Swann guilty in child abuse revenge killing

Shooter hit unintended victim in ’07

Friday, June 13, 2008

A Reisterstown man was found guilty of second-degree murder after he told a Charles County court Wednesday he was trying to kill a man who he said sexually abused his sister, but shot the wrong person.

The jury in the case returned the guilty verdict late Thursday afternoon.

James Francis Swann, 33, testified his shots missed the man he accused of abuse, instead killing a 71-year-old man he had never met. Joseph Gifford Hickman died on Oct. 3 after a single bullet entered the left side of his back, tearing his heart and major arteries before exiting his chest, a medical examiner said during the trial.

Swann had been charged with first-degree murder, but the jury found him guilty of the lesser charge.

Swann said he had been drinking beer the entire day of Oct. 3, and his wife, Robrita Swann, said he was still intoxicated when he talked to her hours after the shooting.

According to Swann, heavy alcohol consumption wasn’t unusual for him at the time. ‘‘I was drinking a very lot,” Swann said in court. ‘‘I wasn’t feeling good. My mind wasn’t where it should have been.”

Robrita Swann told the court her husband had grown increasingly depressed after he reconnected with his 32-year-old sister over the summer of 2007. During that time, the two opened up to one another about the physical abuse they had suffered as children at the hands of their stepfather. In a two-hour phone conversation, Swann’s sister also confided that another family member had sexually abused her. ‘‘She would still cry on the phone,” Swann said.

A few months before the shooting, Swann testified he bought a gun off the streets of Baltimore. His wife said she didn’t find out about the handgun for a few months and that she made him lock it in a safe until he found a way to get rid of it.

‘‘I made him put it away because he was getting really depressed,” she said. ‘‘He was getting worse and worse with every day and week to the point I got him over-the-counter medication until I could find someone he could talk to.”

Swann said on Oct. 3, he had made an appointment to turn the gun and bullets over to his sister, who offered to dispose of them. He never delivered them to her.

That morning, Swann and his niece drove to Brandywine to check out a Ford Mustang she was thinking of buying, according to court testimony. He dropped off his niece and picked up William Nathaniel Coates, 29, of Bryantown.

Swann and Coates visited several different homes in the Waldorf area, with Swann drinking throughout the day.

As it was starting to get dark, Swann and Coates made a last visit to a friend’s house on Ryon Court in Waldorf, he testified. Swann said he didn’t stay long, but instead of driving away, he took his handgun out of the trunk of the car where he said Coates was waiting. He said he then walked alone along the tree line toward the home of the man his sister told him had molested her.

Swann testified he saw only the man in front of the house, but he heard someone else sit down. That second person must have been Hickman, Swann said. He told the court he remembers holding the gun in his left hand, pointing it at the house and firing, but said he doesn’t know why he did it.

‘‘I don’t know if I stopped firing or the gun stopped firing,” Swann said.

Most of Swann’s shots landed in the house, but one of them killed Hickman. Swann said later that evening, he discovered he had killed a man he’d never even met.

‘‘It still weighs on me,” he said.

In his testimony, Swann said he ran back to his friend’s house, stowed the gun under his friend’s trailer and went inside to wash the gunpowder residue off his hands.

Police officers, who were called to the area for a report of shots fired, pulled over Swann and Coates at 7:53 p.m. as the men were driving away.

They detained and questioned the two, and then let them go, keeping the car. Swann was arrested two days later after coming to the Charles County Sheriff’s Office to pick up his car.

He hadn’t eaten or slept since shooting Hickman, he said.

According to his court testimony, Swann didn’t mean to hurt anyone the night of Oct. 3. But when Charles County Deputy State’s Attorney Jerome R. Spencer referenced Swann’s statement to detectives that he did intend to harm the accused molester, Swann said, ‘‘I guess I did intend to hit someone.”

He said he didn’t remember having this thought, though.

Coates also has been charged for Hickman’s killing and will stand trial Aug. 18.