A Marion County judge is awaiting a response from prosecutors on a motion for post conviction relief in the case of Zachary Stringer, who was convicted of manslaughter in the death of his 11-year-old brother, Justin.
The 21-year-old Stringer said in court documents that his conviction should be overturned because he says new evidence that emerged after his trial proves that manufacturing defects in the rifle that shot and killed his brother can cause it to fire without pulling the trigger.
In October, a three-judge panel of the Supreme Court granted Zachary Stringer’s motion to consider his argument in circuit court, and Stringer then filed a motion to vacate his sentence, which spans more than 200 pages. On April 18, Judge Prentiss Harrell issued the order for the state to respond within 60 days.
“We are working on getting our response in,” District Attorney Hal Kittrell said this week. “We have until June 17. At that point, the judge will consider their motions and our motions. He will determine whether it is going forward. He could make a ruling or require a hearing to determine if a new trial will be ordered. We’ve sent a lot of information to them.”
Justin Stringer, 11, was fatally shot on June 11, 2011, at his home in Marion County. The murder trial for Zachary Stringer, who was 15 at the time of the shooting, was moved to Jackson County. He was convicted in 2013 of the lesser offense of manslaughter and sentenced to 20 years with 10 to serve. The state Supreme Court affirmed his conviction in 2014. Zachary Stringer has been out on probation since mid-2017.
Remington has recalled that type of bolt-action rifle, a Model 700 with an X-Mark Pro trigger, to replace the trigger mechanisms, but the one used in the Stringer shooting remains in the custody of the 15th Judicial Circuit Court. The Mississippi Supreme Court has ordered it not to be removed for testing pending further order.
Richard Barber, a Montana man who lost a son to a discharge caused by one of the faulty mechanisms on a Remington rifle, has been an ardent defender of Zachary Stringer. Barber said this week that Zachary Stringer’s attorneys will be armed with evidence that Remington “had ample notice of the functional deficiencies of the XMP fire control in 2010, roughly a year before Justin Stringer was killed.”
“The sworn testimony, discussing exactly what Zach claimed happened (Model 700 discharging without trigger contact) is now known to be more than plausible, but only now shows, a rifle malfunction, more likely than not, resulted in the wrongful death of Justin,” Barber said. “For anyone paying attention, this evidence shows the life-changing event for the Stringer family could have happened the way Zach Stringer described to investigators.”
Zachary Stringer has repeatedly said his finger was not on the trigger at the time of the shooting.
In a 49-page deposition, Jim Ronkainen, a former Remington employee who worked in R&D, was asked about the trigger in question for another case, one filed in Kentucky by the estate of Jasmine Thar, who was also allegedly killed be a Remington rifle with the defective trigger mechanism.
Ronkainen refers to videos sent to Remington by customers showing the defects in the mechanism and guns firing without the trigger being depressed. In page after page of questioning, Ronkainen is asked about the rifles and any defects. The deposition continues for 49 pages and includes transcripts from videos discussing the rifle firing without touching the trigger in low temperatures.
“Zach testified that he heard a click before the discharge,” Barber said. “The level of detail suggests to me that is exactly what happened. This evidence was not available until after his trial. This deposition is sworn testimony from a Remington employee — it is an admission from Remington that they had a problem and they knew it in 2010, a year before Justin’s death.”
According to the motion for post conviction relief filed by Stringer, “Had this new evidence been available and presented at trial, Mr. Stringer would not have been convicted of the charge of manslaughter. Because of this newly found evidence, Mr. Stringer is entitled to have his conviction set aside and should be granted a new trial.”
Barber said he is lending his expertise to the case at no cost because he believes it is a “miscarriage of justice” that they now have a chance to fix.
Also, in March, a civil suit against several defendants, including Remington, was filed in Marion County Circuit Court on behalf of Roger Stringer, Zachary and Justin’s father, Kimberly Hyder, the boys’ mother, and Zachary Stringer by Purvis attorney Scotty E. Chabert. The lawsuit is also against DuPont, which owned Remington until 1993, Sporting Goods Properties Inc., which bought Remington from DuPont, and Waldo’s Sports Center Inc., the Columbia store where the rifle was purchased.
Waldo’s filed its response on April 10, which said the lawsuit was filed after the three-year statute of limitations following the 2011 shooting and that it had no control over any aspect of the design or manufacture of the rifle and had no knowledge of any defective condition at the time it was sold.
“Waldo’s, as a mere conduit of the product, is entitled to statutory innocent seller immunity,” the document states.
It also filed a cross-claim against Remington to hold the gun manufacturer responsible for any fees that the sporting goods store could incur as a result of the lawsuit.
The lawsuit remains pending in Marion County Circuit Court.
