Search warrant, sisters' story don't jibe
Motorcyclist shot in Bogart
By Joe Johnson |
joe.johnson@onlineathens.com | Story updated at 12:04 AM on Wednesday, March 5, 2008
After their father shot and killed a motorcyclist last week, two Bogart sisters told a harrowing story of how the man slammed his bike into their car as he followed them home, leading their father to shoot in self-defense.
But if the road-rage chase played out the way they said, a sheriff's deputy missed the drama, even though he was parked along their path at the time.
A search warrant for their car seems to contradict the story the two sisters told investigators, that they called their father to say a motorcyclist intentionally rammed their car and was following them.
Richard "Ricky" Harold Gear was waiting at the end of his driveway on Gear Road in Bogart the night of Feb. 25, when his daughters arrived home, officials said, and he shot and killed motorcyclist Bryan Joseph "B.J." Mough as the biker drove past.
Mough died about an hour later at an Athens hospital, and deputies charged Gear with murder, though he claimed he shot in self-defense.
The sisters - Chelsea and Samantha Gear - told investigators the motorcycle cut off their car as both vehicles left the Target department store on Atlanta Highway in Athens, according to the affidavit obtained by the Banner-Herald under the Georgia Open Records Act.
The warrant, signed Thursday by an Oconee County Magistrate Court judge, was used to seize the Gear sisters' 1993 Nissan Sentra so investigators could look for signs of the collision the young women described.
"Chelsea Gear stated that she did not have any more contact with the motorcycle until it passed her on the left in front of the Pepsi plant at the intersection of Atlanta Highway and U.S. Highway 78," Oconee sheriff's investigator Kevin Nolley wrote in the affidavit.
The car "came up behind the motorcycle" at a traffic light at Burson Avenue in Bogart, where Chelsea Gear said she "flipped off" Mough as she turned right toward downtown Bogart, according to the affidavit.
MULTIMEDIA PDF: Read copies of the application for a search warrant as well as the actual warrant to seize the vehicle driven by Chelsea and Samantha Gear at the time of the crash:
View document (188k)
Mough, who was headed through the traffic light toward Winder, followed the car onto North Burson Avenue, according to Chelsea Gear, who added that she "gunned" her car onto Elder Street, and Mough cut through a yard at the intersection and rammed the driver's side of her car, the affidavit says.
Chelsea Gear told deputies the motorcyclist raced ahead, but soon after appeared behind the Sentra again as she drove home.
Berry would not say if investigators found evidence a motorcycle drove through the yard, or disclose whether the Gear sisters called their father before or after the collision.
"If it's not in the affidavit, I'm not going to address it," the sheriff said.
The affidavit does not address the shooting.
But the investigator wrote that he spoke with Deputy Ken Elrod, who was on patrol in Bogart at the time.
"Elrod was in his marked patrol car parked in front of the Bogart Christian Church at the intersection of Elder Street and Broad Street ... backed into a parking space facing the intersection," according to the affidavit. "Elrod states that neither a motorcycle nor a Nissan Sentra passed in front of him during the time described by Chelsea Gear."
Investigators have only the word of the Gear sisters to go on; they haven't found any witnesses who saw a chase or collision, officials said.
Members of the Georgia State Patrol's Specialized Collision Reconstruction Team examined the seized Sentra and have preliminary findings, but officials won't say what they are.
On Monday, Barry conceded that "it would be highly unusual" for someone to ram a four-wheel vehicle with a two-wheel vehicle.
Berry also is skeptical of Gear's self-defense claim.
"I don't know how you shoot someone in the back when you claim they were trying to run you over," the sheriff said.
Gear is represented by Athens attorney Edward Tolley, who has not returned telephone calls this week.
Published in the Athens Banner-Herald on 030508
