man charged with murdering motorcyclist

[joemcg]

Been riding for many years Clinotus - please read my post thouroughly.

 

[jay1]

Considering street tires on a motorcycle give you no traction on grass, he would have been in the street for him to try and hit him.


Motorcyclist is hit and follows the car home to get an address and is met with a guy in the road with a gun. Sounds like the a much more likely scenario.

Sounds more like it to me

 

[Nickle]

I dunno....I think the daughters, regardless of their actions, didn't expect their father to gun the guy down in the street. Even if they hit the biker and fled, thats a totally separate issue from the father choosing to execute a guy for driving back and forth in front of his house or following his daughters home.

I would certainly hope the daughters didn't expect his response.

I'm thinking they caused the accident, flipped him off, fled and called daddy, and fed a BS story to him.

He then way over-reacted.

As to needing more facts, it's kind of hard to see the biker as any perceivable threat at the time daddy pulled the trigger.

Most places frown on shooting somebody in the back. They have to headed AWAY from you for that to happen.

 

[clinotus]

Update!

Oconee County investigators have seized the car two Bogart teens were driving Monday night when they squabbled with a motorcyclist - a fight that ended when the girls' father allegedly shot and killed the biker.

Authorities are trying to see if damage to the car jibes with the teenage sisters' story that 21-year-old Bryan Joseph "B.J." Mough intentionally slammed into their car and followed them home before he was shot to death on the street near their house.

"We seized the car pursuant to a warrant and are in the process of trying to recreate the cause and manner of any collision between the two vehicles," Oconee County Sheriff Scott Berry said Thursday. "My traffic people are in the process of doing that, and they are consulting with accident-reconstruction specialists."

The sisters, ages 17 and 19, told investigators they called their father as they were driving home from an Athens discount store on Atlanta Highway to say a motorcyclist cut them off and rammed their car. They admitted that they made obscene hand gestures at Mough, officials said.

Their father, Richard "Ricky" Harold Gear, was waiting at the end of his driveway as the teens arrived home. He fired a .40-caliber semiautomatic pistol "two or three times," hitting Mough once in the back as the biker drove by, according to Berry.

Gear, 46, is held without bond on a murder charge.

He doesn't yet have an attorney or a schedule for a preliminary court hearing, according to Berry.

The killing has drawn attention to tiny Bogart, and national television networks have called for interviews, according to Berry.

"Bogart is a quiet, close-knit place, and I can't remember ever having a murder in Bogart, other than a shooting that took place on the Athens-Clarke County side about 15 years ago," Berry said. "This isn't a drug-dealer murder in downtown Athens."

The community of about 1,100 people spans two counties, and downtown Bogart is about a mile west of the Clarke County line.

Motorcyclists from across the state are rallying in Mough's memory and plan a group ride from a service station off Interstate 85 in Duluth to Mough's funeral, which is scheduled for noon Saturday at Carter Funeral Home in Winder. The ride will begin at the BP on Pleasant Hill at I-85 at 10:45 a.m.

Frenzied Internet bloggers have written dozens of theories and scenarios about what happened Monday, many of the postings fueled by the fact that authorities have released few details about what led to the shooting.

Mough and the Gear sisters were at the Target store in Athens at the same time Monday night and left the store about the same time. Berry would not say who left the store first, but Mough did not follow the Gear sisters, he said.

The sheriff also would not discuss what the Gear sisters told their father before the shooting, beyond that they claimed a man was following them and intentionally rammed their car with his motorcycle.

Gear did not act in self-defense, however, according to Berry, who said Mough's motorcycle never touched Gear's property and Gear shot the biker in the back.

Investigators also are taking a new look at a 2-year-old case in which Gear may have fired a gun at a group of teenagers.

Gear called Oconee deputies the night of Feb. 25, 2006, to complain that a car knocked over his mailbox after he chased a group of trespassers from his property. The trespassers were neighborhood teens who were arguing with one of Gear's daughters and her boyfriend, according to one teen's mother.

