SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) – Police heard conflicting stories of the moments that led up to a biracial man opening fire at a pickup truck on a Georgia highway, killing a white teenage girl in the back seat, a detective testified in court Tuesday.
Marc Wilson, 21, of Sharpsburg, has been jailed since mid-June on charges of felony murder and aggravated assault in the death of 17-year-old Haley Hutcheson. Wilson’s attorneys say he fired a handgun from behind the wheel of his car in self-defense after teenagers in the truck yelled racist slurs and tried to run Wilson and his white girlfriend off the road.
Superior Court Judge Michael Muldrew found Tuesday that prosecutors had sufficient evidence to seek an indictment from a grand jury. He also denied Wilson’s request for bond. The rulings came after a detective laid out conflicting statements regarding the June 14 shooting on a bypass near Statesboro in southeast Georgia.
Statesboro police detective Travis Kreun said Wilson consented to a phone interview with police days after the shooting. He told them white teenagers were leaning from the truck’s passenger-side windows and yelling slurs. He also said the truck’s driver had been swerving back and forth in front of Wilson’s car, which was struck by an object thrown from the truck.
“He said, `All I can tell you is me and my girlfriend were really scared that night,'” Kreun testified. He said Wilson added: “With everything going on in this country, I’m not going to let me and my girl get run off the road.”