Jury deliberated about two hours on multiple charges related to 2020 shooting death of Black teen
By Kevin Opsahl, Rogue Valley Times
A Jackson County jury found Robert Keegan guilty Monday of first-degree manslaughter in the killing of Aidan Ellison during an argument over loud music in November 2020.
He was acquitted of second-degree murder.
Eleven jurors voted to find Keegan, 50, not guilty on the murder charge, and one voted guilty.
Keegan also was convicted of unlawful possession of a firearm and reckless endangering in the killing of Ellison, 19, outside the Stratford Inn in Ashland on Nov. 23, 2020.
Ellison’s mother, Andrea Woffard, declined comment immediately following the verdict. She has the opportunity to speak Friday at 11 a.m., when a sentencing hearing is scheduled.
Jurors heard closing arguments in Judge Timothy Barnack’s courtroom starting at 11 a.m. Monday and began deliberations at about 1 p.m. The jury announced it had reached a verdict roughly two-and-a-half hours later.
After the verdict was announced, Keegan’s attorneys, Clint Oborn and Alyssa Bartholomew, spoke to reporters.
“First thing is, there were no offers ever made on this case — zero,” Oborn said, referring to plea bargains. “The only offer was going to be life.”
Oborn said he believes the case could have been resolved without a trial and Keegan could have been sentenced on first-degree manslaughter.
“Now it has, but (only) after dragging people through five days of trial, dragging an 11-year-old child through trial,” Oborn said, referring to Keegan’s son, Paul, who testified in the trial a week ago.
Bartholomew expressed disappointment in the Jackson County District Attorney’s office, saying multiple other cases worse than Keegan’s have been resolved through a plea bargain.
“I’m surprised. I’m disappointed,” Bartholomew said, but she added that she respects the jury’s decision.
Bartholomew and Oborn declined to discuss their defense strategy in the case.
Bartholomew noted that first-degree manslaughter carries a mandatory-minimum sentence of 10 years in prison under Measure 11.
“He’s done two and a half years, so he’s looking at probably seven years (and) seven months more to go,” Bartholomew said.
Asked about the circumstances of the case — Keegan is white, while Ellison was Black — Bartholomew said the case was “never about race.” The FBI investigated and found no link between Ellison’s death and the color of his skin.
Deputy District Attorney Benjamin Lull, who prosecuted the case, and other members of his team, were not available for comment after the trial.
Original story posted earlier Monday:
Verdict on Aidan Ellison’s killing now in the jury’s hands
By Kevin Opsahl, Rogue Valley Times
Not even a week after the trial began, jurors will decide whether Robert Keegan is guilty of murder in the shooting death of Aidan Ellison after an argument over loud music in 2020.
Keegan, 50, is charged with second-degree murder, first-degree manslaughter, unlawful possession of a firearm and reckless endangering over the killing of Ellison, 19, outside the Stratford Inn in Ashland on Nov. 23, 2020. Reckless endangerment was one of the charges lodged against Keegan because the inn’s night auditor, Angel Carlin, tried to break up the argument. He was not injured.
Jurors heard closing arguments in Judge Timothy Barnack’s courtroom starting at 11 a.m. Monday. Deputy District Attorney Benjamin Lull concluded his argument with a powerful thought for the jury to consider.
“Robert Keegan said it was his worst day, but it was Aidan Ellison’s last day,” Lull said.
Both prosecutors and defense lawyers have offered similar versions of events, saying Ellison was playing loud music from a car around 4:15 a.m., when Keegan opened his second-story window and told the teen to turn it down. Ellison reportedly yelled back at Keegan and kept playing music.
Keegan, who was living with histhen-9-year-old son, Paul, after losing everything in the Almeda Fire, went downstairs to the lobby to complain to Carlin, who testified in the trial that he did not hear music, but nevertheless went to speak to Ellison.
Keegan soon approached the two men, and an argument between Keegan and Ellison ensued, with Carlin caught in the middle. The young night auditor tried to break it up, but he failed, and as he tried to call police, a shot rang out.
Ellison fled a short distance and was found dead in a bushy parking median. A medical examiner testified last week Ellison died from a single gunshot to the chest.
During closing arguments Monday, Lull made the case to jurors that the death of Ellison was “not an accident” on the part of Keegan, taking aim in particular with his hours-long police interview after the shooting.
In the first part of the interview, Lull said, Keegan told police he was “only a little frustrated” with Ellison playing music and even gave the teen multiple warnings to stop.
