URBANA — A Champaign man has been acquitted of first-degree murder in a September 2021 fatal shooting outside an apartment complex in east Urbana.
Champaign County Judge Randy Rosenbaum this week determined that the state could not prove that Brian J. Ferrell, 38, did not shoot at Kendall K. Jones, 33, in self-defense on Sept. 11 that year. The verdict came after a three-day bench-trial at the Champaign County Courthouse.
However, Ferrell will still see prison as a result of the incident because the judge convicted him of unlawful possession of a weapon as a felon. Ferrell admitted to emptying a .40 caliber handgun at Mr. Jones in the 1400 block of Ivanhoe Way during the early morning hours of Sept. 11.
Mr. Jones was found by police with at least six gunshot entrance-wounds and later pronounced dead.
Ferrell could not legally possess a firearm due to a prior conviction, but testified Wednesday that Mr. Jones had drawn a firearm and shot first. The judge ultimately sided with Ferrel’s attorney, Hallie Bezner, who argued that the state could not prove her client didn’t fire with justification.
A woman testified on Monday that she was in her residence with Mr. Jones, her cousin, around 3 a.m. on Sept. 11 when she got into a dispute with another woman. The visiting woman then left and later returned outside the apartment around 4 a.m. with two men in a white Hyundai.
Mr. Jones’ cousin testified that she saw Mr. Jones go outside and talk to the woman. Not long after, Ferrell and another man, Jonathan E. Brumfield, 35, of Champaign, shoot at her cousin from the Hyundai, she testified.
Assistant State’s Attorney Joel Fletcher argued that the three individuals drove to the residence of Mr. Jones’ cousin that morning — both Ferrell and Brumfield armed — with the intention to commit a crime.
Notably, self-defense cannot be claimed as a valid legal argument by a defendant if they kill someone while in the process of carrying out a forcible-felony. Fletcher also indicated Ferrell did not fire in self-defense because of the volume of bullets fired at at Mr. Jones.
Police found 12 .40 shell casings from Ferrell’s gun and 10 9 mm shell casings, allegedly from Brumfield’s gun, located by where the Hyundai was parked. Only three .38 caliber shell casings were found from the gun Mr. Jones used, though one .40 and one .9 mm casings were also found not far from his body.
Mr. Jones’ cousin told an Urbana police detective in July 2022 that she heard the woman she fought with say she would be back when she first left the apartment on Sept. 11, and that the woman said she was “there to get her one back” when she returned with Ferrell and Brumfield.
Yet Mr. Jones’ cousin testified she now did not recall the woman saying those things, and testified that she didn’t see who shot first. Mr. Jones’ cousin was in police custody on the stand because the state was previously unable to locate her and obtained an arrest warrant just for her testimony.
Bezner highlighted Mr. Jones’ inconsistent statements as reason not to trust her account of what happened on Sept. 11, and argued that Ferrell’s version of the shooting was more consistent with video surveillance footage and physical evidence collected after Mr. Jones’ death.
Ferrell testified that he met Brumfield outside a girlfriend’s house around 10 p.m. on Sept. 10 before he got into the white Hyundai Brumfield was driving and they rode around. The two eventually went to a woman’s residence located on Hunter Drive just minutes away from the 1400 block of Ivanhoe Way.
The woman mentioned she had gotten into a dispute with Mr. Jones’ cousin earlier, Ferrell said, and the two men were there for about 30 minutes before they left. The woman also said she had left some ecstasy pills at the residence of Mr. Jones’ cousin, so the men gave her a ride there.
The woman knocked on Mr. Jones’ cousin’s door but she didn’t come out, so the woman walked back to the Hyundai, Ferrell said. But Mr. Jones — who Ferrell said he was familiar and had no issues with — then came out of the apartment, closed the door behind him and called the woman back over.
Eventually, Brumfield got out of the vehicle and Ferrell heard Mr. Jones yelling at the woman so he got out too. Mr. Jones then shoved Ferrell, at which point Ferrell said he noticed a gun in Mr. Jones’ hand and withdrew his own pistol.
Mr. Jones next hit the woman in the face with a pistol, got in Ferrell’s face again, backed up and started shooting, Ferrell testified. Ferrell then shot at Mr. Jones, ran behind the Hyundai for cover, and continued firing until his gun was out of ammunition.
Video surveillance from a nearby camera appeared to corroborate Brumfield getting out of the white car in the 1400 block of Ivanhoe Way around 4:38 a.m., then Ferrell getting out from the front passenger seat, the sound of someone yelling at 4:39 a.m. with Mr. Jones out near the curb.
Ferrell testified he didn’t see or hear Brumfield shooting, but saw his friend had a gun after the three got back in the Hyundai and fled. Ferrell then disposed of his gun at his girlfriend’s house, realized he was bleeding from gunshot wounds on his arm and drove to Chicago because he didn’t want to go to jail.
Ferrell said he was scared for his life when he shot at Mr. Jones.
Bezner argued that the surveillance video contradicted Mr. Jones’ cousin’s account that Ferrell only fired at Mr. Jones from inside the Hyundai, and that the one additional 40 caliber shell casing and one 9 mm shell casing found not far from Mr. Jones’ body corroborated that the shooting started outside the car as Ferrell described.
Rosenbaum said he found Ferrell’s testimony generally credible, though it was unlikely he would not have seen Brumfield shooting at Mr. Jones during the exchange. All in all, the judge said he found Ferrell’s version of the shooting just as likely, if not more, than the state’s telling.
Ferrell faces three to 14 years in prison when he is sentenced in late September to unlawful possession of a weapon, a non-probational Class 2 felony eligible for extended-term sentencing.
He faced between 45 and 85 years in prison if Rosenbaum determined Ferrell had no justification to personally discharge a gun to murder Mr. Jones. Brumfield is set to go to trial on first-degree murder charges next month.
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