Georgia Man's Stand Your Ground Defense Failed - Guilty of Aggravated Assault

Local news reports
A man accused of shooting his girlfriend’s brother last month was not acting in self-defense, a Henry County magistrate judge ruled Tuesday morning. Marquez Marquis Bridges, 23, was charged with aggravated assault and reckless conduct in the April 26 shooting of Kirby Bullard during a birthday party in McDonough. Bullard was shot once in the leg after confronting Bridges about his relationship with Bullard’s sister, said Henry County police Detective Joey Plemons during a preliminary hearing Tuesday in Henry County Magistrate Court. Plemons said Bullard slapped Bridges in the back of the head with an open hand, and the two argued. Bridges left the room to get a gun and returned to shoot the unarmed Bullard in the leg, he said. Bridges’  by Freeven pro"> by Freeven pro"> by Freeven pro">attorney argued that his client’s smaller stature made him fearful of the larger Bullard. Jail records show Bridges to be 5 feet tall and weighing 115 pounds. Henry County Chief Magistrate Judge Robert Godwin disagreed. “I don’t know anything in the law that allows aggravated assault in response to a simple battery,” he said. “Being height-challenged myself, I see where you’re going, but I don’t see it.” The defense attorney then argued that Bridges was defending either himself or his girlfriend and invoked the “stand your ground” law. But prosecutor Bill McBroom disagreed. “‘Stand your ground’ doesn’t say you have to retreat, but it doesn’t say you can escalate to deadly force and use that as an excuse to kill somebody,” he said.