A hung jury resulted in a mistrial for the civil case against a former Macon County deputy who shot and killed a Franklin man in his home.
The lawsuit will continue as the family of Scott Knibbs seeks what they feel is some form of justice. Knibbs was shot and killed in his home during the night hours of April 29, 2018, by now-former Macon County Sheriff’s Office deputy Anthony Momphard Jr.
“We’re disappointed that we couldn’t get a final result for the Knibbs family,” said Mark Melrose, attorney for the Melissa Knibbs, Scott’s widow. “We’re encouraged that it was 4-2 split in favor of our client, and we look forward to a retrial and hopefully for a fair decision by fair-minded people.”
The civil case, which had been remanded to federal district court by an appeals court after it was originally dismissed, took place in the U.S. District Court of the Western District of North Carolina, located in Asheville. The trial and jury deliberation lasted from Feb. 6 until Thursday, Feb. 16.
All jurors must vote in favor to return a ruling to either party. A hung jury means the jurors were unable to come to a unanimous decision. Unlike a criminal trial where the jury is required to find a defendant guilty “beyond all reasonable doubt,” a civil trial must find one side had a “preponderance of evidence” (something is more likely than not) to get a ruling in their favor.
The hung jury was announced on Thursday, Feb. 16, after several hours of deliberation. The federal district court office nor Melrose knows exactly when a re-trial could take place, saying it could take months to reschedule.
“We’re hoping it happens in 2023,” Melrose stated.
The civil case hinges on what the jury believes happened when Knibbs, who was holding a loaded shotgun, and Momphard, who had drawn his revolver, found themselves in close proximity to each other, separated by a window, and whether the Knibbs family is entitled to civil damages as a result of Momphard opening fire.
“The bottom line is, we’re seeking justice for the loss of Scott’s life,” Melrose said Friday. “We’ve waited five years, the family has waited five years, and unfortunately with the hung jury, we don’t get an answer, and we don’t have closure. They want justice.”
Momphard left the MCSO months after the incident and currently lives out of state.
How the encounter happened
The civil case follows Momphard being cleared of any criminal action in the months following the shooting death. On Aug. 1, 2018, then-Henderson County District Attorney Greg Newman determined that Momphard was “justified in his use of force.” Newman reviewed the case at the request of Macon County DA Ashley Welch. Melrose had contested that Welch’s “close ties” to the MCSO would affect her impartibility.
According to the case files, the night of April 29, 2018, Momphard was dispatched to Pheasant Drive after a neighbor who shared a driveway with the Knibbs family, called about boards placed in the road with nails sticking out of them. Knibbs’ widow Melissa testified Scott put the boards in the road to keep cars from going up and down their shared driveway all night to the neighbor’s house, which she said was a frequent issue due to late-night parties. The neighbor told the dispatcher he didn’t want to move the boards himself fearing Knibbs’ reaction, saying he was “always aggressive, verbally anyways.”
Momphard approached without his blue lights on, according to the case files, because it wasn’t an emergency call. After approaching two doors of the Knibbs residence by mistake, Momphard saw the neighbors and went to talk to them.
Momphard then approached a third door the neighbor told them was commonly used by the Knibbs. Melissa Knibbs said her husband heard the approach and someone announcing themselves as a deputy, then said to her “anyone could say they are a deputy” and racked a shell into his shotgun. According to toxicology reports, Scott Knibbs’ BAC was 0.23, well above the 0.08 that would be classified as legally intoxicated.
One of the arguments Melrose had made contests whether the deputy identified himself.
The facts of the case say that Momphard saw Knibbs through a window right next to the porch and yelled at Knibbs to drop his weapon. The two men were close enough to touch each other if the window wasn’t there, the court documents state.
Momphard said Knibbs pointed the shotgun at him and fearing being shot himself, fired his revolver six times, killing Knibbs, who did not fire a shot. The family of Scott Knibbs claims that he had his shotgun in a safe position, facing upward with the muzzle facing the ceiling and not toward the deputy. Both sides have had expert testimony pointing to evidence they claim proves their side.
“He was killed inside his own home simply defending his family and himself by a rookie deputy,” Melrose said on Friday, adding that Knibbs had done law enforcement training and was a friend of law enforcement.
According to court documents, “the record does not reflect that Deputy Momphard was wearing a bodycam that night or that his patrol vehicle had any dashcam footage.”
Legal action
More than eight months after Momphard was cleared from criminal wrongdoing, Melanie Knibbs filed a federal lawsuit on April 16, 2019, against Momphard, Robert Holland in his capacity as Macon County Sheriff (which is now changed in court documents to current Sheriff Brent Holbrooks) and the sheriff’s surety bond.
On Nov. 5, 2020, North Carolina Western District Court Judge Max O. Cogburn dismissed the lawsuit. The Knibbs family appealed 11 days later to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
On March 30, 2022, in a 2-1 decision, the appeals court vacated the dismissal of the case and remanded it back to the federal district court on the grounds of the Knibbs family’s claims against Momphard’s qualified immunity, wrongful death for compensatory and punitive damages and the claims against the sheriff’s surety bond. Other claims by the family of violations of the Fourteenth Amendment, against Macon County’s liability insurance to preserve MCSO from lawsuits based on governmental immunity and violations of the N.C. Constitution remained dismissed.
The appeal’s court ruling brought the case back to Cogburn’s courtroom in Asheville, where a full trial took place this month, just short of five years after the six fatal shots were fired.