The death certificate for Jake Gardner, the man indicted by a grand jury for the shooting death of James Scurlock during civil unrest following the death of George Floyd, is being released.
Special Prosecutor Frederick Franklin filed a copy of Gardner's death certificate on Tuesday, along with a request for an official dismissal of the indictment. The death certificate serves as an official record of Gardner’s suicide, stating his cause of death as a gunshot wound to the head by a handgun on Sept. 20 in a parking lot in Hillsboro, Oregon. The document shows that no autopsy was performed and that 38 year old Gardner was cremated.
Special Prosecutor Frederick Franklin released a statement saying that he received the death certificate on October 23rd and that he intends to file a motion to dismiss the pending indictment against him. "Given the community interest in this case and since there will not be a trial, I have decided to provide the statement below as my report of the of the evidence reviewed by my team and I. This statement should not be construed as a report of the Grand Jury.
Franklin then detailed the findings, evidence, and charges reviewed by his team and ended the release in response to be accused of having an “agenda” in the grand jury’s decision.
The statement reads in part, “Once the evidence from the investigation was reviewed, relevant portions were presented to the Grand Jury for their consideration and ultimate determination as to whether to charge or not. To be clear on this point, it was the Grand Jury who had the authority to charge, not me as the Special Prosecutor. But more importantly, the Grand Jury was NOT deciding the guilt or innocence of Jake Gardner. The Grand Jury did not assess the likelihood of success at trial. They were only deciding if the evidence was sufficient for Gardner to be charged.”
(Photo by WOWT 6 News)