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A Utah man accused of fatally shooting a concert promoter outside a Salt Lake City nightclub was bound over for trial Thursday.
Third District Judge James Blanch issued the order after a hearing and scheduled the arraignment of Quincy Earl Lawson for March 30.
Lawson, 20, is facing one count of first-degree felony murder, one count of second-degree felony obstruction of justice and multiple second- and third-degree felony counts of discharging a firearm. If convicted, he could spend the rest of his life in prison.
A witness to the Nov. 15 shooting testified Thursday that Lawson was defending himself from an assault and regretted firing his gun.
Lawson was jostling with other concertgoers in the mosh pit at the west-side club Core when he was shoved and challenged to a fight by Bradley Hancock, a singer and event promoter, his friend Austin James "AJ" Nelson said.
When the pair took the dispute out to a parking lot, it escalated into a shooting, but only after Hancock threw a 4-inch chuck of concrete at Lawson's head, Nelson said.
"He knew that he messed up," Nelson said. "He said, 'We never shoulda came here.' "
In court papers, Salt Lake County prosecutors say Lawson hung around the club, at 1444 S. 700 West, after being booted from the concert and then fired six shots at the 24-year-old Hancock after he was asked to leave a second time.
An autopsy found Hancock was hit twice in the arm and once in the head by bullets from what police believe was a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun. The weapon has never been recovered, a Salt Lake City homicide Detective Chris Kotrodimos testified Thursday.
Lawson fled and was arrested in the early hours of Nov. 16 near Nephi. He is being held in the Salt Lake County jail in lieu of $1 million bail.
When arrested, Lawson was driving without a license and in a truck affixed with a license plate registered to another vehicle, Kotrodimos testified. Lawson, who was tracked to the Nephi area through GPS and cellphone tower signals, told police he was headed to St. George to visit a girlfriend — a story that differed from one he told a Santaquin police officer who pulled him over the same night for a minor traffic violation.
Lawson did tell investigators he had gone to the Core concert, Kotrodimos said, but lied about being with Nelson, saying he had gone to the event on his own and left alone.
"I asked him if he'd shot [Hancock], or brought a gun, or saw a gun or handled a gun. He denied that," the detective said.
Defense attorneys contend Lawson was acting in self-defense and prodded Kotrodimos about whether police might have arrested Hancock for an assault if the concrete block he had thrown had hit and injured Lawson.
"Probably," the detective said.
A childhood friend of Lawson, Nelson testified under subpoena from prosecutors. In exchange for his cooperation, Nelson was granted immunity from prosecution for his role in the events related to the shooting.
On the stand, Nelson admitted to knowing that Lawson had brought a gun with him to the club — he'd seen it in the car — and to serving as Lawson's getaway driver after the shooting. He also conceded that he initially lied to police investigators because he feared being tried for Hancock's murder.
But when questioned by the defense, Nelson painted Hancock as the aggressor who badgered Lawson into leaving the venue after Lawson pushed Hancock's brother in the mosh pit.
Nelson also said Hancock was a known member of an Ogden-area branch of the Straight Edge movement, a group with ties to the punk music scene. Hancock had a reputation of starting fights, Nelson said, insisting that Lawson had repeatedly said that he didn't want to fight.
Asked by defense attorney Sherry Valdez whether Lawson had gone to the club that night intent on causing trouble, fighting or killing Hancock, Nelson replied: "Absolutely not."
But he also didn't hesitate when Valdez asked about Lawson's actions after he ducked to avoid being struck by the concrete block Hancock had hurled at his head.
"When he came up, he just started shooting," Nelson said.