Published: November 05, 2009 10:38 pm      

Judge: OK to televise pharmacist’s murder trial

OKLAHOMA CITY — A judge ruled Thursday that television cameras will be allowed inside the courtroom for the highly publicized trial of a pharmacist charged with gunning down a 16-year-old during an attempted robbery.

Oklahoma County District Judge Tammy Bass-LeSure granted a motion filed on behalf of several media outlets to televise the first-degree murder trial of 58-year-old Jerome Ersland.

Ersland and his attorney, Irven Box, told the judge they had no objection to the trial being televised.

“I would be honored to have them here,” Ersland said.

District Attorney David Prater also endorsed the move but said he did not want jury selection to be televised. Bass-LeSure agreed.

Neither Prater nor Box, who has a nearly 40-year career in the legal field, could remember the last time a trial was televised in Oklahoma County.

Oklahoma law prohibits cameras or recording equipment inside courtrooms, unless authorized by the individual judge.

Bass-LeSure stressed that the case will not be about the legal or political careers of her or the attorneys in the case.

“This trial will be about fair and equal justice under the law,” she said.

Attorney Michael Minnis, who represents a newspaper publisher and several television stations, said he was pleased with the judge’s ruling.

“This particular case has aroused the interest and passions of the community like no other,” Minnis said. “It’s important in our country that we have open justice. That’s the biggest protection we have against injustice.”

In a case that has stirred debate over vigilante justice and self-defense, Ersland is accused of gunning down 16-year-old Antwun Parker at the Reliable Discount Pharmacy where he worked in south Oklahoma City.

A surveillance video shows two would-be robbers enter the store and one of them point a gun toward Ersland and two women working inside. The video shows Ersland draw a weapon and fire at Parker, who was unarmed, striking him once in the head.

Ersland then chased the other would-be robber outside. The video shows Ersland return about 30 seconds later, retrieve a second gun and fire five shots at Parker, who was lying on the floor.

Defense attorneys maintain that Ersland feared for his life and the safety of his co-workers, but prosecutors say he went too far when he shot the teen while he was on the floor, unconscious, with his hands extended to his sides.

After a preliminary hearing Wednesday, a judge ruled there was sufficient evidence for Ersland to stand trial for first-degree murder.

Parker’s alleged accomplice, 15-year-old Jevontai Ingram, has been charged with first-degree murder, along with two ex-convicts who prosecutors contend planned the robbery and persuaded the teens to carry it out.