NEW ORLEANS — A New Orleans jury has convicted a Baton Rouge man accused of drunkenly beating a man in Central City who later died from his injuries in 2018.
The Times-Picayune | New Orleans Advocate reports that Garrett Ward, who was originally charged with second-degree murder of 60-year-old Arnold Jackson, was found guilty on a manslaughter charge on Tuesday.
Witnesses said that Ward repeatedly punched and kicked Jackson several times before running away. Prosecutors argued that the flurry of violent strikes was evidence that Ward meant to seriously hurt Jackson.
The newspaper reports that the attack left Jackson with a broken jaw, an enlarged tongue and his eyes were swollen shut. He could barely speak as he was rushed to the hospital for treatment for pooling blood under his skull. Jackson died about two weeks after the attack.
New Orleans police say Ward was reportedly highly intoxicated when he was arrested after the attack. He was originally booked into the Orleans Parish Justice Center for second-degree battery and released, but he was later re-arrested on a murder charge after Jackson's death.
“Garrett Ward has blood on his hands,” prosecutor Andre Gaudin Jr. said on Tuesday. “He has blood on his hands literally and figuratively. It’s Arnold Jackson’s blood.”
Gaudin asked the jury to consider if Ward committed murder or manslaughter.
According to the report, Ward's attorneys argued that Ward reacted instinctively after falling asleep outside a hotel after drinking and finding a hooded figure reaching into his coat pocket.
"Though the jury rejected our self-defense claim, they clearly rejected the state's second-degree murder claim and ensured that Mr. Ward avoided a life sentence," defense attorney John Fuller told the newspaper after the trial. "And we're thankful for that."
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