Johannes Mehserle, who shot Oscar J. Grant III, has pleaded not guilty.

Mehserle resigned his job as a Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer days after the shooting, and he was arrested in Nevada.

The court proceedings took less than five minutes, and the judged ordered the former office be held until his next hearing, scheduled for Jan. 26.

Newly released court documents allege that Mehserle shot Grant while Grant had his hands behind his back and another officer was kneeling on his neck.

Mychal Bell says he felt pressured to be perfect after his Jena 6 case was over. Following his arrest on a shoplifting charge, he used his Christmas money on a gun to kill himself.

The 18-year-old says he pointed the gun at his head and pulled the trigger, but the gun misfired and he aimed it at his chest to try again. The bullet ripped through his body, and he fell to the floor of his grandmother’s home in Monroe on December 29.

In an interview with CNN, Bell said:

“It just got to the point where I just couldn’t take it anymore. I just wanted to show everybody that I really wasn’t the type of kid that everybody was making me out to be. Nobody will ever be perfect, but it’s like that’s where my mind was. You need to be perfect.”

Bell said he felt people were constantly watching him, hoping he’d fail: “‘Just mess up, just mess up.’ There was a lot of pressure on me.’”

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