James Marshall, an Alamosa lawyer who shot driver at protest, sees law license suspended
An Alamosa attorney serving an 11-year prison sentence for shooting a driver in the head at a protest versus police violence throughout the summertime of 2020 has been suspended from practicing legislation for a few decades.
James Marshall, 29, agreed to a three-calendar year suspension of his law license in connection with the June 4, 2020, shooting in downtown Alamosa, in accordance to just lately printed disciplinary information. The suspension began April 4, and Marshall can utilize for reinstatement just after the suspension finishes, the information display.
Disciplinary documents be aware “significant mitigating factors” influenced the final decision to levy only a a few-year suspension of Marshall’s regulation license, like that witnesses reported the attack was out of character for Marshall, that a fellow protester was “gravely concerned” about the risk posed by the truck, and that Marshall was each remorseful and cooperative with the discipline procedure.
Marshall shot a pickup truck driver in the again of the head when the driver approached a little group of protesters who’d gathered at the intersection of Main Road and Condition Avenue in Alamosa on June 4, 2020. The driver, Danny Von Pruitt, survived the shooting.
Marshall explained to investigators that he fired into the pickup truck for the reason that he considered the truck experienced struck his wife, who was also protesting that day. Video revealed by the Colorado News Collaborative and the Alamosa Valley Courier exhibits the truck going into the protesters at the intersection and the subsequent taking pictures.
The protesters experienced been walking in the intersection when the targeted visitors light-weight was red, then relocating out of the way to let website traffic pass when the mild was inexperienced, the video reveals. No protesters ended up struck by the truck, police stated in the affidavit.
Marshall ran absent right after the shooting, then went dwelling, shaved off his beard and known as his legal professional, according to an affidavit filed from him. Law enforcement officers arrived at his household additional than two hrs later on and arrested him. Pruitt, the driver, was shot in the head but continued driving for many blocks prior to he handed out.
Marshall, a felony defense attorney dependent in Alamosa, was charged with attempted 2nd-degree murder and 6 linked expenses, but all ended up afterwards dismissed as aspect of a plea offer in which Marshall pleaded responsible to felony tampering with a system — a cost devoid of any factual basis but that both equally sides agreed carried an suitable sentencing range of four to 12 decades in jail.
As section of the arrangement, the prosecution promised to propose Marshall serve the minimum amount four-12 months prison sentence, courtroom records exhibit. The plea arrangement left the greatest final decision on sentence size up to Judge Gilbert Martinez, who in December sentenced Marshall to serve 11 decades in prison, a yr much less than the maximum presumptive sentence.
Marshall is expected to be suitable for parole in March 2027, according to the Colorado Section of Corrections.
An attorney who represented Marshall in the disciplinary proceedings did not return a request for comment Wednesday.
