A state appellate court has thrown out the murder, assault and weapons convictions for a man sentenced to life for a deadly shooting outside the Moda Center after a comedy show in October 2018.
The Oregon Court of Appeals on Thursday found that the trial judge should have instructed jurors that Robert Jay James Jr., 43, did not have a duty to retreat before acting in self-defense — the basis of his defense at trial.
In June 2022, a Multnomah County judge sentenced James to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 30 years for the fatal shooting of one man and the wounding of two other people from a barrage of bullets fired as concertgoers streamed out of the Moda Center on Oct. 5, 2018…