Brad Bishop, now 21, was found not guilty Tuesday in the 2018 shooting death of his step-grandfather, Victor Perkins.
The jury of nine women and three men deliberated about five hours before delivering the verdict. During deliberations Tuesday, the jury indicated it was split on the verdict, then reached a unanimous decision just before 5 p.m.
Bishop has been in custody since 2018. After the verdict was read, he embraced his defense attorney, Jennifer Cross, who held back emotions. Cross, who represented Bishop since late 2020, presented the defense that Bishop suffered from battered person syndrome after enduring years of physical, sexual and psychological abuse at the hands of Perkins.
Jurors heard from some 25 witnesses during the five-day trial, starting with the investigator to whom Bishop confessed shortly after the killing. Prosecutors Deshala Dixon and William Hammond presented the scenario of an imperfect household, in which Perkins sometimes grew violent, but portrayed Bishop as a deliberate killer who knew what he was doing and drove away with Perkins’ guns afterward.
Bishop, who was 15 when he was charged as an adult for the killing, had lived with Perkins, his late grandmother’s husband, since he was a baby. Witnesses included Michael Gish, Bishop’s older half-brother, who denied knowledge of physical abuse but had left the home and joined the Marines a few years earlier.
Cross called numerous witnesses in an effort to show Bishop suffered from battered person syndrome, including a neighbor who reported using bolt-cutters to free Bishop from a dog cage.
A friend of Perkins testified Perkins treated Bishop like a “dog” and a slave and abused him frequently. Department of Family and Children Services workers testified Bishop had been removed from Perkins’ home by court order due to abuse, only to be returned by an uncle.
