An Alameda County judge ordered Johannes Mehserle to stand trial on murder charges, telling the ex-BART cop that he didn’t believe his excuses for killing Oscar Grant. Superior Court Judge C. Don Clay said testimony showed that Mehserle intended to shoot Grant with his gun, and had not his Taser, as Mehserle’s attorneys had claimed, according to the Trib and the Chron. Clay also made it clear that Mehserle has serious credibility problems. Testimony revealed that after the New Year’s Day killing, Mehserle repeatedly told another BART officer that he thought Grant was reaching for a gun, and never once said that he had meant to Tase him. The judge also noted that as a trained police officer Mehserle would not have attempted to Tase Grant if he actually believed Grant posed a deadly threat. In the end, the testimony at the preliminary hearing was pretty damning for Mehserle, and established that he is a liar. At this point, he may be better off trying to get a plea deal from prosecutors than putting his fate in the hands of a jury.
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