Deputies found the teens, who admitted they ran over the mailbox, which they said they hit as they were fleeing from the Gear home after someone shot at them, an Oconee sheriff's report states.

Authorities didn't charge anyone because they couldn't prove anyone had fired a gun, according to Berry, who said people involved in the alleged shooting were "less than truthful."

Berry has assigned eight investigators to the murder investigation, and they are tracking down other reports that Gear may have fired a gun.

"All the information we got (is) being followed up on," the sheriff said. "We're not ignoring anything."

Article

Seems the dad was a hot head and the girls are not so innocent.

Been riding for many years Clinotus - please read my post thouroughly.

joemcg, I did re-read you post and it reads to me that you were saying that we were jurying on the father. I asked about your riding status because most riders I know have had to follow cars who have endangered them (at a safe distance) in order to get the plate numbers to file police or traffic reports. I've done this myself. It seems however that our experiences seem to vary though in this.

 

[Scrivener]

Investigators also are taking a new look at a 2-year-old case in which Gear may have fired a gun at a group of teenagers.

Gets better and better.

I hear banjoes................

 

[Firetarr]

Gets better and better.

I hear banjoes................

Dueling banjo's?

 

[Snapshot]

I know a friend of the motorcyclist. According to him, he's not exactly the psychopath type and the bike he was riding was a sport bike. Sorry but I just don't see a young kid ramming a car with a sport bike. Not that I can see it with any bike but I suppose an 1800cc full of chrome and steel would be more believable then 3 or 4 hundred pounds of plastic and aluminum.

Sounds to me that for whatever reason, they collided and he was following to get info.

The dad needs to swing. I'm just as protective as the next guy about my loved ones but THAT was murder.

And not that it matters too much considering we haven't heard of anything else but:

He fired "2 or 3" rounds but only hit once. Where'd the others go? Real smart there dad... cap off a few rounds at a target moving away from you on a bike in the middle of a neighborhood. Maybe next time you'll kill a few of your neighbors too. Dumbass

 

[Palladin]

He got off the 1st time he shot at someone; I think this time he's in for the long haul......say hello to your new roomie, I mean cellmate, Brutus.

 

[USMC109]

Considering street tires on a motorcycle give you no traction on grass, he would have been in the street for him to try and hit him.


Motorcyclist is hit and follows the car home to get an address and is met with a guy in the road with a gun. Sounds like the a much more likely scenario.

Or on the sidewalk.

Also in response to other posts the daughters are absolutely not responsible for their father capping a guy on a motorcycle in the back! It's prob. safe to say they aren't telling the whole truth anyway but it's hard to believe that this will fly as justifiable homicide even in GA unless the guy really did somehow threaten his life which is hard to swallow.

 

[TheIglu]

I heard that the kid was riding a Ninja 250. For those of you who don't know, it makes in the neighborhood of 33hp and weighs ~300lbs.

Hard to believe he "rammed" is the proper word. More like he "t-boned" the car. You don't play chicken with a 3500lb cage when you are on arguably the smallest true street bike available in the US.

 

[Snapshot]

the daughters are absolutely not responsible for their father capping a guy on a motorcycle in the back! It's prob. safe to say they aren't telling the whole truth anyway

+1

I think they were full of it but I DON'T think they could have known how their dad was going to react. I think they were just trying to cover their tails

That being said, I DO think that what they told him DID effect how he reacted. He probably thought "If this guy is psycho enough to ram a car on a motorcycle then who knows what he's capable of....

...and now he knows where we live."

This will be a hard lessen for them to learn about lying.

 

[rwl1955]

Motorcycle rams car

Trust me, no motorcyclist in his right mind would try to "ram" a car. I have been riding since I was 17 yrs. old and I`ve taught the Motorcycle Safety Course. I have had so many near collisions with auto drivers because they didn`t do a head check when they pulled out to pass.
I would bet the girls cut him off by mistake and it escalated from there. Auto vs. bike, no contest.

