Attorneys: Renfro didn't intend to kill

COEUR d’ALENE — Attorneys for Jonathan Renfro said their client shot Coeur d’Alene Police Sgt. Greg Moore in the face from 2 feet away, but he didn’t intend to kill him.

Renfro, 29, is charged with first-degree murder for Moore’s death in Coeur d’Alene two years ago, as well as five additional felonies including assault, robbery, destruction of evidence, unlawful possession of a firearm and grand theft.

On the first day of his murder trial Monday in Courtroom 1 of the old Kootenai County Courthouse, Renfro, who faces the death penalty for killing Moore, quietly listened to testimony from 10 witnesses. Most of the witnesses were Coeur d’Alene police officers who recounted what happened in the early morning hours of May 5, 2015, when Moore was shot and killed while on a routine patrol in a neighborhood in the northwestern corner of town.

Sitting next to his court-appointed attorneys Monday, wearing a dark suit and tie, the 29-year-old turned his face away from a large photo depicting Moore lying dead in a residential street. Prosecutors used the image to show Moore’s activated body camera.

Renfro again turned away from the courtroom screen as prosecutors played body camera footage of Moore interacting with Renfro moments before the officer was shot and killed.

Contrary to the defense argument, Kootenai County prosecutors said the Rathdrum man wantonly killed Moore with one shot from a stolen 9mm handgun, fired the round with purpose.

Renfro wanted to kill Moore, prosecutors said, because Renfro was high on meth and afraid the police sergeant would find the stolen gun and ammunition in his pocket. Both were violations of the terms of his parole. He was afraid because the violations would assure his return to the pen, prosecutors argued.

He did not want to return to prison.

Defense attorneys refuted the claim, conceding that Renfro was high from a big dose of methamphetamine that a friend had injected him with, but he was just out walking after midnight to clear his head. It was in the neighborhood near Prairie Avenue and Atlas Road that Renfro was confronted by an aggressive cop on a dark street. He acted in self defense as Moore reached for his sidearm, defense attorney Linda Payne said.

“It was an instinctual reaction,” Payne said. “There was no intent to kill, there was no blackened and malignant heart, he is not guilty of first-degree murder, he is guilty of … manslaughter.”

Prosecutors showed several videos including car-camera footage from the patrol vehicle of Coeur d’Alene Police officer Jacob Pleger, who raced to the scene at 2820 W. Wilbur Ave. when he heard over the radio that Moore did not respond to a status check.

It was Moore’s pet peeve to respond to checks from dispatchers concerned for officer safety.

“It was one of his big things, to answer status checks,” Pleger said.

Moore always insisted on immediately responding to checks, Pleger said.

He would tell other officers “it can cause unnecessary alarm,” if you don’t respond the first time a dispatcher asks for your status.

When Pleger heard no response from Moore, he dropped what he was doing at the police department, ran to his patrol vehicle and raced to the scene to find Moore lying in a dark, empty street, a pool of blood under his head.

It was 1:38 a.m., 12 minutes after Moore originally made contact with Renfro.

Pleger checked for a pulse, and finding none, attempted to stem the bleeding.

“He was bleeding from every orifice in his face,” he said. At that point Pleger, who is trained in first aid, didn’t know what to do. In his anxiousness he ripped the latex gloves he tried pulling on, then he and another officer began chest compressions.

Seated beside his attorneys in Courtroom 1 on the third floor of the old Kootenai County Courthouse, Monday, Renfro glanced sparingly at another video deputy prosecutor David Robins played from Moore’s body camera. The footage showed Moore’s encounter with Renfro after confronting him in a normally quiet neighborhood that usually had, according to testimony, “virtually no foot traffic,” at 1:26 a.m.

Renfro was dressed in black clothing and had a face mask in one pocket, according to testimony, a pistol and 5 rounds in another.

Prosecutors contended he was up to no good.

When Moore stopped to chat with the lone person on the sidewalk at Sunshine Meadows at night, he asked for Renfro’s driver’s license. A spring wind can be heard muffling the microphone. The body camera made Renfro’s scruffy, bearded face look green in Moore’s flashlight beam.

The footage showed a seemingly nervous Renfro, wearing wire-frame glasses looking up and down the street. Moore asked him what he has in his pockets.

“Just cigarettes,” Renfro replied quietly, seemingly unassured.

“Are you certain that is all you have?” Moore asked.

“Be honest with me,” Moore said. He asked Renfro to step toward his car. There is quick movement. Moore’s arm is momentarily raised as Renfro stepped to Moore’s right. A gunshot popped and the camera faced the black night sky.

The Renfro seated in the courtroom was clean cut, wearing a suit. He looked away from the footage. It is a different Jonathan Renfro who came back into the screen frisking Moore, allegedly stealing his firearm, his flashlight, and then Moore’s patrol car.

The last footage of the day is from the Post Falls Police squad car of then-senior patrolman Chris Thompson as he chased the stolen Coeur d’Alene police cruiser driving more than 100 mph west on Seltice Avenue.

“The vehicle was continuing to flee and gain distance from me,” Thompson told the court.

The squad car was found ditched near the Walmart at Stateline, and a police K9 found Renfro hiding tucked in the undercarriage of a semi-trailer truck parked in a parking lot.

He told police he was sleeping.

In her opening statements, Payne said the events that culminated in Renfro’s arrest for killing Moore began with a slight arm movement.

As Renfro raised the firearm in his coat pocket, around 1:26 a.m. that morning, Moore quickly acted to deflect Renfro’s movement.

It was the deflection, Payne said, that resulted in Moore’s death.

“This light bump changed the trajectory of the bullet,” Payne said.

The bullet would have struck Moore’s body armor, she said.

Instead, the bullet found a different target.

“It moved it ever-so-slightly, hitting him in the mouth.”

It took three-tenths of a second. There was no time to aim, she said.

“Three tenths of a second and a slight bump … contributed to the traumatic events that occurred … one life lost and multiple lives traumatized.”

The trial resumes today at 9 a.m.