Rochester, NY (WROC)–19-year-old Charlie Tan was back in court Thursday. He’s accused of shooting his father, Jim Tan, to death in their Pittsford home back in February. The defense claims the shooting is the result of a long history of abuse by Jim. “It’s very tough. But, that’s all I have to say. We’re behind Charlie and that’s it. We’re all behind him,” said former Pittsford-Mendon High School classmate, Austin Haas.
Classmates like Haas are in court for one reason: to support Charlie. “The support system that this young man has is tremendous,” said Tan’s attorney, Brian DeCarolis.
Investigators said Tan shot his father sometime between February 5th-9th. Tan allegedly admitted as much to investigators. “What happened in that house happened for a reason, it happened because of a long and tortured history of abuse in that house and his statement is consistent with that,” DeCarolis explained.
Thursday, we learned there’s a surveillance video of Tan at a convenience store in Cicero, New York. Although Monroe County prosecutor William Gargan won’t say when the video was taken relative to the shooting. He’s hoping that comes out at trial. Tan’s attorneys are pushing to keep it out of court. “In the grand scheme of this, it’s largely insignificant.”
Gargan said they collected four of Tan’s computer flash drives. However, he won’t say what’s on them. “We will turn over anything we have related to the case so that defense council can utilize it in any way as well.
No one is able to pinpoint when Jim died. That’s partly because there’s still no final autopsy report from the medical examiner. Gargan said he has a theory. “I would never share a theory with you.” Nor would he tell us where or how Tan got the gun. Tan’s attorneys say they’re still looking into it. “To ask me right now what the full picture is, I don’t know because I have a whole bunch of stuff that will take the better part of this weekend to go through. I can tell you up to this point we haven’t seen any real sufficient info on where the fire arm came from.”
Tan’s currently living in the home where his father was killed with his mother and brother. He’s not working or going to college.
A hearing is scheduled for June 17 to determine whether Tan’s statements and the video will be allowed during trial. His trial is set to begin September 14.
Classmates like Haas are in court for one reason: to support Charlie. “The support system that this young man has is tremendous,” said Tan’s attorney, Brian DeCarolis.
Investigators said Tan shot his father sometime between February 5th-9th. Tan allegedly admitted as much to investigators. “What happened in that house happened for a reason, it happened because of a long and tortured history of abuse in that house and his statement is consistent with that,” DeCarolis explained.
Thursday, we learned there’s a surveillance video of Tan at a convenience store in Cicero, New York. Although Monroe County prosecutor William Gargan won’t say when the video was taken relative to the shooting. He’s hoping that comes out at trial. Tan’s attorneys are pushing to keep it out of court. “In the grand scheme of this, it’s largely insignificant.”
Gargan said they collected four of Tan’s computer flash drives. However, he won’t say what’s on them. “We will turn over anything we have related to the case so that defense council can utilize it in any way as well.
No one is able to pinpoint when Jim died. That’s partly because there’s still no final autopsy report from the medical examiner. Gargan said he has a theory. “I would never share a theory with you.” Nor would he tell us where or how Tan got the gun. Tan’s attorneys say they’re still looking into it. “To ask me right now what the full picture is, I don’t know because I have a whole bunch of stuff that will take the better part of this weekend to go through. I can tell you up to this point we haven’t seen any real sufficient info on where the fire arm came from.”
Tan’s currently living in the home where his father was killed with his mother and brother. He’s not working or going to college.
A hearing is scheduled for June 17 to determine whether Tan’s statements and the video will be allowed during trial. His trial is set to begin September 14.