 

[USMC109]

Trust me, no motorcyclist in his right mind would try to "ram" a car. I have been riding since I was 17 yrs. old and I`ve taught the Motorcycle Safety Course. I have had so many near collisions with auto drivers because they didn`t do a head check when they pulled out to pass.
I would bet the girls cut him off by mistake and it escalated from there. Auto vs. bike, no contest.

+1,Much agreed!

 

[dwarven1]

I'm wondering if the reason that he went past the house and then turned around is that he followed them to see where they lived (maybe for a police report?), and then turned around to leave... and then got shot.

Based on what's been released, Daddy sure sounds like a murderer. Be interesting to follow this as it unfolds.

My sympathies, however, lie with the biker and his family.

This case is a real good reasonto carry your cell phone with you, even on the bike - you can always pull over to make a call.

 

[Snapshot]

This case is a real good reasonto carry your cell phone with you, even on the bike - you can always pull over to make a call.

Sadly I don't think it would have helped him here. If you pull over, you lose the suspect.

As a biker, the only thing this teaches me is to stay FAR behind anybody who I have to follow if they don't stop for an accident....


... and just further enforces my desire to CCW. There are people out there who shoot without thinking. You may not be able to stop it but you sure as hell can take them out with you when you go. The less of those types on the streets the better.

 

[kevin9]

Sounds like there is much idiocy to go around.

Did the cyclist ram the car? Not likely, but kick their car, could be, or not.
Following the girls home to identify them: Why? Note the plate number, pull over, call 911.
Making 2 passes: Again why? By this time the cyclist should have the number and have called 911. No need for 1 pass, let alone 2.
Dad standing outside brandishing gun: Just plain not smart.
Dad shooting cyclist in the back as he was riding away*: Sorry, that's just plain murder.

As Jamz said "Stupid meets stupid, one stupid dies, one stupid in jail."

*Yes I did postulate the possibility that maybe the cyclist could have been shot in back in a case of legitimate self-defense, but further reports have convinced me that possibility is extremely remote.

 

[USMC109]

Sounds like there is much idiocy to go around.

Did the cyclist ram the car? Not likely, but kick their car, could be, or not.
Following the girls home to identify them: Why? Note the plate number, pull over, call 911.
Making 2 passes: Again why? By this time the cyclist should have the number and have called 911. No need for 1 pass, let alone 2.
Dad standing outside brandishing gun: Just plain not smart.
Dad shooting cyclist in the back as he was riding away*: Sorry, that's just plain murder.

As Jamz said "Stupid meets stupid, one stupid dies, one stupid in jail."

*Yes I did postulate the possibility that maybe the cyclist could have been shot in back in a case of legitimate self-defense, but further reports have convinced me that possibility is extremely remote.

I was thinking their street could have possibly been a cul-de-sac and that's why he turned around...or not.Just a thought.Not much to go by in the article anyway.

 

[Snapshot]

Following the girls home to identify them: Why? Note the plate number, pull over, call 911.
Making 2 passes: Again why?

Having the plate only tells who the car is registered to. It tells you potentially nothing about who is actually driving it.

As for passing twice, not only could it have been a cul-de-sac but it also could have just been a neighborhood he was unfamiliar with so the easiest way out is the same way he came in.

 

[Firetarr]

He got off the 1st time he shot at someone; I think this time he's in for the long haul......say hello to your new roomie, I mean cellmate, Brutus.

This is your butthole before prison...O

This is it after prison...O

Any questions?

 

[Jose]

Having the plate only tells who the car is registered to. It tells you potentially nothing about who is actually driving it.

Figuring out who is driving it is the job of the police, not yours.

What are you going to do when you catch up, demand ID?

 

[mark056]

Figuring out who is driving it is the job of the police, not yours.

What are you going to do when you catch up, demand ID?

Well...it works this way: you have an obligation to be a good witness and to gather as much information as possible to give to the police as accurately as possible. When you catch up, you back off and be prepared to give the most complete accounting of the situation as possible.

