Jason Carter's lawyers said he had no reason to kill his mother, arguing he gained no money from her death. As the executor of his parents' wills, he stood to receive their land, which amounted to more than $4 million, and $800,000 in savings after their deaths, he said.Įarlier in the trial, Bull suggested Carter also may have wanted to kill his father. Prosecutors must prove a criminal charge beyond a reasonable doubt, a bar much higher than the one used to find someone liable during a civil trial.īull painted Jason Carter as a struggling farmer who was pressured to succeed and killed his mother for financial gain. Bill Carter, 73, said it was his family's only way to seek justice. The lawsuit was brought by Jason Carter's father. In December 2017, her youngest son, Jason, was criminally charged days after a civil jury found him responsible for her death and ordered him to pay $10 million to her estate. Shirley Carter, 68, died on June 19, 2015, from two gunshot wounds fired by a rifle. He had a message for investigators, according to the Daily Iowegian in Centerville: "Bring the people who did this to justice."
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If he had been convicted of first-degree murder, Jason Carter would have been sentenced to life in prison instead, he walked out of the courthouse a free man. But he said when he charges someone with murder, he is "firmly convinced that's the person who committed the offense." View Gallery: Bill Carter testifies at son Jason's murder trialĪsked if his office would investigate other suspects, Bull told reporters that was up to law enforcement. Bill Carter still every day wakes up, and his wife isn’t there next to him."
"There’s no winners in this case," Bull said. He hoped Jason Carter's father, Bill Carter, who won a wrongful death lawsuit against his son, understood he tried to "bring justice for Shirley." Marion County Attorney Ed Bull said he presented the best case he could with the evidence he had, according to video from reporters there.
As Carter, 46, hugged his friends and attorneys, beaming at times, one of his supporters said, "I can sleep now." Throughout the proceedings, Carter’s defense team accused investigators of failing to chase down all leads in the killing of Shirley Carter, describing the state's evidence as thin as they pointed to other suspects. The acquittal Thursday on the first-degree murder charge brought an emotional end to the closely watched trial. His wife, Shelly, said: "To finally have some justice is all that matters." "We've had to endure so much," a tearful Carter later told reporters, saying he just wanted to go home and see his children.
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