Goetz Free of All Counts of Attempted Murder

Bernhard H. Goetz, the shy gunman who became a national symbol of urban violence after shooting four black teen-agers in a Manhattan subway 2 1/2 years ago, was acquitted Tuesday of all attempted murder charges and convicted only of illegally possessing a weapon.

Goetz stood, his thin shoulders hunched forward and eyes cast downward, but showed no emotion as the jury foreman intoned, “Not Guilty” to 12 other charges, including four counts each of attempted murder and assault.

The jury of eight men and four women, which included six crime victims, returned its verdict at 4:12 p.m. on the fourth day of deliberations. The trial in state Supreme Court lasted seven weeks and drew international attention.

Several hundred reporters, TV crews and spectators waited more than 90 minutes for Goetz to appear outside after the verdict. But a phalanx of burly bailiffs suddenly pushed Goetz through the crush to a waiting gray limousine. One woman was knocked screaming to the ground, and after the brief melee, a police badge, keys, a pocketbook and women’s shoes littered the street.

Goetz’s conviction on a single felony count of illegal weapons possession in the third degree carries a minimum penalty of probation and a maximum prison term of seven years and a $5,000 fine. Acting Justice Stephen G. Crane scheduled sentencing for Sept. 4.

Goetz’s lawyer, Barry I. Slotnick, said Goetz was acquitted “on the lack of evidence.”

“All (Goetz) wants to do right now is fade into the woodwork,” Slotnick said. “This has been a terrible chapter in his life. I think the true message is that people have a right to protect and defend themselves under justifiable situations.”

When asked Goetz’s reaction, Slotnick said: “He breathed a sigh of relief and quietly said, ‘Thank you.’ ” He said Goetz wanted to “go back to being an anonymous stranger in New York.”

The prosecutor, Gregory L. Waples, left the courthouse appearing grim-faced and exhausted. “My feelings about the case are my own, and I choose not to share them with you or anyone else,” he said later.

Manhattan Dist. Atty. Robert Morgenthau said he would not have handled the case differently. “This case involved complex and tragic circumstances, but our system of justice is based upon the belief that no man can escape answering for his actions,” he said at a press conference.

The verdict is unlikely to end the passions that have polarized the public since Dec. 22, 1984, when Goetz, a self-employed electronics engineer, shot four 19-year-old youths with an unlicensed pistol on a southbound IRT subway express train after one of the four accosted him asking for $5.

Goetz, thin, tall and enigmatic, contended that he shot in self-defense because he believed the youths planned to “beat me to a pulp.” But the prosecutor charged that Goetz acted as “an avenging angel” because he had been mugged twice before. He said the youths were panhandling, not trying to rob Goetz.

The shootings sparked widespread debate on the question of using deadly force in self-defense. Supporters praised Goetz as a victim who had heroically fought back against thugs who terrorize the subways. But critics called Goetz a trigger-happy vigilante who had shot without justification. Race was an underlying issue: Goetz is white, the four youths are black.

Chase Limousine

Supporters and critics began angry arguments outside the courthouse immediately after the verdict. Anti-Goetz demonstrators chased his limousine as it pulled away to take him to his Manhattan apartment, pounding on the roof and shouting, “Goetz is an oppressor, murder no more.” But another man carried a sign, “Criminals, Think Twice or We Will Goetz You.”

Goetz was acquitted of four counts of second-degree attempted murder, four counts of first-degree assault, three counts of illegal weapons possession and one count of first-degree reckless endangerment. The jury also acquitted him of all lesser included charges.

He was convicted of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree. The charge refers to the unlicensed .38-caliber Smith & Wesson pistol he used on the subway.

“This has been one of the most difficult cases of our time, and its emotions will last beyond this verdict,” Crane told the jurors, his own voice cracking with emotion. “There will be factions. There will be criticism. And there also will be support.”

Crane appeared stunned by the verdict, and asked the clerk to poll the jury. But he also told the jury: “ . . . You are the finest jury I have ever had the pleasure of having before me.”

When asked about the verdict, New York Gov. Mario M. Cuomo said only: “The law is the law.”

In Nashville, New York City Mayor Edward I. Koch said he accepted the verdict. “There may be some who misperceive the case and will think somehow or other vigilantism is acceptable, and we’re saying now to those who are concerned, we will never permit that,” he said. “And we’re saying to those who might seek to engage in it that we’ll come down on you as hard as we possibly can.”

Damaging Evidence

Although Goetz did not testify during the trial, his own statements were the most damaging evidence against him. Jurors heard a two-hour audio-taped confession, and then viewed a two-hour videotaped confession that Goetz gave after he surrendered to police in Concord, N.H., nine days after the shootings. The rambling confessions were filled with rage, fear and frustration.

“My intention was to murder them, to hurt them, to make them suffer as much as possible,” Goetz said.

Goetz said he would have shot them “again and again and again” if he had had more ammunition. “I, in my heart, was a murderer,” Goetz said.

Most troubling for the defense, Goetz said he walked over to one of the four, Darrell Cabey, who was on a subway seat, and shot him a second time after seeing him apparently unharmed.

“You seem to be all right, here’s another,” Goetz recalled saying. The shooting severed Cabey’s spine and he remains brain-damaged and paralyzed below the waist.

A gasp went up in the hushed courtroom when jury foreman James Hurley, 29, a financial analyst, announced that Goetz was not guilty of attempted murder or assault of Cabey. One of Goetz’s lawyers, Mark Baker, began to cry. Goetz blinked, but said nothing.

