Murder Count Rejected in N.Y. ‘Vigilante’ Case : Goetz Indicted on Illegal Gun Charges

Finding that his action was justified, a Manhattan grand jury Friday refused to indict so-called vigilante Bernhard H. Goetz for attempted murder or on lesser assault charges for his shooting of four teen-agers who demanded $5 from him on a subway last month.

The grand jury did indict Goetz for illegal possession of a loaded weapon, the .38-caliber pistol he used to shoot the four, as well as for illegal possession of two other unlicensed guns in his apartment. The first charge is a felony and the other two are misdemeanors.

But the grand jury’s action on the more serious charges, in effect an exoneration of Goetz in the highly controversial and internationally publicized shooting, came as a surprise to prosecutors and defense lawyers, as well as to the thin, shy 37-year-old electronics expert himself. Goetz had confessed to police officers in a videotaped statement after he surrendered on Dec. 31, nine days after the shooting.

Robert M. Morgenthau, Manhattan district attorney, told a crowded press conference that the 23-member grand jury had viewed the videotape and heard evidence from more than a dozen witnesses. He said that the jurors had deliberated only an hour and 10 minutes before deciding that Goetz was justified because he believed he was being attacked by the youths.

“This grand jury believed he used reasonable force,” Morgenthau said. He added: “They heard all the facts, and they did not believe he committed a crime in the shootings.”

Goetz’s lawyer, Joseph Kelner, expressed delight at the news but cautioned that the case should not be seen as an endorsement of vigilantism. “It cannot be a blueprint for anyone to take the law into their own hands,” Kelner said at a separate news conference. “That would be a horrible, horrible consequence.”

Kelner called the case a “tribute to the grand jury system” and speculated that the grand jurors had “mixed their own common sense and feelings” in their deliberations.

Barry Slotnick, another of Goetz’s lawyers, said that he and other defense lawyers had been sitting in his office with Goetz when the district attorney’s office telephoned the news at about 3:45 p.m.

“We were very surprised,” Slotnick said. “We shook hands, and I guess we all realized the criminal justice system is working again.”

The lawyers said that Goetz would not make a statement, and they refused to discuss his whereabouts. He remains free on $50,000 bail.

Morgenthau said that the grand jury had specifically refused to indict Goetz on four counts of attempted murder in the second degree, four counts of assault in the first degree, criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree or reckless endangerment in the first degree.

Goetz was charged by the district attorney’s office with attempted murder after his surrender, but no case may be brought to trial in New York unless a grand jury indicts.

Barbara Thompson, a spokeswoman for Morgenthau’s office, said that the attempted murder charges will be dropped and that Goetz cannot be charged with murder even if one of the wounded youths dies. “This forecloses a murder charge,” she said. “The grand jury has acted.”

Morgenthau said that the grand jury voted after examining a statute in the New York penal code that allows deadly force to be used in cases in which a victim reasonably believes that he or she is threatened with robbery, rape or other crime involving deadly force. He said that he wants to see the statute changed but did not elaborate.

When asked how the public should interpret the grand jury’s action, Morgenthau said: “I hope what they read is that, in this specific case, the grand jury found there was justification. I hope they won’t read anything more into it. I also hope they notice he was indicted for a felony and faces up to seven years in prison.”

Morgenthau refused to say whether he is disappointed, saying only that he believes in the grand jury system.

Kelner said that Goetz would plead not guilty to the weapons charges at his arraignment on Feb. 6. If convicted, Goetz could face a maximum of seven years in prison on the felony charge and one year on each of the misdemeanor charges.

The misdemeanor charges stem from an unlicensed .38-caliber pistol and a 9-millimeter semi-automatic pistol found in Goetz’s cluttered Greenwich Village one-bedroom apartment after he surrendered, according to the indictment.

One of the four youths he shot, Darryl Cabey, 19, remains in critical condition in a coma and is paralyzed from the waist down, according to hospital officials. The other three shooting victims have been released from the hospital.

None of the four will be charged with any crime in the case, Morgenthau said. “There’s no charge pending against them because there’s no evidence against them,” he said.

However, the four have a total of nine convictions, plus 12 cases and 10 bench warrants for non-appearances in court outstanding against them, police said. The hospitalized Cabey is awaiting trial on charges of robbing three men with a shotgun.

None of the four testified before the grand jury because Morgenthau refused to grant immunity for charges stemming from other, unrelated cases. Goetz did not testify either because Morgenthau refused to allow Goetz’s lawyers access to his videotaped confession.

The shooting took place before about 20 persons on a speeding subway express train in Lower Manhattan on the Saturday before Christmas. According to police reports, the four youths were loud and abusive in the car before they approached Goetz. Police said that one of the group asked Goetz for the time, then a cigarette and then $5.

Goetz replied, “I have $5 for each of you,” and fired five shots from his pistol.