The man who shot a YouTube prankster at Dulles Town Center was unable to get a judge to set aside his conviction on a firearms charge.
The judge also ruled Alan Colie remain in jail – where he’s been since the April shooting – while he awaits sentencing.
Video showed YouTube personality Tanner Cook confronting Colie at the mall as Colie picked up food for a delivery. Cook played a non-sensical phrase on his phone, pushing it into Colie’s face until Colie fired one gunshot, wounding Cook.
Colie’s defense attorney told jurors he fired the gun in self-defense because he felt threatened and couldn’t see what was in Cook’s other hand.
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Jurors found Colie not guilty on the most serious charge, aggravated malicious wounding, but found him guilty of unlawful discharge of a gun.
His attorney asked the judge to set aside that guilty verdict, arguing it was clear jurors believed Colie acted in self-defense and therefore he should have been acquitted of all charges.
The judge denied the request, saying it was possible the jurors found evidence to support the single conviction.
Colie’s grandmother says her grandson was just trying to earn a living when his life was upended by the YouTube prankster.
“He came into the mall to do an honest job to make a dollar, no trouble, and the trouble found him,” Elfriede Colie said. “So those people, now, they’re making a lot of money off his back while he’s locked up.”
Colie faces up to five years in prison at sentencing Dec. 21.
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