GBI: Accused Monroe County cop killer wrote of fictional gun battle with FBI; told of drug use

FORSYTH -- In recent court appearances here, accused cop killer Christopher Keith Calmer has looked pained and withdrawn at times.

At a hearing last month, the lanky former tech worker rested his head on the defense table and appeared to fall asleep.

Aspects of Calmer's health are expected to be a focal point of arguments at pretrial hearings next month -- namely the admissibility of statements Calmer supposedly made about using painkillers.

Calmer, who turned 48 in October, is accused of fatally shooting Monroe County sheriff's Deputy Michael Norris on Sept. 13, 2014.

The episode happened on a Saturday evening in the house where Calmer lived with his parents on Haley Lane, a cul-de-sac east of Bolingbroke and Interstate 75, a dozen or so miles southeast of Forsyth.

According to court documents, Calmer's uncle who was there visiting Calmer's parents called 911 shortly after 5:30 p.m.

The uncle told a 911 operator that Calmer "was pacing the residence with a gun, placing the gun to his head and threatening to harm himself."

Norris went to the house and Calmer, "unprovoked" and armed with a pistol, opened fire on Norris, witnesses told authorities.

Norris was fatally wounded. Deputy Jeff Wilson, who arrived soon after shooting began, was struck by three bullets. He shot Calmer once, but the wound wasn't serious and Calmer was jailed the next day.

In one court filing, the GBI noted that Calmer was "a suicidal person with a firearm," and that by the time a third deputy arrived at the scene, Calmer was lying in the driveway in handcuffs.

Calmer has pleaded not guilty and could face the death penalty if convicted in a trial set to begin in June 2017.

Monthly hearings have been set for lawyers from both sides to hash out pretrial matters.

Next month, a judge will hear arguments from prosecutors and defense attorneys regarding statements a wounded Calmer is said to have made on the way to and in the emergency room at a Macon hospital. Calmer's lawyers don't want the statements used at trial.

A GBI agent noted in an affidavit that while at the hospital, Calmer mentioned "his use of over-the-counter pain medications, pain medications purchased through the Internet, and some medications Calmer stated were 'illegal.'"

Prosecutors want to use "spontaneous statements" Calmer is said to have made in the presence of cops and EMTs on the way to the emergency room and at the hospital.

What Calmer supposedly said in those moments is not noted in the documents, but in one filing the state mentions that what Calmer said was recorded.

"The recording from the emergency room was made by an investigator who simply stood nearby and turned on a recorder," prosecutors note. "The investigator did not ask any questions nor make any statements to the Defendant aimed at evoking a response."

A month after the shootings, in an examination of Calmer's prolific online writings -- more than half a million words in all -- on message boards and in chat rooms, The Telegraph published a profile of a troubled man.

By Calmer's account in voluminous Internet postings, in the years before the shootings he lived with debilitating back pain, migraines and other ailments. Drugs proved futile, he wrote. "Nothing would touch the pain."

The headaches, he wrote in early 2004, were "utter hell."

Another of his defense team's contentions involves whether jurors should hear about Calmer's other writings.

The day after the gun battle, during a search at the Calmer home, a GBI agent reported finding a typewritten, 15-page manuscript. The printout, titled "The Post Office," was on a kitchen counter.

Its author was listed as "C.K. Calmer."

The document could be of value to prosecutors as it appears to describe a scenario similar to what happened when deputies Norris and Wilson encountered Calmer.

"This ... was a story depicting two men being 'raided' by FBI agents," the GBI agent who found it wrote in a search warrant affidavit, "whereupon one man pointed a 'blaster gun' at the FBI agents and was subsequently shot by the FBI agents."

To contact writer Joe Kovac Jr., call 744-4397 and find him on Twitter@joekovacjr.

MORE VIDEO FROM THE CALMER CASE:

This story was originally published April 5, 2016 at 6:10 PM.