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- Sep 15, 2010
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SC man who shot and ’slow-cooked’ two men out on bail thanks to ‘stand your ground’ law
Dead men have no defense....
FTA: James Edward Loftis, 39, is facing murder charges in the deaths of taxi driver Guma Oz Dubar, 46, and his friend James Cody Newland, 32, on March 5 after they demanded he pay his fare following a ride home from a strip club.
While Loftis has given police varying accounts of what happened that evening — once saying he invited the men in, while another time saying they barged into his home — several facts are not in dispute.
Loftis admitted that he shot both men before dragging their bodies outside his house, where he placed them in a shallow grave and set them on fire along with his bloody clothes before burying them.
“They were essentially just slow-cooked inside the grave site,” Deputy Solicitor Bryan Alfaro said during the bail hearing.
Conceding that what Loftis did was “heinous,” his attorney defended his client saying he was within his rights to defend himself in his own home under the state’s “stand your ground” laws.
“He’s a human being,” Stephen Harris said. “He freaked out and thought he was going to prison, so he tried to hide the bodies. Nobody knows how you’re going to react when you kill two people.”
Circuit Judge Markley Dennis agreed to allow Loftis to post $250,000 bail, saying his choice of the defense makes him less of a flight risk.
Dead men have no defense....
FTA: James Edward Loftis, 39, is facing murder charges in the deaths of taxi driver Guma Oz Dubar, 46, and his friend James Cody Newland, 32, on March 5 after they demanded he pay his fare following a ride home from a strip club.
While Loftis has given police varying accounts of what happened that evening — once saying he invited the men in, while another time saying they barged into his home — several facts are not in dispute.
Loftis admitted that he shot both men before dragging their bodies outside his house, where he placed them in a shallow grave and set them on fire along with his bloody clothes before burying them.
“They were essentially just slow-cooked inside the grave site,” Deputy Solicitor Bryan Alfaro said during the bail hearing.
Conceding that what Loftis did was “heinous,” his attorney defended his client saying he was within his rights to defend himself in his own home under the state’s “stand your ground” laws.
“He’s a human being,” Stephen Harris said. “He freaked out and thought he was going to prison, so he tried to hide the bodies. Nobody knows how you’re going to react when you kill two people.”
Circuit Judge Markley Dennis agreed to allow Loftis to post $250,000 bail, saying his choice of the defense makes him less of a flight risk.
