Man acquitted of trying to kill Whitley Sheriff’s deputy

It took jurors about 30 minutes Monday afternoon to convict a Cookville man on charges of fleeing or evading police, and to acquit him of a more serious charge of trying to kill a police officer.
A seven-woman, five-man jury needed only another five minutes to sentence Joseph Rains, 27, to five years in prison for first-degree fleeing or evading police, and to 12 months in jail and a $500 fine for second-degree fleeing or evading police.
The jury found Rains not guilty of a charge that he tried to kill Sheriff’s Deputy Jerry Noe.
The first-degree fleeing or evading charge deals with Rains flight from police in a vehicle, while the second-degree charge deals with running away from authorities on foot.
Only two witnesses were called during the one-day trial, the investigating officer and the defendant creating a situation defense attorney Traci Boyd described as a “he said, he said situation.”
Boyd said she thinks the lack of other evidence besides the officer’s testimony is probably what swayed the jury’s verdict in her client’s favor on the attempted murder charge.
“Usually there is some type of forensics evidence or at least more witnesses during the course of the investigation, something to corroborate what your head, lead main witness is saying. In this case there wasn’t that, and I think that is what did it,” Boyd said.
The only witness for the prosecution was Noe, who was the officer that pulled Rains over on Dec. 23, 2002, about 4 p.m. shortly before he was supposed to get off work.
Noe, who works primarily as a courtroom bailiff, said he was on his way to get a few vehicle inspections done before going home when he spotted a pick-up truck in front of him with expired tags.
Noe said he hadn’t planned to pull the vehicle over, but the driver gunned it when he pulled out, so he got into pursuit behind the vehicle, which at one point did a U-turn in the gravel parking lot of a store before suddenly stopping.
“He jumped out of his vehicle going ‘I’m cool man. I’m cool man,'” Noe testified Monday morning. “I said get yourself on the ground! Get yourself on the ground now!”
At that point Rains dived back in the vehicle, and came out with what looked like a tackle box and what Noe now believes to have been a small caliber revolver, he testified.
Noe testified that Rains fired three shots, and that he in turn got off one shot at the suspect before he disappeared into the woods. No one was hit.
“I just thank God I wasn’t killed that day, and that I didn’t kill him,” Noe said.
Noe said he didn’t know who Rains was until he ran the vehicle’s license plate, and learned the truck belonged to Rains, who was arrested about six days later.
Noe said he identified Rains when he appeared for an arraignment in district court.
“I’ll never forget that face. I still have dreams about it,” Noe said.
Under cross-examination, Noe testified that he later searched the scene, and didn’t find any shell casings, nor did he recover any slugs from the shots Rains fired at him. Noe was the only officer to investigate the case.
Rains admitted during his testimony that he ran from Noe after he was pulled over primarily because he didn’t want to be in jail during Christmas.
At the time he was pulled over, Rains admitted that he didn’t have a valid driver’s license, that the truck wasn’t registered, and that he had drugs on him in the tackle box.
Rains claimed that he pulled over at the first available place, and that he didn’t have a gun that day, nor did he shoot at Noe.
“All I wanted was to get away from him,” Rains testified. “I said to myself, ‘If I’m going to go, I’d better go now.”
At the time, Rains had recently been released from jail, and said he didn’t want to go back.
Rains testified under cross-examination that he is currently a convicted felon, but that he hadn’t been convicted of a felony at the time of the incident.
“On a case like this it is always difficult having the burden against which we stand,” said assistant commonwealth’s attorney Robert Stephens. “The jury isn’t always going to agree with us, but we respect their verdict. However, we certainly believe that the defendant is a very dangerous person, and we stand by our officer.”
Stephens said he thinks Noe’s testimony that he couldn’t tell for certain if the rounds were fired directly at him might have had an impact on the verdict.
“The jury may have believed that they simply didn’t have sufficient evidence to establish that it was intentional to commit murder, because that was the charge. They may have just felt they didn’t have the evidence to prove intent to commit murder that would be my guess as to their ruling,” Stephens said.
Boyd said she wasn’t really surprised by the verdict.
“We knew all along that he wasn’t guilty of attempted murder, and we did expect an acquittal on that charge,” She said. “I was really hoping that the jury wouldn’t find him guilty on fleeing or evading first degree because we really thought he pulled over as soon as Jerry Noe signaled his lights.
“However, we respect the verdict of the jury, and Joey respects that. He is of course relieved that they didn’t find him guilty on the attempted murder charge.”
Special Judge Jeffrey Burdette presided over the trial. Judges Jerry Winchester and Paul Braden had recused themselves from hearing the case because Noe works as a bailiff in their courtrooms.
Burdette scheduled formal sentencing for March 21 at 9 a.m.
Rains is already serving an eight-year prison sentence for manufacturing methamphetamine, a family member said, and has already spent about two years behind bars.