Law Student Charged With Murder Claims It Was All About A Girl

The law student accused of murder claims that the alleged victim was harassing his girlfriend...

Man, some people got really worked up about about some of the opinions I shared in yesterday’s post about Kenan Gay, the second-year student at Charlotte Law School who has been charged with murdering a man by pushing him out in traffic. (Note to readers: if you don’t like strong opinions, you might want to steer clear of my posts; there are many other writers to read on this fine website.)

People especially took offense to my raising the possibility that the victim, Robert Kingston, might have been a “townie.” When I used the term “townie,” I was referring to the discord you see on some campuses between the student population and the population of people who live in the town on a full-time basis.

But I guess a lot of you college-educated types also like to impose your own class and educational prejudices on townies. So many of you emailed me to tell me about Kingston’s education and socioeconomic status, it’s as if you think that holding a college degree and a good job absolves you of the “townie” distinction. To that I can only hope that you keep your uppity, educated asses out of my local bar. Nobody wants to hear about what you just learned in your comparative trust-fund psychology class when we’re out for an after-work drink.

Anyway, I’d like to move beyond Towniegate to discuss some actual allegations about Kingston. But first I’d like to share the quasi-death threat I received from a so-called friend of Kingston, just so everybody has a suspect in case I’m found on FDR miles away from a Taco Bell…

Now, I’m not particularly inclined to believe the allegations about Kingston, since they emanate from Kenan Gay, the man accused of murdering him. But it’s also not clear to me that Kingston has great friends. One of them wrote:

The article that I just read on your Above The Law website about my friend, Rob Kingston, and the insinuation that he is a “Townie” picking bar fights with college students is some of the worst reporting I have ever read. You are an insenstive a**hole, to be kind.

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Blah, blah, blah, he goes on to offer me more proof that he has poor reading comprehension. And then we get to the pertinent point to me:

What kind of sick f**k are you to put false, misleading information out there for the public to read. This is defamation. You are an A**HOLE. And if I was as much of a townie and monster as Bobby, I would write you a strongly worded email. If I were as much of a townie and monster as Gay, I might throw you into an oncoming car.

First of all: this guy better choose the car wisely. I’ll put my fat ass up against anything that rolls off the line at KIA Motors any day of the week.

Second: look, this dude lost his friend. He’s gotta be pissed at something.

I just hope he keeps it together when he reads the latest things that Kenan Gay’s attorney is saying about Robert Kingston, as reported in the Charlotte Observer:

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On Monday, defense attorney Christopher Fialko told reporters that Gay reacted when Kingston “put his hands” on Gay’s girlfriend. Gay tried to pull Kingston away from the woman, Fialko said.

“It is unfortunate” the altercation occurred a short distance from the street, Fialko said. Asked whether his client should be charged with first-degree murder, he said no.

Kingston was from Columbus, Ohio. He was engaged to be married in August, according to a wedding announcement in the (Youngstown, Ohio) Vindicator.

Alan Cole, owner of Ed’s Tavern, said Monday he is turning over to police a surveillance video that shows Kingston leaning to speak with a female patron. Moments later, Cole said, the video shows Gay grabbing the man by the collar and taking him out of the bar.

As Chris Danzig said when the story came in, “If hitting on another dude’s girlfriend was a capital offense, there’d be like four dudes left.” I know, I know, keep your girlfriends away from Chris Danzig. (Lat, not so much.)

I think it goes without saying that we can’t live in a society where people allegedly get pushed into traffic for talking to the wrong lady at a bar.

But there are two sides to every altercation. We have a law student charged with a heinous crime. We know what he allegedly did. I don’t know if we’ll ever know why.

P.S. For The Especially Dense: Wondering why is not tantamount to accepting any particular why as a “justification.” I assume they still teach that at law school.

Attorney: Fight in Dilworth bar was over girlfriend [Charlotte Observer]

Earlier: 2L Charged With Murder: A Case of Student v. Townie Rage?