Frankly, I am surprised that have assumed the position that you have in this particular instance because a recurring theme in your posts that appears to me is the concept of self-reliance, and taking care of oneself and looking out for one's family, which appears to be at the very heart of your value structure. If I am incorrect in this, then you have my apologies and I have miscontrued the basic values you espouse. One has to remember that the police have a collective obligation to protect society at large and are under no legal obligation to respond to any individual citizen's complaint, so the more information that a victim can provide will aid in the investigation. The issue is less police apathy, but simply manpower constraints and priorities. Homicides take precedence over minor traffic incidents (I say minor in this case because apparently there were no injuries to either the motorcylist or young women in the automobile and in fact in many instances the police will not even show up at the scene of a traffic incident or accident if there are no injuries, but then perhaps it's different in Ohio where you live.) Naturally, one should never place oneself in harm's way and it is important in being prudent and not trying to act like a police officer, but there is nothing wrong with being a good witness. We cannot, based on the information that we have at this time, know what the motive of the motorcylist was in following the automobile. Perhaps it was to gain more information or to simply exchange addresses or perhaps it was to wreak havoc upon the perceived perpetrators....this is something that the police will now try to determine.

Then again, perhaps you have a higher confidence in the police than I do or your experiences with law enforcement and the criminal justice system is perhaps a bit different from mine.

In any event, I hope that you are not away from home and that you have the opportunity to enjoy this weekend with your family as kids grow up so quickly.

All the best,

Mark L.

 

[mk70ss]

Based upon what little detail is contained in this story I would not think that self-defense will hold up. But if more details emerge which support an SD shooting, then this could obviously change.

A motorcyclist riding by is shot in the back and you think a self defense motive will stand up? I wouldn't count on it.

OOPS, I see now you said WOULD NOT hold up. My mistake.

 

[Snapshot]

Figuring out who is driving it is the job of the police, not yours.

What are you going to do when you catch up, demand ID?

mark056 pretty much said it all but just to emphasize:

Giving a physical ID of the driver including approx age, gender, height, cloths, so on and so forth will make the cops job a lot easier.

 

[Snapshot]

Update:

Sport riders rally to memorialize slain biker
Victim a newcomer to community of enthusiasts
Story Photos - Click to Enlarge
Motorcyclists leave a memorial service Saturday on Gear Road in Bogart where Bryan Joseph "B.J." Mough was shot and killed Feb 25. More than 100 bikers participated in the ride.
Trevor Frey / Staff
Click thumbnails to view
By Adam Thompson | [email protected] | Story updated at 12:05 AM on Sunday, March 2, 2008

WINDER - Less than two weeks before Bryan Joseph "B.J." Mough was gunned down while riding his motorcycle, the 21-year-old from Winder joined an active online community of local sport-bike enthusiasts.

On Saturday, more than 100 of those motorcyclists rumbled to a private memorial service here in honor of Mough, a fledgling rider they barely got a chance to know before a Bogart man fatally shot him in the back Feb. 25.

Saturday's ride was meant to support Mough's family and show a positive image of motorcyclists, said Chris Kaiser, who knew Mough only through messages they exchanged on the Internet forum Bloke's Sportbikes.

"We're here to support a fellow biker," Kaiser said. "We're a close-knit family. This isn't the first time we've done this."

Members swiftly organized the ride online after news of Mough's murder spread last week, securing a Georgia State Patrol escort for part of the route and printing stickers to memorialize Mough, said another Bloke's member, Chris Prumer.

Many rendezvoused Saturday morning in Gwinnett County and rode together in a long chain to Winder. Some of the bikers attended the private ceremony inside Carter Funeral Home, but many waited outside because the building was packed with family members and friends.

The bikers then were escorted by Oconee County sheriff's deputies to the scene of the slaying, on Gear Road in Bogart. There, they held a short memorial ceremony of their own.

Like the Oconee authorities investigating the slaying, the motorcyclists still are trying to sort out what happened before Richard Harold Gear, 46, shot Mough after he followed Gear's teenage daughters home from an Athens discount store.

Gear claims he shot in self-defense, but evidence at the scene doesn't indicate Mough was the primary aggressor, according to Oconee County Sheriff Scott Berry. Gear was charged with murder the night of the killing and remains in the Oconee County Jail.

