At least legally speaking, it’s the end of a five-year journey for former Arizona state Trooper James Casey. Ramon Bueno, the man convicted of shooting him in the face, was sentenced to just under 120 years in prison on Wednesday.
“I think he’s a coward,” Casey said in an interview on Thursday on the Law&Crime Network. “He took no responsibility. In fact, he called me a liar yesterday in his statement. Hopefully, after all this is over with, I’ll never give Ramon another thought again.”
Ramon Bueno, convicted of shooting @Tpr_James_Casey, tells Casey & the prosecutor to read Exodus 20:16: “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.” That’s more or less saying Casey lied on the stand! @LawCrimeNetwork @OfficialLivePD #LivePDNation pic.twitter.com/ETomswjR5T
— Aaron Keller (@AKellerLawCrime) January 29, 2020
Casey performed a traffic stop on a vehicle in which Bueno was a passenger on October 8, 2014, prosecutors said. The defendant shot the trooper in the face, almost killing him, according to testimony at trial. Remarkably, Casey survived, recuperated, and put some more time into his job. He was profiled in the A&E show Live PD, and retired in 2018. (Law&Crime founder Dan Abrams is a host on Live PD. A&E partially owns Law&Crime.)
The defense tried to show at trial that the state couldn’t show that Bueno was the actual gunman. The defendant was convicted on all charges, except the most serious one: attempted murder. Jurors were deadlocked on that count 11-1. It didn’t do him any real favors. He was still set to spend more than a century in prison. Before the sentence, Casey told the court on Wednesday that he’s willing to let the remaining charge slide.
“I just don’t think there’s a need to add more insult to injury,” he said.
Is there anything Casey would say to Bueno?
“I don’t know,” he said Thursday. “I don’t think I could really answer that right now. Had he been a little more contrite about it, I’d probably have something to say. But again, him calling me a liar yesterday, and thinking back on everything I went through–man, I really have nothing to say to him other than, ‘Enjoy prison.'”
[Screengrab via Law&Crime Network]
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
