During closing arguments Monday, prosecutors told jurors that Ronald Page pulled a gun on his two sons “to show them who was in control.” Page’s defense attorneys argued that the firing of that gun, which resulted in the death of Page’s step-son, Nicholas Ray Satcher, was accidental.
Page is charged with second-degree murder and related weapons offenses in connection with Satcher’s death, which resulted from an argument that occurred between Ronald and his biological son, Adrian Page, in January 2011. According to trial testimony, Satcher intervened in an attempt to calm the argument, and was subsequently shot and killed.
Prosecutors conceded that Adrian Page was “defiant” in the confrontation with his father over his attendance at school, and he testified that he refused to hand over his Xbox, “because I paid for it.” Prosecutor Lara Worm acknowledged, “You can imagine how he [Adrian] would get someone angry.”
“But use your common sense,” Worm said. “The defendant wasn’t afraid of his little son.”
When Ronald Page returned with a Colt 45 and racked the gun in front of his sons, the action was “to show them who was in control,” prosecutors argued. Racking the gun, along with Ronald Page’s decisions to disarm the slide safety and the grip safety, showed a definitive conscious disregard of the family’s safety according to the prosecution.
Satcher, Adrian Page’s half brother and Ronald Page’s step-son, intervened in the argument to settle things peacefully after Ronald Page retrieved a gun from his room. Ronald Page then told Satcher to leave the house. While Satcher was collecting clothes from his room, there was a gunshot.
Kia Sears, Page’s defense attorney, argued that the gunshot was accidental, and the result of a confrontation that left Ronald Page in fear of his life. “[Ronald Page] ran toward the back of the house, realized he had no escape,” and returned with the gun in a hurry to leave, Sears told the court.
Page did not resist Annie Satcher when she took the gun away from him after Nicholas Satcher was shot, Sears reminded the jury, nor did he leave the house after the police were called. In her closing, Sears pointed out that Annie Satcher testified that Ronald Page “looked stunned” after the gunshot.
“Stunned,” Sears said, “is how you look when a gun accidentally fires.”
Prosecutors argued that Ronald Page “had no right to arm himself” in the disagreement. Page’s choice to arm himself, Worm said, showed a “conscious disregard” for the family’s safety.
Jury deliberations will resume Tuesday morning.
