A Columbia man convicted of shooting a man in the head and killing him three years ago wants a new trial.
A Boone County jury deliberated for three hours in late August before convicting 38-year-old Issaac Bryant of second degree murder and armed criminal action for the 2022 shooting death of Demetrius Ware on Grand Avenue.
Bryant’s attorney, James Egan, has filed a ten-page motion for a new trial, alleging several errors by the trial court. Bryant is scheduled to be sentenced on October 17 in Boone County Circuit Court. The ten-page motion was filed this week.
Counselor Egan’s court motion alleges that the trial court erred by allowing prosecutors to deliver a power point presentation. Egan says the power point have the jury the impression that Bryant was near the scene of the crime at the time of the crime. Egan’s motion also says the court erred in permitting Boone County prosecutors to strike the last African-American juror in the jury pool. Bryant and the victim Demetrius Ware are both African-Americans. The defense motion says Bryant was convicted of murder by an all-white jury.