NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Michael Mosley's attorney says video evidence will prove his client acted in self-defense.
Mosley is accused of stabbing Paul Trapeni II and Clay Beathard to death and injuring AJ Bethurum outside the Dogwood Bar on December 21. Only a handful of police, prosecutors and defense attorney Justin Johnson have seen the video of the stabbing at the Dogwood Bar, and they don't agree.
"At this stage, we have completely different viewpoints. I believe it is self-defense, the state believes it is first-degree murder," Johnson said. "When it comes out I think people will be amazed at what they see. Sixty seconds from the time of the start of the fight to when everything is over."
Johnson said that one minute shows his smaller client initially in a scuffle with another, but then surrounded by several larger men. "What started out as one on one progresses to many on one," Johnson said.
With Mosley fearing for his life Johnson says his client had every legal right to defend himself by any means necessary, and that the video will prove it.
At a hearing earlier this month, prosecutors made their case. "There is absolutely nothing that Clay Beathard and Paul Trapeni and AJ did to bring this on themselves," assistant district attorney Jan Norman said.
Johnson believes there's been an unfair rush to judgment — with the public convicting his client before trial. "He never asked for any of this," Johnson said.
The case has been bound over to the grand jury, where Johnson expects first-degree murder charges.
It's worth noting that authorities have yet to locate the weapon — be it a knife or dagger — used in the stabbings, but there seems little question that Mosley caused the injuries to the others.
The question: Was it murder?
An indictment is expected from the grand jury in the next couple of months.
