Man Accused Of Killing Scott Harkness: Restore My Gun Rights

SCOTTSDALE, AZ — Just a few months before he was accused of killing a Scottsdale Special Olympics athlete, John Merryman asked the Maricopa County Superior Court to restore the civil rights taken from him when he was convicted of a felony, including the right to gun ownership, according to court records.

Scott Harkness, the 59-year-old Special Olympics athlete, was shot to death in the early morning hours of Feb. 6 as he was walking home from a bar where he was a regular, according to Scottsdale police.

Merryman, 38, was arrested Friday and booked into the Maricopa County Jail on suspicion of first-degree murder, according to police and arrest records. Merryman is being held on $1 million bail. His next court date is set for Thursday.

Police said that they used forensic evidence to tie the gun found near where Harkness was shot around 7900 East Camelback Road to both Harkness's fatal gunshot wound and to Merryman.

Merryman was convicted of felony possession of drug paraphernalia in November 2020 and was sentenced to six months of probation and fined $1,399, according to court documents. He was released from probation two months early, in April 2021, when his probation officer wrote in a court document that, "the defendant has complied with all his Terms and Conditions of Probation, he is on a successful and positive life path."

On Dec. 16, 2021, Merryman's lawyer asked Maricopa County Superior Court to set aside his conviction and to restore his civil rights, including the right to own a gun. Federal law prohibits people convicted of a felony from owning or possessing guns, unless a court restores the person's rights to gun ownership.

“This was a non-violent, non-repetitive and non-dangerous crime,” Merryman’s lawyer in the drug paraphernalia case, Ryan M. Garvey, wrote in the petition to the court. “No persons were involved, there were no victims, and there were no injuries.”

In its Jan. 26 response to Merryman's request, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office asked that Merryman's request not be considered until he had paid the remaining $65 balance of his fine.

As of Monday, Merryman's gun ownership and civil rights taken away upon his felony conviction had not been restored, according to court documents.