Jurors viewed more than 150 exhibits and heard testimony from 36 prosecution witnesses and 10 defense witnesses during the trial. Defense lawyers took the judge and jurors down to ride a graffiti-smeared subway car, and re-enacted parts of the shooting in the courtroom.

Two of the youths testified for the prosecution under grants of immunity. Troy Canty, on the stand for three days, said that he alone approached Goetz and said: “Mister, give me $5.” Canty said he and his friends were planning to break into video games but did not intend to rob Goetz.

James Ramseur, another shooting victim, testified that he was sitting down when Goetz opened fire. But Judge Crane cited Ramseur for contempt after he angrily argued with Slotnick during cross-examination and cursed the judge and defense lawyer. Ramseur, who is in prison for raping a pregnant woman, appeared to frighten the jury.

Refuses to Testify

The fourth youth, Barry Allen, claimed his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself and refused to testify. Canty, Ramseur and Allen recovered from their wounds and were convicted of unrelated crimes after the shooting.

Although none of the witnesses saw the four youths standing around Goetz, as the defense contended, prosecution witnesses offered conflicting testimony about the shooting and differing interpretations of the medical evidence.

In the trial, Waples argued that Goetz was a “walking powder keg” and a “tormented man” guilty of “vicious, useless, sadistic violence.” Goetz shot Allen and Ramseur as they tried to run away, Waples said, and shot Cabey in an “attempted execution.”

Jurors asked to hear the testimony of a key prosecution witness, Christopher Boucher, earlier Tuesday. Boucher, a San Francisco artist, said he saw Cabey seated, clutching the seat in apparent terror, as Goetz stood over him and fired.

In his closing argument, Waples said Goetz was “the classic example of an unreasonable man.” The four youths were not on trial, he said. “The worst man has the same right to live as the best,” Waples said.

But Slotnick, arguing a reversal of roles, pleaded for sympathy for Goetz as the innocent “victim” forced to defend himself against muggers. Slotnick said the four youths were “seasoned robbers” and “the true criminals.”

Slotnick also insisted that Goetz had “fantasized” walking over and shooting Cabey separately from the others. He called his client’s confession “the most unreliable source in the world” and argued that witnesses had heard the shots in “rapid succession,” not with a pause.

A former New York City medical examiner testified for the defense that the wounds indicated that none of the four was seated or running from Goetz when they were shot.

Under the judge’s instructions, the jury had to decide whether Goetz was “reasonable” in believing he was about to be robbed or mugged. They were told to decide whether a “hypothetical reasonable person” would have perceived the same danger and found it necessary to use deadly force in self-defense.

The case has a complex legal history. A Manhattan grand jury initially refused to indict Goetz for the shootings. A second grand jury returned the indictments three months later. After three lengthy appeals, New York’s highest court refined the legal standard of self-defense. The trial began April 27 after four months of jury selection.

After their verdict was announced, the jurors were loaded onto white buses in a garage under the courthouse and driven to their homes. They had been sequestered since last Wednesday.

Juror Mark Moseley, a technical sales representative in his 20s, shrugged when asked outside his house what evidence had swayed him. “It’s hard to say,” he told reporters.

When asked whether the jury had believed the fifth shot was fired point-blank, Moseley said: “You can’t prove it.”

Juror Michael Axelrod, a telephone technician, said: “There was not one verdict, there were 13. Each charge was decided individually. We dealt with the law, and the law was all we had to go on.” He said none of the jurors thought Goetz was guilty.

“We agreed the prosecution did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Goetz was not justified,” Axelrod said.

Juror Carolyn Perlmuth, 31, a financial journalist, said: “The prosecution failed to prove its case within a reasonable doubt. Our verdict was not condoning anything one way or the other.”

Axelrod said the panel could not rule that Goetz intended to kill.

“As we understood the law, there had to be intent to murder at that point,” Axelrod said on Cable News Network’s “Larry King Live.”

“It was Mr. Goetz’s intention to stop the threat at that point, not necessarily to murder these people. He didn’t get on the train looking for murder. He didn’t leave his apartment looking for murder. The second he pulled the trigger he wasn’t looking for murder. He was looking to stop the threat that he felt, we felt reasonably, was going to take upon him--either robbery or assault.”

Axelrod said the New Yorkers on the jury were familiar with how frightened and alone a rider can feel on the city subways.

“You know what the confines are in those subway cars when the doors close, and when the train stops moving what you can do and what you can’t do,” Axelrod said. “And we felt Mr. Goetz had no chance to retreat in that situation.

“He couldn’t depend, sorry or not, on anybody else on that train helping him. We’d all like to think we have good neighbors and they would help out, but it just wasn’t there for him at that point and the law allowed him to do what he did,” he said.

Axelrod said racism did not enter the jurors’ minds.

“Crime doesn’t really know a color and to feel that way, to bring a racial motive into it was totally out of the question. We didn’t even consider that for one minute in the jury room.”

Goetz’s legal problems may not be over. He still faces a $50-million lawsuit filed by attorney William Kunstler on behalf of Cabey. Goetz is also named in multimillion-dollar lawsuits filed by two other victims, Ramseur and Canty.

David Lerner, a spokesman for Kunstler, said the verdict was “a tragic decision. We are going ahead with the lawsuit.”