Judge rejects request for lesser charge in Ohio cop retrial

By Dan Sewell The Associated Press

7 years ago

Former University of Cincinnati police officer Raymond Tensing listens to Martin Odom of the Cincinnati Police Department (not shown) testify during Tensing’s retrial Wednesday, June 14, 2017, in the Hamilton County Courthouse in Cincinnati. (Cara Owsley/The Cincinnati Enquirer via AP, Pool)

Former University of Cincinnati police officer Raymond Tensing talks to his mother, Amy Tensing, at the conclusion of his retrial, Wednesday, June 14, 2017, in the Hamilton County Courthouse in Cincinnati. Tensing is charged with murder and voluntary manslaughter in the shooting of unarmed black motorist Sam DuBose during a July 19, 2015, traffic stop. (Cara Owsley/The Cincinnati Enquirer via AP, Pool)

Former University of Cincinnati police officer Raymond Tensing, left, speaks with his lawyer, Stew Mathews, right, during his retrial, Wednesday, June 14, 2017, in the Hamilton County Courthouse in Cincinnati. Tensing is charged with murder and voluntary manslaughter in the shooting of unarmed black motorist Sam DuBose during a July 19, 2015, traffic stop. (Cara Owsley/The Cincinnati Enquirer via AP, Pool)

Former University of Cincinnati officer Ray Tensing, left, looks down as the chief deputy coroner of the Hamilton County, Ohio, Coroner’s office, Dr. Karen Looman (not shown) testifies in Tensing’s retrial Wednesday, June 14, 2017, in the Hamilton County Courthouse in Cincinnati. (Cara Owsley/The Cincinnati Enquirer via AP, Pool)

Edward Lattyak, firearms expert with the Hamilton County coroner’s office, shows Sam DuBose’s red hat with a bullet hole, during the retrial of former University of Cincinnati police officer Raymond Tensing, Wednesday, June 14, 2017, in the Hamilton County Courthouse in Cincinnati. (Cara Owsley/The Cincinnati Enquirer via AP, Pool)

CINCINNATI — An Ohio judge has rejected a prosecution request to allow jurors to consider a lesser charge in the murder retrial of a former University of Cincinnati police officer.

Hamilton County Judge Leslie Ghiz (giz) said it’s the prosecution’s job to include the charges it wants in the indictment.

Just before the defense began calling witnesses Thursday, prosecutors asked that reckless homicide be added as an option to the murder and voluntary manslaughter counts Ray Tensing faces.

The judge agreed to reconsider the request before the jury begins deliberations.

Tensing, who is white, is charged in the 2015 traffic-stop shooting of an unarmed black motorist, Sam DuBose. Tensing has said he feared for his life as DuBose tried to drive away.

His first trial ended in a hung jury in November.