Attorney: Gregory Favors "Depressed and Scared Young Man" Waives First Court Appearance

The defense attoey for an Atlanta man charged with fatally shooting Georgia State Patrol Trooper Chadwick LeCroy said his client is depressed and a scared young man.

"Obviously facing charges like this, anybody would be scared," said defense attoey Michael Mann, who paused to speak with reporters outside the Fulton County jail shortly after waiving his client's first appearance hearing on Wednesday.

Mann said he had not yet been notified about whether the state intends to seek the death penalty against Gregory Favors, 30. Favors has pleaded not guilty to the crime. Mann described his client as "a little slow" with poor eyesight, but said he has never used the insanity defense in prior cases.

In response to questions about Favors' extensive criminal history, Mann said he has represented Favors in the past and all his offenses have been nonviolent. The crime he is accused of committing is out of character for Favors, his attoey added.

"He's been arrested before, but he's never faced charges anywhere close to as serious as this," Mann said. "It's easy to put up 18 arrests and say this is a bad person, therefore he must have done this. But bad people are sometimes innocent of what they are accused of and good people are sometimes guilty of some things they are charged with."

Mann also responded to reports that the shooting had been captured on the trooper's dashboard camera. The attoey said he had not seen the videotape.

"I've had a lot of cases where the state says there is videotape, and you look at the videotape, and it's not what they said it is," Mann said.

Meanwhile, more details were starting to emerge Wednesday about Favors' extensive criminal history.

According to court records obtained by the AJC Wednesday, Favors was out of jail on $19,000 bond following a Dec. 10 arrest, for which he had been charged with several nonviolent felony offenses. He missed a hearing related to that arrest on Monday moing, the same day he allegedly gunned down LeCroy.

The $19,000 bond amount mentioned in Favors' court file conflicts with records provided by the Fulton County Sheriff's Office on Tuesday, which indicated Favors had been released on a signature bond without having to post bail.

Favors did not show up for a scheduled pretrial hearing in Fulton County on Monday moing. That night around 11, the trooper was attempting to pull him over for having a broken taillight when Favors allegedly tried to flee, leading the trooper on a short chase before Favors' vehicle crashed into a mailbox in a northwest Atlanta neighborhood.

Information about his prior arrest on Dec. 10 indicates that a police officer spotted Favors and another man using a broken antenna to break into a 2004 Ford Mustang in Atlanta. When police tried to confront them, Favors allegedly ran away.

Favors was captured a short time later. On Dec. 11, the Fulton County District Attoey's Office filed an accusation against Favors that charged him with five counts of entering an auto, possession of tools for the commission of a crime, possession of cocaine and two counts of obstruction of a law enforcement officers. He was released from jail three days later.

Court records also indicate that Favors used an alias, Manual Frazier. Mann also indicated that someone previously has used Favors' name.