Law&Crime Sidebar - Girlfriend Murdered Professional Bull Rider After Argument: Police

Episode Date: September 14, 2022

Criminal defense attorney Jeff Wolf joins Jesse Weber to discusses the tragic and shocking shooting of a professional bull rider by his girlfriend. GUEST:Jeff Wolf, Criminal Defense Attorney: https://wolflawcolorado.com/denver-lawyer/LAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby Szoke Podcasting - Sam GoldbergVideo Editing - Michael Deininger Guest Booking - Alyssa FisherSocial Media Management - Kiera BronsonSUBSCRIBE TO OUR OTHER PODCASTS:Court JunkieObjectionsThey Walk Among AmericaCoptales and CocktailsThe Disturbing TruthSpeaking FreelyLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Agent Nate Russo returns in Oracle 3, Murder at the Grandview, the latest installment of the gripping Audible Original series. When a reunion at an abandoned island hotel turns deadly, Russo must untangle accident from murder. But beware, something sinister lurks in the grand. View Shadows. Joshua Jackson delivers a bone-chilling performance in this supernatural thriller that

will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. There is a tragic and shocking shooting of a professional bull rider. Criminal defense attorney Jeff Wolf breaks down the details. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Webber. And what a way to start things off on a Friday night for a man who comes in, number 15, in the Velocity Tour standings.

A win here in Syracuse would get him in the top 40 in the PBR World standings. You're going to like the numbers coming in. 86 points for Aouncy Mitchell. There is a tragic and shocking story that is coming out of Utah right now that we want to talk about. It is the shooting of 27-year-old professional. professional bull rider, Demetrius Lateef Allen. He's known professionally as Oouncy Mitchell. He has been shot to death. The suspect in this case is Allen's on again, off again, girlfriend, 21-year-old LaShawn Denise Bagley. There is a statement that has been released by the professional

bull rider commissioner and CEO Sean Gleeson. The statement says we are shocked and sadden to learn of the passing of Demetrius Allen, who fans knew as Oouncey Mitchell. Aouncy was a talented cowboy in a familiar face on the Velocity Tour. He also competed in the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo, whose President Valeria Howard Cunningham shares our grief. Aouncy got his name because he was born small. He grew up to compete with a huge heart. The PBR organization sincerely extends our own heartfelt condolences

to Aouncy's cousin, Ezekiel Mitchell, and the entire Mitchell family. I want to bring in right now criminal defense attorney Jeff Wolf to talk a little bit more about this. Jeff, it's good to see you. and thanks for coming on Sidebar. Nice to see you as well. Thanks for having me. This is really, really a sad development. And there's, you know, sporadic details that are coming out.

What we know right now is that investigators have laid out sort of a timeline of events that apparently the pair had attended the Utah State Fair. They then went to a bar. They allegedly got into a fight. They went back to the suspect's apartment. And then that's when the shots were fired. When you listen to that timeline of events, what's standing out to you? I think what's standing out to me is not only obviously the presence of the bar, which is always going to be something that comes to your attention because of alcohol involved.

But you look at the other things that they laid out in their statement, namely that they were able to eliminate that anybody tried to forcibly enter the home, that there's an alternate suspect potentially with that. And they seem like they're eliminating that he could have been the initial aggressor to kind of knock out self-defense. So as a defense attorney, those are always the things you're looking for, as potential defenses, potential alternate suspect. and law enforcement is already up front saying that they've eliminated that possibility. Now, they could be wrong, but the fact that they're willing to come out and say that in their initial statement means they probably have a pretty good reason to. Yeah, let's get a little bit more into that. So right now it's being reported that she was brought up on or arrested on first degree

murder and third degree felony discharge of a firearm charges. Police say that there have were, quote, multiple bullet holes in the glass door to this apartment and quote to include bullet impact strikes to an exterior window of apartment 102 the bullet impact strikes all appear to be coming from inside to outside so that's really interesting right that he didn't apparently get shot inside the apartment but outside what what does that mean well they one of the things that they were saying is that he had said he was going to take his stuff and he was going to leave right so what i suspect is that we may see something about where these, you know, bullets hit him as one of the next bits of information to be let

out. Because if those bullets hit him in the back, then you certainly have one of those, I'm leaving you the hell you are sort of situations. And, you know, to say somebody was shot from the inside of the apartment to the outside, that's why it makes it so important to say that there's no forcible entry. You were not repelling an attack to your home. You were shooting somebody outside of your home from the inside. And there's never a case where someone shot in the back and that could be self-defense. You know, this suspect could claim self-defense. If you shoot someone in the back, is there any indication? I mean, I would imagine if someone were turned their back and we're reaching for a weapon. But if that's not the

case, self-defense could be eliminated pretty quick. Well, defense attorneys can get creative with the best of them. So I'm not going to say there's zero chance because we can figure something out here. But it certainly is very hard to claim self-defense when you shoot someone in the back. I mean, we've seen there's a lot of police officers in this country that have done that successfully. But, you know, for a member of the general public, not so lucky. You mentioned the bar. You mentioned the introduction of alcohol. How would that change this case, the analysis of it?

