A Chickamauga, Georgia, man shot by police last year will not go before a jury again in his criminal case.
A jury convicted Thomas Zane Campbell, 32, of three counts of possession of a firearm by a felon in Catoosa County Superior Court in March 2017 after he skipped the last day of his trial. He left the court’s parking lot that day to check in at the Cornerstone Medical Center emergency room, complaining to his father that his chest felt tight.
After the jury convicted Campbell, a judge sentenced him to 13 years in prison. But meanwhile, police and his parents didn’t know where he was for two weeks, until officers received a report that he was at a friend’s house in Trion. When they found him on the porch, Campbell slid a gun under his chin and pointed upward. An officer then shot Campbell’s arms and legs, and paramedics airlifted him to a hospital.
A Chattooga County grand jury later concluded the officers acted appropriately.
A year later, Campbell is at Coastal State Prison in Garden City, Georgia. His attorney, Charles Wright, filed a motion for a new trial in Catoosa County, arguing that Campbell suffered a mental breakdown the day he skipped his trial. Wright said that prejudiced him in the eyes of the jury, making it more difficult to win his case.