Gear's daughters, ages 17 and 19, told Oconee County investigators they called their father after a road-rage incident with Mough on the way home from the Athens Target store. Gear was waiting with a gun at the end of the driveway when they arrived, Berry said.

The sisters told investigators they made obscene hand gestures to Mough after he cut them off and that he ran into their car with his motorcycle, the sheriff said.

But some Bloke's forum members are skeptical about that story, and discussions of the circumstances stretch for pages on the site.

"If you've ever ridden a motorcycle, if you hit a stationary object at 25 miles an hour, you're not going to win that battle," member Mike Field said in a phone interview last week. "This is not something someone would do, and (the motorcycle) was (Mough's) pride and joy. He'd just bought this two months ago. Why would he go to the point of wrecking his pride and joy?"

Mough apparently was very concerned about safety and physical fitness, judging from his messages at the forum, Field said. Mough bought safety equipment before he bought his motorcycle and said he never drank alcohol, Field said.

"Everything he wrote embodied responsibility," Field said. "This guy never struck me as an irresponsible kid."

"I can't reconcile what he wrote with what I'm being asked to swallow," he said.

On Bloke's Sportbikes, Mough was known by the screenname "FenixSolen" and posted messages frequently, saying he wanted to learn from the forum's veterans and seeking friends to ride with.

Mough bought his first motorcycle, a Kawasaki Ninja 250, a few weeks ago, friends said.

In his first post on the Bloke's site, on Feb. 15, Mough introduced himself to the forum and said he had started riding just three months earlier because he "had a desire to learn a skill."

"I hope to learn a hell of a lot more and meet some new friends along the way for the ride," he said in the message.

Mough described himself as a "computer guy," who built and repaired networks. He told forum members he was very interested in the cultures of Eastern countries, especially Japan.

At the time of his death, Mough was working at a Target store in Buford and at Turner Broadcasting in Atlanta, a former girlfriend said.

Friends who attended the memorial service Saturday in Bogart expressed anger about Mough's death, but didn't want to say more out of respect for Mough's family members, who have chosen not to make public statements.

They described Mough as someone who "never went down without a fight."

"He was a really good kid, an honest-to-God good person," said friend Brittany Williams, who dated Mough for two years. "And he definitely didn't deserve this."

Published in the Athens Banner-Herald on 030208

Also here is the thread where his memorial ride was documented including pictures of where the shooting happened:
http://www.blokessportbike.com/showthread.php?t=27314

 

[clinotus]

GUILTY!

WATKINSVILLE - An Oconee County Superior Court jury convicted a Bogart man Monday of murder and aggravated assault for shooting a motorcyclist in the back and killing him last winter.

Richard Harold "Ricky" Gear was sentenced to life plus five years in prison for malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime in the Feb. 25 death of Bryan Joseph "B.J." Mough of Winder.

Gear, 46, claimed he shot in self-defense after 21-year-old Mough followed his daughters home and tried to run him down as he stood in his own driveway.

But District Attorney Ken Mauldin argued Gear acted with premeditation when he shot Mough.

After listening to 46 witnesses and reviewing more than 500 pieces of evidence since the trial began Nov. 17, a jury of nine women and three men took just three and a half hours to return a guilty verdict.

The victim's father, Mike Mough, had mixed emotions at the end of the trial.

"We're ecstatic with the outcome of the trial, but it still doesn't bring Bryan back," Mike Mough said. "(Gear) took the law into his own hands, and he got the verdict that he deserves."

Jurors returned from a four-day Thanksgiving break to hear attorneys' closing arguments Monday morning.

Defense attorney Edward Tolley said he wasn't surprised by the verdict, and that he will appeal.

"I knew (a conviction) was a possibility," Tolley said. "The facts were very difficult."

Jurors probably returned a quick verdict because they thought about the case over the holiday weekend, Tolley said.

"I think they came back pretty much knowing what they were going to do," he said.

