Jury finds defendant guilty in 2010 deadly shooting north of Modesto

A jury on Friday found James Anthony Foster guilty of first-degree murder in the shooting of Brian Morris. The 30-year-old man’s body was discovered shortly after sunrise June 11, 2010, along a rural road north of Modesto.

Morris’ family quietly sobbed in the courtroom as the verdict was announced. His mother, Myra Morris, said they waited in anguish for two years before the initial arrest was made, then another year to learn authorities had arrested the wrong guy and a new suspect had been charged with the murder.

“It’s been a long, long ride,” the mother said in the courthouse hallway after the verdict was announced. “And today, the door opened and we were able to get off that ride. And we’re just glad that justice was done.”

The jury of six women and six men began deliberations about 2:15 p.m. Thursday. The jurors resumed deliberations Friday morning and by 11 a.m. had informed the court they had reached a verdict. Along with the murder charge, Foster was convicted of an enhancement for using a gun in the killing, which will lengthen his prison sentence.

It’s unclear when Foster will be sentenced. Stanislaus Superior Court Judge Marie Silveira scheduled the defendant to return to court Friday to schedule a trial where the court will determine whether Foster’s prior criminal convictions will further lengthen his prison sentence. Once that is completed, the judge will schedule a sentencing hearing. Foster remains in custody at the county jail.

The jury had to decide whether Morris was killed without provocation or did the investigation ignore other suspects likely to have fired the fatal bullet. The jurors ultimately decided that Foster acted with premeditation when he placed a gun at the base of Morris’ skull and shot the man.

Tai Bogan, Foster’s attorney, says the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt because investigators relied on testimony from two witnesses with motives to lie. He also argued that another man had threatened to kill Morris over an adulterous affair the victim was having with a woman.

One of the key prosecution witnesses was the defendant’s nephew, Gregory Fisher, who was arrested in June 2012 and was in jail for more than a year as the only person charged in Morris’ death. The murder charge against Fisher was dropped in August 2013 after investigators gathered information that pointed to his uncle as the suspected shooter.

Fisher was charged with being an accessory in exchange for testimony against his uncle. The defense attorney has argued that Fisher lied to avoid his own prosecution. In exchange for his cooperation, prosecutors agreed to drop the rape and domestic violence charges against Fisher in unrelated incidents involving two victims, according to Bogan.

Another key prosecution witness was Bethanie Smith, who was in the car with Foster and Morris that night. She said she didn’t witness the shooting, but she provided details about what led up to the shooting and what happened after.

Bogan challenged Smith’s credibility, saying she has been convicted of felony child endangerment for leaving her children alone to use drugs. He said authorities reunited Smith with her children only after she agreed to cooperate with the prosecution.

Deputy District Attorney Jeff Mangar said Smith’s and Fisher’s accounts of what happened the night of the shooting are consistent with each other, yet they don’t know each other and have never had an opportunity to compare their stories.

Morris had been out with friends the evening of June 10, 2010. He had a high level of methamphetamine in his system and was very drunk, authorities said. He encountered Foster near Standiford Avenue and Carver Road in north Modesto.

This was the second time Morris found Foster in the car he believed belonged to one of his friends. Morris didn’t know he was mistaken; the cars only looked similar. But Morris confronted Foster asking about the car’s vehicle identification number.

Morris demanded that Foster drive him to San Jose and prove he didn’t live in Modesto. The trio left, but wound up buying meth at a Ceres home, according to testimony in the trial. The prosecution says Foster stopped to pick up the gun before they drove to the area along Costner Road near orchards just north of Modesto.

Foster told investigators he was fearful of Morris and wanted him out of the car. Bogan told the jurors that Morris was angry and went into the store, telling the clerk that Foster better drive him to where he says he’s going, “or else I’m going to rip his (expletive) throat out.”

The prosecutor argued that Foster was behind Morris when the defendant placed his left hand on the front of the victim’s throat and fired the shot into the back of his head. The bullet exited Morris and struck Foster’s left hand. Fisher testified that his uncle had a bloodied hand wrapped with clothing when he returned the gun.

Myra Morris sat through the trial, listening to the details surrounding her son’s death. She said Friday that she felt that experience prepared her for the announcement of the verdict.

“I was hoping to watch him one day grow up, become a husband, a father,” she said. “That was all, of course, taken away.”

This story was originally published March 4, 2016 at 4:07 PM with the headline "Jury finds defendant guilty in 2010 deadly shooting north of Modesto."