The South Carolina trooper facing criminal charges for shooting a man reaching for his drivers license – after asking the man for his drivers license – is now facing criminal charges for shoplifting at Walmart.
But Sean Groubert has still managed to avoid spending much time in jail.
“Please keep me out of jail,” Groubert asked the judge on Monday, who was considering a motion to revoke the bond from his previous charge.
The judge ended up modifying the bond, ordering Groubert to remain under house arrest with exceptions for work, court, doctor or church, according to Live 5 News.
So not only is Groubert facing assault and battery charges from the September 4, 2014 incident where he confronted a 35-year-old man named Levar Jones in a gas station for a baseless seatbelt violation, only to shoot him in the hip when Jones tried to comply with his orders, he is also awaiting trial for the shoplifting charge.
The shooting incident was captured on dash cam video, which is the only reason Groubert was charged in the first place.
After all, this is the story he tried to concoct after the shooting:
“I pulled him over for a seat belt violation,” Groubert can be heard saying on the tape.
“Before I could event get out of my car he jumped out, stared at me, and as I jumped out of my car and identified myself, as I approached him, he jumped head-first back into his car.”
“I started retracting back towards the rear of his vehicle telling him ‘Look, get out of the car, let me see your hands. He jumped out of the car. I saw something black in his hands. I ran to the other side car yelling at him, and he kept coming towards me. Apparently it was his wallet.”
The video shows he did not pull Jones over, but had driven up to him after Jones had pulled into a gas station and stepped out of his car without any visual evidence that he had committed a seatbelt violation.
The video also shows that he then asked Jones for his drivers license, which Jones then tried to retrieve by dipping back into his truck.
But that, of course, caused Groubert to fear for his life.
“Get out of the car! Get out of the car!” he yelled as he fired off four shots, one of them striking Jones in the hip.
Jones can be seen trying to dodge bullets with both arms raised in the air.
“Get on the ground! Get on the ground!” the trooper yelled.
“What did I do? . . . I just got my license, you said get my license,” Jones asked.
“You dove headfirst back into your car,” Groubert responded. “Then you jumped back out. I’m telling you to get outta your car.”
Jones, who has a clean criminal record, was awarded a $285,000 settlement earlier this year.
And Groubert is now driving a truck to support him and his wife, Morgan Groubert, who is expecting their first child. She is also facing shoplifting charges.
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