Druggist Jerome Ersland released after supporter arranges bail
RELEASE PHARMACIST IS BARRED FROM GUN ACCESS, DESPITE REQUEST
BY NOLAN CLAY
Published: May 29, 2009
A pharmacist charged with first-degree murder was barred Thursday from any access to guns, knives or other weapons while out on $100,000 bail.
Jerome Jay Ersland, 57, of
Chickasha was released from the
Oklahoma County jail Thursday afternoon after a supporter arranged for the bail, defense attorney
Irven Box said.
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District Judge Tammy Bass-LeSure set the bail amount. Most defendants charged with first-degree murder in Oklahoma County are denied bail, but prosecutors did not object to Ersland being freed.
The judge ordered the weapons restriction after she watched a video of the pharmacist shooting robbery suspect
Antwun Parker, 16, on May 19 at Reliable Discount Pharmacy in
south Oklahoma City.
In a twist in the already unusual case,
District Attorney David Prater asked the judge to allow Ersland to have access to a gun at work in case the pharmacy is robbed again. The prosecutor said his position "sounds crazy” but he insisted that under the law Ersland has the right to defend himself and others at the pharmacy. At one point, spectators in the courtroom clapped in support of his statements.
The district attorney said he worried crooks now will know it is "open season” at the pharmacy if Ersland is there. He also said Ersland could be fired.
Prater said the pharmacist would not be in court if the two robbers had not come into the drugstore. The judge said, "Then, why did you charge him, Mr. Prater?” The district attorney replied that Ersland went too far.
A clearly irritated Prater also told the judge, "I’m the one who filed the charge so my butt’s on the line.”
The judge, though, refused to change the restriction, saying Ersland could get another job.
"I am going to limit his access to guns,” the judge said. "If someone wants to be around him, they are not going to have access to guns.”
Prater told her, "That’s wrong.” After the hearing, the district attorney said to Ersland, "I want you to be treated fairly.”
The pharmacist was charged Wednesday with first-degree murder for shooting the suspect five more times in the abdomen after the suspect allegedly was incapacitated from a shot to the head. Prosecutors said Parker was unarmed and unconscious on his back when he was shot the last five times. Ersland contends he acted in self-defense when the suspect tried to get up.
A police detective said Ersland lied to the police and news reporters about the shooting. Ersland, for instance, said the robbers shot at him. "Fortunately, God made them miss me, except for this minor scratch,” he told
The Oklahoman. "I was able to return fire and protect the girls’ lives. God was helping me.” Prosecutors say there is no evidence anyone but Ersland fired inside the store.
Two of Parker’s aunts attended the bail hearing Thursday.
"We’re not mad. We’re trying to understand,” said one aunt,
Sharon Jennings of Oklahoma City. "We don’t understand none of it. He’s not that type of kid. ... He was scared of guns. He was scared of the dark. ... I think it was peer pressure. Somebody talked him into it.”
Ersland is restricted to his home except for trips to work, church, court, his attorney’s office, the grocery store, restaurants and the doctor’s office. Ersland is recovering from recent back surgery and wears a brace. His attorney said he is on morphine. Ersland has said he is a veteran who was wounded during the first war in
Iraq.
Ersland is getting support from gun-rights advocates, veterans and others.
Mike Manning, a
Vietnam veteran who came to court Thursday, said, "We feel this individual is being railroaded.”
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