Because remember, if they did go to a bar, he still went back to her place, seemingly voluntarily. So what are you thinking of that? Well, alcohol is a factor that can change everything in any case. It changes ability to perceive. It changes behavior. It can make somebody who's a nice sweet teddy bear into a snarling beast sometimes. And it can make people make decisions that they wouldn't otherwise make. As far as going to her place voluntarily, they're saying he went there to get his stuff.

So it sounds like they're insinuating that this is either a breakup or a, I need to get out and away from you sort of situation rather than, you know, went there and some argument ensued there. It almost is they're trying to front load this case to try and repel the arguments that are going to come out of the defense. So, you know, alcohol can change everything. But for both players, right? So in other words, and again, this is pure speculation because we don't know all the details yet. you could imagine a scenario where if he became intoxicated, perhaps she has a stronger argument for he was out of control, my life was in danger, things like that. But if she became intoxicated to a certain point where she took out a firearm, does that, would that, obviously I don't

think that that's a complete defense, but could that reduce such murder charge to something less? Typically, voluntary intoxication is not going to be a defense to a crime. It's going to be a situation where if you choose to get intoxicated, you're responsible for your actions. It's usually not going to negate a mens rea or a mental state required for any offense, quite frankly. And so, no, I don't think that that's going to help her in that sense, but alcohol plays both ways. It can go to his behavior as well as hers. So it's definitely one of those things that you have to be looking at. And, you know, of course it's going to be speculation like you're saying, because it's the beginning of the case. And any good defense, any good investigation starts with

speculation, otherwise known as a hunch. So it's going to be something where you need to look at every detail and figure out what you're going to make of it. But alcohol is absolutely going to be a factor for both sides of the case. And I guess I wonder, we cover the Courtney Clenney case a lot here on Sidebar, the only fans model accused of stabbing her boyfriend to death. Just to hear that, I think a lot of people out there always presume that it's the male perpetrator, the female victim. But what we're seeing is this kind of reversal here. And I'm curious, is that just, you know, is there a bias in society about that looking at this? Or does this happen a lot more than we realize that because again it for a lot of us it could just be like wow this changes the narrative

that we've always seen so to see this kind of alleged domestic violence incident what's your take on it i think there isn't there is a bias in society where people think that a woman could never be the perpetrator in a domestic violence case but anybody that's been doing this a long time and i've been doing it over 15 years has heard numerous stories of somebody sitting in a jail cell as a man saying i didn't start this i didn't do this i was defending myself i was trying to get away whatever it is, it is something that has been a thread through my entire career, that it is not always the male perpetrating against the female. It can be the other side. Does not get charged as often. We can give you an example. There is a prosecutor in my state who they run criminal histories of

male victims. They don't run criminal histories of female victims and they say it in an open court and they own it. That's the bias and how strong it is here. We see the only fan's case because she's a celebrity, so it's there. But we don't often hear about these cases, but they are happening every day in our country. Both sides of a relationship can be the perpetrator of domestic violence. And it's just the gender bias that exists in our society that assumes it doesn't. I wish it didn't take cases like this to kind of inform people about what happens. But you mentioned the celebrity, right? And so I'll be the first to tell you I'm not that familiar with professional bull riding. But from what I've read so far about ouncey Mitchell, this.

guy was beloved in that community. And to have a celebrity who was taken and in this fashion, I'm curious, this is the celebrity factor how that might play out into this case as it ultimately progresses and also the investigation? Well, I think it's going to be something where the investigation is going to be taken extremely seriously because he's a celebrity. But at some point, I think we have to realize that we do not know celebrities, right? You can look in the sports world to look at a case like Steve McNair, beloved family man, MVP of the league, you know, by all accounts, a wonderful person who is suddenly shot dead by his mistress and everybody surprised he had a mistress and that it was a long running affair with a home that he had purchased for her.

We look at O.J. Simpson, beloved actor, athlete, well, he's somebody different today, isn't he? Harvey Weinstein, another. This is a beloved producer running Hollywood with actresses saying he's a great person all for decades. And now we come to find out he's a monster, Bill Cosby. How many celebrities need to come out of the shadows first realize we don't know those people. And we don't know everybody that they're involved with. And so I do want to leave us with one thing. And this is a trial that, excuse me, this is a case that we're going to continue to follow. I think, again, we're kind of in the beginning stages, but it's, you know, as sad as it is, it's also fascinating to hear how this is going to progress. Alan was the father of a four-year-old daughter. And the child's mother released the statement. She said, she loved her daddy. She loved him and loved him, loved him. And it was always my daddy this, my daddy doing this. My daddy took me fishing. And that is just such a heartbreaking statement to make as we see the beginnings of this really, really sad story. Jeff Wolfe, thanks so much for coming on Sidebar. My pleasure.

Well, thanks for joining us here on Sidebar. Please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. Speak to you next time. now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.