Judge dismisses case against officers charged in man’s 2016 death in Fulton

A Fulton County grand jury indicted the two in October 2021 on charges of felony murder, aggravated assault, burglary, false statement and oath violation. In 2022, their case was moved to federal court.

“The Court recognizes that the circumstances that led to Mr. Robinson’s death are deeply upsetting to those who loved him and to many people in our community,” Calvert wrote. “However, the Court must decide cases by applying the law to the facts in evidence. After careful consideration, the Court finds that the State of Georgia has failed to meet its burden of coming forward with evidence to show that Defendants Heinze and Hutchens are not entitled to Supremacy Clause immunity.”

Credit: Miguel Martinez for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Credit: Miguel Martinez for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Lance LoRusso, Heinze’s attorney, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution via phone Friday that he believed the judge made the right decision. He called the written opinion “well thought out and very well researched.”

LoRusso added that the case has sat heavily in the minds of both Heinze and Hutchens.

“It’s always a lot on the officers. They take these jobs because they care about the community, so it takes a tremendous toll on them,” LoRusso said.

Prosecutors previously contended the task force members used excessive force, pointing to a neighbor’s cellphone video in which three shots could be heard after witnesses said Robinson lost consciousness and no longer posed a threat.

A U.S. Marshals shooting review board determined the officers’ use of force was authorized, and the Department of Justice declined to open an investigation into the shooting, John Martin, a Justice Department attorney from the civil division, previously told the AJC.

The Fulton District Attorney’s Office and Hutchens’ attorney did not respond to a request for comment.

Calvert’s 35-page opinion and order from July 30 also included a summary of the case and evidence.

When the shooting happened a decade ago, the task force Heinze and Hutchens worked for had three active arrest warrants for Robinson, according to legal documents. One, from Gwinnett County, accused him of attempted arson at his mother’s home, and two from Fulton stemmed from an incident in which he allegedly pointed a gun at two Atlanta police officers.

Officials identified the East Point apartment, which was tied to Robinson’s former girlfriend, as the man’s likely location through several sources and phone information from his mother, the judge’s opinion states. A “maintenance man” from the apartment also confirmed with authorities that Robinson was at the apartment, the judge wrote.

When officials came to arrest him, court documents say they knocked and announced themselves, but no one answered, and a person was heard running around inside the apartment. Officers then breached the door, and Robinson eventually came into view and descended the stairs, according to the judge. Her document details that “Heinze could see that he had something in his hands” and “realized that Mr. Robinson was holding a gun and pointing it directly at the officers.”

Heinze opened fire, followed by task force officer Daniel Doyle, who died of cancer in 2020 and was never charged, the AJC previously reported. And at that point, Robinson went back up the stairs, the judge wrote.

Calvert wrote that the gunfire stopped, but resumed when Heinze said he heard what sounded like Robinson firing two shots and then saw he was pointing his gun at officers. Heinze, Hutchens and Doyle discharged their firearms and stopped shooting when they could no longer see Robinson’s gun, the opinion states. When Robinson began to lift and point his gun again, the officers fired, the judge clarified.

The GBI recovered 91 spent shell casings from the three officers’ weapons, according to the judge’s opinion. A firearm and three spent shell casings were found at the top of the stairs, it says.

A flashbang was deployed to determine if Robinson were still a threat, and a robot was sent inside the apartment to locate Robinson’s hands and the gun. Calvert wrote that the defendants said they did not fire or hear any shots after the flashbang detonated.

At that point, several additional officers entered the home, and Robinson was brought downstairs, the judge wrote. Robinson was pronounced dead at the scene.

Heinze was employed full time by the U.S. Marshals Service at the time and remains there, according to his attorney.

Hutchens, a Clayton County police officer, was at the scene because he served on the fugitive task force. Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council records show he is still employed by Clayton police and the U.S. Marshal Service.

On Friday, a small group of Robinson’s supporters congregated outside the Fulton courthouse. His mother, Monteria Robinson, organized the group and is calling for an appellate review of the judge’s order, a step that would require the Fulton District Attorney’s Office to file an appeal.

She said her fight for her son is not over.

“I want you to understand, you may have obtained a dismissal, but you have not erased my son,” she said.

Monteria Robinson said she quit her corporate job after her son’s death and began to organize, rally and fight for what she believes is justice for her son. She said she will continue to share Jamarion Robinson’s story, saying “an arrest warrant is not a death sentence.”

She described her son as a loving and caring young man, and said he was diagnosed with schizophrenia.

“Jamarion was just not a case. He was just not a headline. He was not a court file. He was not a number,” she said. “He was my son. He was a brother. He was a grandson. He was a nephew. He was an uncle. He was a young man whose life had value, whose life mattered, whose future mattered and whose humanity should never be forgotten.”