Monday Gunday

**SPEAKER_2** (0:13)
Stop calling your arms guns.

**Nigel** (0:17)
My name is Nigel. Jason Hammer is here also joining us live in studio. 2A attorney, licensed firearms instructor, host of the gun guy show Saturdays on 93WIBC. Guy Relford, my man, how are you doing?

**Guy Relford** (0:30)
Guys, I am great. And thanks as always to our sponsor for Monday Gun Day. That's Premier Arms in Brownsburg, the largest selection of new used and historic firearms in the Midwest. MPA jewelers located in the farmhouse right out front. Check them out at 3754 South Green Street in Brownsburg or Premier arms.com.

**Nigel** (0:47)
I know you were here on Friday. Briefly reset, though, if you could just recap the self-defense trial that you were a part of last week. And maybe people weren't listening. Maybe reset that for us.

**Guy Relford** (0:59)
Sure. No, I tried a case last week. It was self-defense all the way. That was, to me, pretty clear from the beginning. It was a situation where there was a fight outside a bar on East New York Street here not too far from downtown. And my client actually got shot in the chest by the other person. Then they struggled over the gun. My client was able to get the gun away from the other guy and shot the other guy with his own gun.
And for some reason, the Marion County Prosecutor's Office decided to charge my guy with murder.

**Jason Hammer** (1:33)
Now, your guy was unarmed to begin with.

**Guy Relford** (1:35)
Unarmed, completely unarmed, and used the guy who just shot him, used his gun to end the fight. And the prosecutor had a theory that my guy had started the fight. And there's a provision of Indiana law that says you can't claim self-defense if you're the quote unquote initial aggressor.
And so, that was their theory.
But we really disproved that. In fact, I worked with this great videographer. I mean, we really got into some good demonstrative evidence in this case, where we had a blow up and slow motion. Because we had this motion-activated security camera that would play for a while and then it would shut off. And then it would come on and it would play for a while and then shut off again. And so we had these clips that was very incomplete. But right before the video shut off, we were able to show frame by frame by frame, that the other guy actually took a step toward my client and started reaching under his coat to pull his gun. And that's what started the fight, that my client who knew he had a gun, because the guy had already pulled it out in the bar they were in beforehand, for no apparent reason, that the guy was going for his gun, and my client then had to try to jump in there and stop him from pulling his gun. That's what started the fight. And my guy still ended up getting shot, but he then took that gun and used it in self-defense. And so thankfully, an innocent guy, because I absolutely from day one, I believed he was acting in self-defense. He's home with his own family now, and that's a good thing.

**Nigel** (3:06)
But he could have gone to jail for the rest of his life, basically.

**Guy Relford** (3:09)
Absolutely. He's a 40 year old. In fact, I got a text. I said he was 41 on Friday and a guy text me and goes, bro, I'm only 40, man.

**Jason Hammer** (3:20)
But what have you done for me lately, Guy? What have you done for me lately?

**Guy Relford** (3:24)
But you add up all the different, you know, sentences and whatnot that the prosecutor's office was going after, it would have definitely been a life sentence if he'd gotten convicted. And instead, he's home with his family. And as I've always said, whenever I discuss this case, I never want to lose sight of the fact that, you know, a person lost their life. But this guy, he's the one who chose to go for his gun. He's the guy that chose to shoot my client.
And while I'll never ever celebrate the loss of life and loss of a husband, loss of a father, at the same time, this was the right outcome for this trial. No question about it.

**Jason Hammer** (3:58)
And on Friday, you had kind of mentioned to us that your closing statement, talking to the jury, you basically said, you know, my client was unarmed and got shot. I mean, when you say it out loud sometimes, it's like, oh, yeah, what are we doing here?

**Guy Relford** (4:15)