Trial date moved for security guard who allegedly shot Alvin Motley Jr.
Defendant Gregory Livingston (left) stands during a preliminary hearing in Judge Louis Montesi’s courtroom on Sept. 28, 2021. (Mark Weber/The Daily Memphian file)
A new trial date has been set for Gregory Livingston, the former security guard accused of shooting Chicago man Alvin Motley Jr. at a Kroger gas station in East Memphis in 2021.
Livingston, 56, allegedly shot Motley on August 7, 2021, for playing music too loud at the Kroger on Poplar Avenue at Kirby Parkway.
Motley, 48, was in Memphis visiting family at the time of the shooting. His family is represented by nationally known civil rights attorney Ben Crump.
Livingston was scheduled to go to trial Jan. 30, but the presiding judge at the time, Shelby County Criminal Court Division IX Judge Melissa Boyd, recused herself from the case due to a conflict of interest.
Boyd was elected to the bench in in the August 2022 general election, unseating incumbent Mark Ward. She had presided over at least one of Livingston’s status hearings before filing an order of recusal on Jan. 12.
The case was randomly reassigned to Shelby County Criminal Court Division VIII Judge Chris Craft’s courtroom. Livingston appeared in Craft’s courtroom for the first time Monday, Feb. 13. He is now tentatively scheduled to go to trial Oct. 30, and he will have a bond review hearing March 6.
Livingston is indicted on a first-degree murder charge. Defense attorneys Leslie Ballin and Steve Farese are representing him.
Currently, Livingston’s bond is set at $1.8 million, but Ballin said he hopes to have the amount lowered at the bond review hearing.
“It’s obvious that the news in regard to the five officers (accused of killing Tyre Nichols) that have been charged with murder being released on bonds in the amounts of $250,000, $350,000 come to our mind about our bond being way excessive,” Ballin said. “So we’re going to ask the court to review our bond amount, and we are hopeful that that bond would be reduced to an amount that our client can make.”
In August 2021, former Shelby County District Attorney General Amy Weirich recused her office from the case because one of the investigators in the office, Joe Hoing, has a second job with Allied Universal Security, the private security company Livingston was working for at the time of the shooting. Hoing is a former Memphis police officer who was on loan from Weirich’s office to the Drug Enforcement Administration Task Force.
Topics
Gregory Livingston Alvin Motley Jr Chris CraftJulia Baker
A lifelong Memphian, Julia Baker graduated from the University of Memphis in 2021. Other publications and organizations she has written for include Chalkbeat, Memphis Flyer, Memphis Parent magazine and Memphis magazine.
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