When Keegan was warned by police during the interview that he was not being honest, Lull told jurors, the now-50-year-old said he was “highly irritated” and felt that way, too, when he went down to the lobby to speak with Carlin.
In the third and final portion of the interview, Lull told jurors that Keegan admitted he wanted to confront Ellison with a gun and “give him the business” himself. But even that was not a fully honest account, Lull said, because Keegan claimed he was sleepy.
“He wasn’t sleepy; he was pissed,” Lull said.
Lull quoted Keegan during the police interview as saying, “I never laid a hand on the guy (Ellison), other than trying to back away, and I pulled the trigger.”
During his own testimony on the stand Friday, Keegan told his defense attorney, Alyssa Bartholomew, that he pulled the trigger because, “I was in fear for my life. I couldn’t get away.”
But, Lull said, “that is not a rational fear,” and the law does not justify Keegan using lethal force.
“Aidan Ellison did not intentionally commit any felony crime,” Lull said. “He was not using or threatening to use deadly force.
“No matter how you look at it, that is not a reasonable use of force in this situation,” Lull continued. “You guys get to decide what is reasonable.”
In her closing argument, Bartholomew reminded jurors this was her last chance to talk to them before their deliberations, and she wanted them to know some aspects of the case she believed the state overlooked.
“I’m not going to do a PowerPoint because I know this case better than anyone else,” Bartholomew said. “We are looking for the truth. We are looking for the facts.”
She said only Keegan knew what he was thinking when he shot Ellison, and that is the aspect of this case jurors should examine the most.
Bartholomew said Keegan has a right to own a gun for self-defense under the U.S. Constitution.
“Robert Keegan has a constitutional reason to buy a gun for whatever reason he wants,” Bartholomew said. “He doesn’t have to have a reason.”
She said in Keegan’s fight with Ellison, Keegan was on the defensive the whole time and fired his only shot while backing up.
“He could have walked out those doors, and while Mr. Carlin was talking to Mr. Ellison, he could have said, ‘I’m going to shoot you right now,'” Bartholomew said. “Guns a ‘blazin. But he didn’t.”
Bartholomew said Carlin testified that, to him, it looked like Ellison was on offense and Keegan was on defense during the argument.
Bartholomew said Keegan told investigators he was scared of Ellison, which caused him to fire the gun.
Keegan, she said, had been through a traumatic event with Ellison and sat through police interrogation for hours without a lawyer.
“He knew the facts,” and was cordial with police, Bartholomew said.
Ellison, she said, had alcohol and marijuana in his system at the time of the shooting. Those are the kinds of details that the state overlooked and why the defense counsel had to call in expert witness testimony to get those points across, Bartholomew said.
“Those are things the state should have done,” she said. “They ignored what didn’t fit their theory.”
In rebuttal, Lull said it is indefensible for Keegan to have fears of someone who is unarmed in a quiet parking lot in the early morning hours.
“Those are not rational fears when you’re in a quiet parking lot,” Lull said.
Keegan spoke with police in the hotel lobby and again at police headquarters, where investigators accused him of not being completely honest about what happened that night. Jurors saw police body camera footage of the initial response to the crime scene and video of both interviews with Keegan.
The interrogating officer, Steve Bohn, a detective with the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, was one of those who testified at trial, in addition to the medical examiner, who said Ellison died of a single gunshot wound that entered his heart, and an outside firearms forensic analyst. Carlin testified Thursday, and so did Keegan on Friday to round out the week.
Keegan told his defense attorney under direct examination that he told Ellison to turn down the music and left his room with a jacket containing his gun, but was not intent on hurting the teen at that point.
Keegan told jurors it was only when Ellison kept advancing on him in the parking lot that the defendant pulled out his gun and fired. Keegan was emotional at times, tearfully telling jurors he “was in fear for my life. I couldn’t get away.” Keegan also expressed worry about what would happen if Ellison knocked him over, because the now-50-year-old has a history of back and neck issues.
Keegan testified he was “in shock” after shooting Ellison and was not sure where he went after the encounter.
Ellison’s death has generated a groundswell of community support, with a demonstration outside Ashland High School May 1. In the wake of the teen’s death, a mural in Ashland was painted in his honor.
At least two members of Ellison’s family have attended the trial, but so far have not commented on the proceedings.
Reporter Kevin Opsahl can be reached at 458-488-2034 or [email protected]. This story first appeared in the Rogue Valley Times.
