BELLINGHAM — A Bellingham man will get a new trial months after a jury convicted him of felony assault for shooting his neighbor.
The Bellingham Herald reported that 30-year-old Kamuran Chabuk argues that he shot his neighbor, 33-year-old Joshua Kiener, in self-defense. Kiener survived gunshots to his abdomen and legs.
A jury found Chabuk guilty in 2015. But the Superior Court judge who presided over the trial ruled last week that jurors had been misled by two of the prosecution’s key arguments.
The prosecutor had argued that Chabuk had an “absolute obligation” to warn Kiener that he had a gun and that Chabuk went out of his way to provoke Kiener.
The judge wrote that it is “inconceivable that the jury was not prejudiced” and granted Chabuk a new trial.
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