksville, has been freed from jail on $1 million bond. Stafford, 32, of Mansura, has remained jailed on $1 million bond since his arrest.