South Jersey Cop Convicted Of Fatally Shooting Friend: Prosecutor

A former South Jersey police officer has been found guilty in the 2013 fatal shooting of a friend, according to authorities. Former Deptford Township police officer James A.Stuart, 34, has been convicted by a jury of reckless manslaughter in the fatal shooting of 27-year-old David Compton, the Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office announced.

It is the second time Stuart has been convicted of this crime. In 2015, he was found guilty of shooting Compton while he was off-duty in his home in the Oak Valley section of Deptford, according to the prosecutor’s office.

However, that decision was reversed after he appealed based on what was ruled to be an erroneous jury instruction, according to the prosecutor’s office. He was two years in to his 30-year sentence at the time.

In 2015, he was convicted of knowing murder and aggravated manslaughter for firing a shot from a handgun that struck Compton in the face, according to the prosecutor’s office. Stuart, a Deptford cop for five years, shot Compton after a night of drinking that involved the two men and other friends.

Police said Stuart was intoxicated when he shot Compton as Compton sat on his couch. Compton died six days later.

In overturning that decision, the appeals court judge ruled that the jury should have considered the murder and manslaughter verdicts “sequentially” since they involve “distinctly different mental states.”

In the second trial, Stuart’s attorney continued to argue that the shooting was a tragic accident rather than a crime. His attorney argued that Stuart did everything he could to render aid to Compton.

However, Assistant Gloucester County Prosecutor Dana Anton argued that Stuart disregarded the risks he knew from his police training were inherent in handling a gun while drunk. Stuart acknowledged as much when cross-examined by Anton after he testified he did not know exactly what happened after he awoke and picked up a handgun, according to the prosecutor’s office.

Compton had been “dry-firing,” which means pulling the trigger of a presumably empty weapon. The two had been watching an action movie that prompted Compton to ask to see Stuart’s guns.

Anton said Stuart also left his mortally-wounded friend and removed his handguns from the living room, placing them in an upstairs bedroom and disturbing what had become a crime scene.

The second conviction was on a second-degree offense that charges he acted with “conscious disregard of a substantial, unjustifiable risk.” He now faces 5-10 years in state prison.

He will remain in jail pending sentencing on Oct. 19. He had been released from prison after the appeals court decision.

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