A jury Friday night found former Wilmington Police officer James MacColl guilty of a felony for lying about the gun he used to shoot a teenager fleeing from a stolen car in 2019.
MacColl was also found guilty of misdemeanor official misconduct and acquitted of a separate felony tied to tampering with his department-issued handgun.
Years ago, prosecutors declined to seek criminal charges for MacColl shooting Yahim Harris, who was 18 when he was shot twice fleeing a stolen car in Feb. 2019.
Harris spent months in jail awaiting trial on carjacking charges before prosecutors dropped the case. They dropped the charges after learning about discrepancies involving the gun MacColl used to shoot him, as well as the officer’s statements about the weapon.
In court, prosecutors claimed that MacColl changed the barrel of his police-issued handgun shortly after the shooting and lied to his superiors about that in multiple interviews after − lies prosecutors said ultimately derailed their prosecution of Harris for carjacking.
“Credibility matters,” Deputy Attorney General Mark Denney told the jury Friday, emphasizing the significance of MacColl’s statements to investigators.
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In his final address to the jury Friday, Eugene Maurer, MacColl’s defense attorney, pointed out what he called the “irony” of the case: that Harris, who prosecutors still believe stole a car, ultimately was not prosecuted, while MacColl, a longtime officer, was accused of two felonies.
“Where is the justice in that?” Maurer asked.
The evidence facing the former Wilmington police officer
Prosecutors’ primary evidence against MacColl was microscopic comparisons of the gun he submitted to his departmental supervisors hours after the shooting and the shell casings and bullets recovered from the scene.
Forensic experts determined that the shell casings were fired by the gun MacColl turned in, but the bullets could not have traveled through the barrel of that weapon. In an interview with department supervisors the month of the shooting, MacColl denied tampering with the weapon, according to court evidence.
In a separate interview with internal investigators a year later, he admitted to installing an aftermarket barrel on the weapon long before the shooting but denied changing the barrel between when he shot Harris and when he turned the gun in, according to audio of the interview played for the jury.
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An officer assigned to be with MacColl after the shooting testified that between returning from the scene of the shooting and turning in the weapon to superiors, MacColl was unaccompanied for about 15 minutes when he told that officer he was going to the restroom near the police station’s locker room.
How attorneys argued the case
Denney said this was an opportunity for MacColl to change the barrel, which would explain the discrepancy uncovered by ballistics experts. Maurer argued that nobody actually saw MacColl swap the barrel and pointed to inconsistencies and errors in the subsequent police investigation into the shooting.
He also argued prosecutors failed to demonstrate that MacColl’s inability to explain the forensic discrepancies between his gun and the bullets that hit Harris had nothing to do with prosecutors dropping the carjacking case against Harris, something prosecutors had to convince the jury of for them to find MacColl guilty of a felony.
“With or without Mr. MacColl, (Harris) was going to be convicted,” Maurer told the jury.
Denney argued to the jury that MacColl’s credibility would have been key to convicting Harris of carjacking and his alleged lies about the gun hurt the case.
How the verdict landed
Maurer said he was disappointed with the jury’s verdict Friday night.
In a written statement, Attorney General Kathy Jennings thanked the jury.
“Police who break the law are not only committing a crime — they are sullying the public trust at the expense of the people they serve and of all those who choose public service,” Jennings said.
MacColl is scheduled to be sentenced later this month. He declined to comment as he departed the courtroom. Harris settled a lawsuit against Wilmington Police over the shooting last year.
Contact Xerxes Wilson at (302) 324-2787 or xwilson@delawareonline.com. Follow @Ber_Xerxes on Twitter.
