An Oconee County grand jury has indicted 45-year-old Richard Harold Gear on murder charges in the shooting death of 21-year-old Bryan Joseph "B.J." Mough.
After reviewing all of the evidence in the case, Jurors returned a six-count indictment, charging Gear with malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime.
Following the jury's decision, Chief Judge Lawton Stephens denied Gear's request for bond.
"The court is unable to find that the defendant poses no significant threat or danger to the community," Lawton said.
Gear has been behind bars since February when he was arrested for shooting Mough.
According to police, Gear's two daughters, ages 17 and 19, called their father from their cell phones on the evening of Feb. 25, and told him that Mough was following them on a motorcycle. The girls allegedly said that the incident started when they made obscene gestures at him after he cut them off in the Target parking lot. The girls also claimed that Mough had run his motorcycle into the back of their Nissan Sentra.
When the girls pulled up to their family home, Gear was standing in the driveway with a loaded .40-caliber semi-automatic handgun. Mough initially continued driving down the road but then turned around to pass by the house again. When Mough drove by the second time, Gear raised his handgun and fired multiple shots. One of the bullets struck Mough in the back. Gear then called 911 and reported the shooting, allegedly claiming that he had fired the gun in self-defense when Mough attempted to run him over with the motorcycle. When paramedics arrived on the scene, they transported Mough to a local hospital, but he was pronounced dead upon arrival.
"I don't know how you can legally shoot someone in the back on a motorcycle and then claim that he was trying to run you down," Oconee County Sheriff Scott Berry told ABC News.
Gear's daughters later admitted that Mough had not rammed their vehicle with his motorcycle. In addition, an investigator allegedly found that there were no tire tracks or other evidence to support Gear's claims that Mough had attempted to run him over.
A trial date has not yet been set.