Mauldin said the conviction provides some solace to Mough's survivors - his parents and two brothers.

"I think the jury's verdict provides some sense of justice," said Mauldin, district attorney for the Western Judicial Circuit.

During his closing argument, Mauldin told jurors how Gear had time to think before pulling the trigger.

Although his daughters called home to say a man was following them on Atlanta Highway and collided with their car, Gear had time to dial 911 or make sure his relatives were safely in the house, the prosecutor argued. Gear also didn't know the man his daughters called about was driving a motorcycle.

"(Gear) didn't know that a motorcycle had anything to do with his daughters," the prosecutor said. "He didn't know if (Mough) was someone who happened to turn down the wrong place at the wrong time.

"His first instinct was to shoot" before getting more information from his daughters, Chelsea and Samantha Gear, Mauldin argued.

Gear fired his gun twice as Mough drove by, and a third time when the biker made a second pass from the other direction.

"This case was about a man who shot first, who shot last and shot in between, and didn't ask questions before and didn't ask questions later," Mauldin said.

Tolley argued Mough was the aggressor, and the motorcyclist could have continued straight on Atlanta Highway toward home instead of following Gear's daughters into Bogart.

Even after Gear fired two warning shots at the passing biker, Tolley argued, Mough turned around and drove straight at Gear, who jumped backward and fired a third time, killing Mough.

"The only reason we are here is because this man did not want to back down," Tolley told jurors. "We are here because Bryan Mough did not know how to back down."

A medical examiner testified the fatal gunshot wound was 61/2 inches to the right of Mough's spine, though Tolley tried to convince jurors Gear had fired as the biker tried to run him down.

Prosecution witnesses testified that bikers wearing a full helmet and face mask might not hear gunshots, especially over engine and wind noise.

Although Chelsea Gear admittedly made a vulgar hand gesture at Mough while on the highway, Tolley argued that was irrelevant.

"I wish she hadn't done it, but that's not what this case is about," the defense attorney said. "You have to know what Richard Gear knew at the time, not what Chelsea Gear did on the highway."

Mauldin argued the evidence didn't fit a self-defense claim because, among other things, investigators found Mough's motorcycle never drove onto Gear's property.

"It was on the roadway, where it had every right to be," he said.

After the jury returned a conviction and before Superior Court Chief Judge Lawton Stephens sentenced Gear, the judge heard from the victim's parents, Mike and Tani Mough.

Mike Mough told the judge about the void B.J. leaves in the family, and how his son never will achieve his dreams, like owning a cafe-gaming store.

"We were starting to see the fruits of our labors of raising Bryan, and that was taken away from us," Mough said in an interview Monday evening.

Article

Justice is served.

 

[dwarven1]

Article

Justice is served.

Yup. I can't see how any other verdict could have been returned given what was reported in the papers (assuming that the reports were correct).

 

[Trupo]

Motorcycle ramming cardont think so

Exactly, I don't really see that one. I don't doubt for a second that a road rage/pissing contest developed between the two parties, but what would be more likely is the car bumped the bike (which would also explain why he followed them home...can't call police via cell phone on a bike) & now the girls in the car are saying the motorcyclist rammed their car...after all, he's not around to contradict the girl's story. As far as the father goes, if he really shot this guy on the bike in the back, he's a friggin' dope & deserves to go down for murder.

 

[Erebus]

I think that's pretty much what everyone expected.

Bike versus car the car always wins, every biker knows that. I find it very hard to believe that the biker intentionally rammed the car.

 

[DickWanner]

I think that's pretty much what everyone expected.

Bike versus car the car always wins, every biker knows that. I find it very hard to believe that the biker intentionally rammed the car.

It's hard to believe a biker followed two girls to their house. A guilty verdict doesn't mean the guy isn't dead anymore...

 

[TheIglu]

He was riding a Ninja 250, one of the smallest production motorcycles available and accepted as a highway worthy vehicle in the US. It tips the scales at about 330lbs.

Not the type of thing you ram into ANYTHING.

The daughters should be charged with driving to endanger and motor vehicle assault.