Macon man acquitted of murdering buddy outside bootleg house, but still gets 20 years

A man was convicted of aggravated assault but acquitted of felony murder Friday in the slaying of 24-year-old Tarus Fair, who was fatally wounded in crossfire when two men outside a neighborhood hangout south of downtown Macon shot at each other one night in early 2016.

The two men were later charged with murder.

In Bibb County Superior Court on Friday afternoon, a jury of eight men and four women deliberated for about an hour before finding one of the shooters, Quintavious Marquez “Slick” Hutchings, guilty of aggravated assault but not guilty of felony murder.

He was sentenced to 20 years in prison, the maximum for aggravated assault.

A murder charge against a second shooter — Tony Ellis, who Hutchings was said to be shooting at, which resulted in the aggravated assault charge — was dropped three months after the incident. Prosecutors concluded that Ellis had fired his pistol in self defense.

Investigators never determined which of the shooters fired the bullet that hit Fair, who was a close friend of the 25-year-old Hutchings. The guns fired that night were not recovered.

Fair, struck in the hip by a bullet that severed an artery near his pelvis and killed him the night of March 18, 2016, had been a bystander outside a so-called bootleg house at 446 Cynthia Ave.

Men mostly in their 30s and 40s often gathered there to drink beer and liquor, watch sports on TV and grill out.

Testimony in the trial began on Wednesday and some witnesses said that Hutchings was perturbed that younger guys like him were generally not welcome at the gathering place.

The bootleg house, which at times featured its own bartender, sits a few doors down from the corner of Houston Ave., where Hutchings was known to hang out, shoot dice and smoke marijuana.

Hutchings, who chose not to take the witness stand, told a detective before his arrest that he had smoked half a dozen or so joints and drank two Heinekens in the hours surrounding the episode.

During closing arguments, Hutchings’ attorney, Paul Christian, said Hutchings feared for his life after shoving Ellis and being shoved to the ground in return. Christian said Hutchings saw Ellis pull a pistol and that Hutchings, as he scrambled to his feet, grabbed his own 9mm handgun that had slipped from his pocket and fired at Ellis while running away.

“If somebody’s gonna take you down, you’ve got to stand up,” Christian said, later adding that “the aggressor is the one who went for his gun first.”

All told, a dozen or so shots were fired. Fair was the only person wounded.

Ellis testified that he had a revolver loaded with three bullets and that he shot them all, but only after Hutchings pulled his own weapon.

Prosecutors painted Hutchings as the instigator. The state’s witnesses characterized him as a hot-head who had in the past whipped out his gun without provocation.

Assistant Bibb County district attorney Ben Conkling said Hutchings shoved Ellis out of anger over not being let into the bootleg house, which Ellis frequented. And that Hutchings had sneaked in that very night and been kicked out.

Conkling said and that Ellis knocked Hutchings down, jarring Hutchings’ gun from his pocket, which he picked up and started firing as he dashed away up Cynthia Ave., and that it was only then that Ellis unloaded his pistol.

“He was making threats all night, talking about he was gonna ‘air that (expletive) out,’” Conkling said, referring to Hutchings’ supposed remarks about the bootleg house.

“Hold the defendant accountable,” Conkling told the jury. “Find him guilty.”