Troy’s Reggie Todd hasn’t ‘violated any law’ in Mobile football game shooting, lawyer says - AL.com
The attorney for Reggie Todd, the college athlete facing a charge of helping the alleged Ladd-Peebles Stadium shooter in his flight from police, says Todd “hasn’t done anything that violated any law” and was charged despite cooperating fully with police.
He also provided a scarce hint on where Hezekiah Belfon, who Mobile’s police chief has described as armed and dangerous, might have gone after his flight took him from Mobile to Troy.
Attorney Willie J. Huntley Jr. said Todd got sucked into the case after coming home from a road trip to find an uninvited guest in his house. Huntley said Todd told Belfon to get lost the next day, when he first learned Belfon might be connected to violence in Mobile. By this account, Belfon left Todd’s home before police publicly identified him as the stadium shooter.
The timeline began the evening of Friday, Oct. 15, in the third quarter of a Vigor-Williamson game being played at Ladd. Police say that three people left the game and re-entered, at which point at least two of them were carrying guns. One opened fire, injuring five people.
Early Saturday, Oct. 16, police released an image showing three “suspects of interest.” By the end of the day one person suspected of involvement, 19-year-old Jai Scott of Semmes, had turned himself in and been arrested.
Early in the afternoon of Monday, Oct. 18, Mobile Police Chief Paul Prine identified 19-year-old Hezekiah Kaniel Belfon as the person police believed had done the shooting. Prine also said that a second arrest had been made, involving a juvenile who wasn’t identified. Later in the day, reports emerged that Todd had been charged with hindering prosecution and indefinitely suspended from Troy State University’s football team.
The criminal complaint filed against Todd, signed by Brian McLendon of the Troy Police Department, accuses Todd of substantial involvement. It says that “on or about Oct. 18,” Todd rendered criminal assistance to Hezekiah Belfon “by allowing Balfon [sic] to come to come to his house in Troy, AL, leave his firearm, cut his hair and used his cellular phone.”
Huntley disputes almost all of that. He said Belfon did borrow Todd’s phone at some point, but Todd didn’t listen in on the conversation and doesn’t know what it was about.
“On that Friday when the shooting occurred, Reggie was in Texas preparing a game on that Saturday,” said Huntley. “Reggie comes back from this game, comes home, and he finds this person Belfon … in the house. He didn’t invite him, he didn’t ask him to stay, but he knew him through his brother, because Belfon was supposed to be a friend of Reggie’s brother.
“So, Belfon is in the house, and this is Saturday, Reggie lets him stay there because Reggie is completely unaware of any shooting in Mobile, he is completely unaware of any connection between that shooting and this person. … It might even have been early Sunday morning,” said Huntley.
Todd’s return home likely would have been in early Sunday morning, Oct. 19. Troy played Texas State University in San Marco, Texas, that Saturday, with the game starting at 2 p.m.
“Reggie doesn’t find out about any connection between that person and the shooting until Sunday,” said Huntley. “Reggie tells him, ‘You got to go,’ and the guy did a few other things and then he left. Actually, he rode in Reggie’s car some time on Sunday and that’s how a gun was left in the car that didn’t belong to Reggie. And of course I believe the police have taken the position that was the gun that was used in the shooting but I haven’t any kind of ballistics report matching that firearm with any of the injured people.”
Belfon did have his dreadlocks cut off in Troy, Huntley said, but “Reggie did not assist with that in any way, shape or form.”
“That’s the last that Reggie heard from that individual,” said Huntley. “Reggie was told by Belfon that Belfon was headed to Louisiana. And that’s all that Reggie knew. Reggie didn’t even know the people that came picked him up and took him away.”
Monday, Oct. 18, brought the Mobile Police Department’s announcement that Belfon was the shooter, and a visit to Todd by the Troy Police Department followed by his arrest on charges of hindering prosecution and possession of marijuana. On the possession charge, Huntley said he could show a clean drug test for Todd.
“Now, hindering prosecution -- I don’t know how Reggie could have hindered prosecution, based on the law,” said Huntley. “Reggie didn’t have any idea until Sunday, and he told the guy to get on out of his house. Now, Reggie didn’t call the police. I don’t know that I would have called the police.”
Huntley requested a preliminary hearing for his client and one has been set for Nov. 2. His goal is to get his client’s name cleared and his suspension lifted. “That’s one of the things we need to overcome, to get him back on that team,” he said.
Alabama law says someone has hindered prosecution if they provide criminal assistance “with the intent to hinder the apprehension, prosecution, conviction or punishment” of a person wanted for murder or a Class A or Class B felony. Criminal assistance can mean a variety of things such as harboring or concealing a person, hiding or destroying evidence, or warning the person of impending arrest.
“Reggie consented to a search of his car, a search of his house and an interview with the police. He wasn’t trying to hide anything,” said Huntley. “They told him they weren’t going to charge him if he cooperated. He cooperated. And they still arrested him.”
Troy police have not responded to a request for additional comment on Todd’s arrest.
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source: https://www.al.com/news/mobile/2021/10/attorney-troy-states-reggie-todd-didnt-hinder-police-in-ladd-peebles-shooting.html
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