Norris Greenhouse Jr. will not seek change of venue in murder trial

Norris Greenhouse Jr. will not seek to have his murder trial moved from Avoyelles Parish -- but defense attorney George Higgins III said it looks like the Attorney General’s Office wants the trial moved.

With a hearing on several motions scheduled in 12th Judicial District Court Monday, Higgins took off the gloves and launched a public pre-hearing strike against the prosecution’s plan to paint Greenhouse as using his position as a law enforcement officer to satisfy his sexual desires.

The state’s motion to introduce evidence to support that contention is one of the issues to be addressed in Monday’s hearing.

The main defense motions seek to prohibit the prosecution from relying on the legal principles of “transferred intent” and “law of principal” in trying to prove Greenhouse guilty of the 2nd degree murder of 6-year-old Jeremy Mardis and the shooting of the child’s father, Chris Few, during a traffic stop at a dead-end street on Nov. 3, 2015.

“Transferred intent” means that if someone intended to kill one person but killed another person instead, the intent to kill transfers from the intended victim to the actual victim.

The “law of principal” in this case would mean that if Greenhouse participated in the shooting incident, he would still be guilty of the death and wounding of the victims even if none of his bullets struck a victim.

Higgins’ primary defense strategy appears to be to argue that even the state’s ballistic evidence fails to prove any of Greenhouse’s bullets struck either Jeremy or his father.

“There is no proof at all that any bullet fired from his (Greenhouse’s) gun struck anyone, it’s that simple,” Higgins said. “But yet again, we find ourselves forced to respond to allegations that have nothing to do with the death of Jeremy Mardis.”

‘UNPROVEN, SCANDALOUS ALLEGATIONS'
Higgins said the Attorney General’s Office is engaging in “distractions” rather than focusing on the real issues in the trial.

“When there is no evidence that Norris Greenhouse Jr. shot anyone, and not a single bullet linking him to the crimes for which he is charged, I guess this is the route the Attorney General’s Office chooses to take,” Higgins said.

“These unproven, scandalous allegations are just distractions -- and we know the people of Avoyelles Parish realize that these stories do not serve the cause of justice.”

Higgins theorized that prosecutors hope “we will seek a venue change, but we continue to trust the people of Avoyelles to give our client a fair trial. As such, we look forward to defending Officer Greenhouse at trial, in Avoyelles Parish, and hope in the future the AG’s office will focus on the actual case.”

Higgins said the focus of the case should be on the death of Jeremy Mardis, “but the AG’s Office would rather attempt to portray Greenhouse as a womanizer in uniform. This is both false and irrelevant.”

Greenhouse and fellow-defendant Derrick Stafford were full-time law enforcement officers moonlighting as part-time Marksville City Marshal’s Office deputies on Nov. 3, 2015.

Greenhouse initiated a pursuit of Few, apparently for an alleged traffic violation, but an exact reason has never been revealed. In Stafford’s trial in March, the reason given for Stafford’s pursuit of Few’s vehicle was that Greenhouse called for assistance because Few would not pull over.

Stafford was also tried for 2nd degree murder and attempted 2nd degree murder, but was convicted of lesser charges of manslaughter and attempted manslaughter. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison and will be appealing his conviction and sentence.

Testimony in Stafford’s trial showed that ballistics analysis matched 14 bullet casings to Stafford’s firearm and four casings to Greenhouse’s. However, none of the bullets that struck Few and his son were able to be matched to Greenhouse’s pistol.

Prosecutors noted in a hearing last month that two bullets were too badly damaged to match to either firearm. One of those bullets inflicted a fatal head wound on Jeremy Mardis.

Higgins said all but one of the accusations the state wants to introduce as evidence are from people Greenhouse had arrested.

“I can only speculate this information has been gathered by sending investigators to talk to Officer Greenhouse’s numerous arrestees, and then compiling all scandalous allegations, regardless of its relevance to this case,” Higgins said.