Michael Dunn Trial: The Murder of Jordan Davis

[HairOfTheDog]

First Degree Murder & Attempted Murder Charged

Remember Michael Dunn, the man who shot and killed a teen at a Florida gas station after an exchange of words about loud music, the day after Thanksgiving 2012?

He will be going to trial in February 2014. He's charged with the first degree murder of 17-year-old Jordan Davis and the attempted murder of the three other teens. Dunn fired off ten rounds at the parked car. He is claiming self defense - AFAIK, no stand-your-ground immunity has been sought.


Michael Dunn charged with first degree murder. Jordan Davis, murder victim

Jordan Davis never exited the car at the gas station. Dunn claims he was in great for his life because he thought the boys in the car aimed a gun at him. There was no gun in the car or on any of the boys.

Dunn fled the scene with his girlfriend of 3 years and hid out at a hotel. There were multiple witnesses to the killing; a witness provided police Dunn's license plate number.. Dunn was arrested shortly after the incident and remains in jail awaiting trial.

In her interview with investigators, Dunn's girlfriend told police that Dunn never mentioned seeing a gun in the boys' car. She also told them that he hates rap music.

Dunn told investigators he knew he shouldn't have told the boys to turn the music down and admits to getting heated in the argument.

He also told investigators that he was in complete fear for his life.

"I was so afraid that I didn't have time to think. I only reacted," Dunn said. Shoot first, think/ask questions later...

Source: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/natio...n/4029387/

These are Davis's parents - they've been very active and vocal in pushing for justice for their son.


Lucia McBath and Ron Davis, parents of Jordan Davis

I hope this asshole doesn't get let off the hook if a jury believes that he was really in fear for his life. I dislike the way the self defense laws in some states, including Florida, are written such that prosecutors have to disprove the claimed mindset of the defendants, but that's how it is.

In Dunn's case, I doubt any jury will believe that he was reasonably in fear of great bodily harm or death and made all reasonable attempts to escape the situation before deciding to fire off 10 rounds at a parked car occupied by four teens and then fleeing the scene.

[HairOfTheDog]

Is Race a Factor?

IDK, seems like a possibility in this case.

Jordan Davis's mom believes race was a factor in her son's killing and that Dunn mistakenly profiled her son as a thug.

Jordan's dad suspects that Dunn would have shot at a car full of white kids if they were playing loud rock music and didn't turn it down when the very controlling Dunn ordered them to do so.


Michael Dunn letter

The man who shot a Jacksonville teenager in a dispute over loud music complains about the black people he’s in jail with, writes derisively about 17-year-old Jordan Davis and his father and says he’ll get acquitted unless the jury is stacked with black people, jail letters from Michael David Dunn show.

An attorney for the Davis family called the letters “shockingly racist.”

Dunn also tries to convince his girlfriend, who was with him that night but didn’t witness the shooting, that he did see a gun despite not mentioning it to her.

The letters, obtained from the State Attorney’s Office as public records, had the recipients’ names blacked out. But the indications are they were to his girlfriend, parents, a grandmother, a daughter and several friends.

Read more at Jacksonville.com: http://jaxairnews.jacksonville.com/news/...z2nazqWXFP

[HairOfTheDog]

JURY SELECTION UNDERWAY



Almost a year and a half after he shot 17-year-old Jordan Davis to death at a Florida gas station, Michael Dunn is going to trial.

Jury selection started today and is expected to last til Wednesday. No live coverage permitted from the court room, at this point.

Media is still pushing to be allowed in.

If Dunn gets acquitted of killing Davis despite police never having recovered a gun (Dunn says the boys had one in the car and that caused him to fear for his life) - and despite Dunn having fled the scene without calling LE and then ordering a pizza while hiding in a motel room - it will dishearten me significantly.

Based on all of the case facts available to the public, there is no way this man was acting in self-defense, standing his ground, or otherwise within his rights or covered by law when he killed the teen. IMO.

Hoping like hell to see justice for Davis's family in this case.

Trial news:
http://www.firstcoastnews.com/story/news...n/5189193/

[Duchess]

Media is still pushing to be allowed in.

I hope they win.

[HairOfTheDog]

Media is still pushing to be allowed in.

I hope they win.

Me too.

From the link:
One hundred prospective jurors are the pool of candidates to sit on the jury. Questioning today focused on what the potential jurors know about the case and whether it would be a hardship being on the jury.

Twelve jurors were excused. Another 30 will be added on Tuesday to bring the pool size to 130. This process will start up at 8:15 a.m. Tuesday.

Judge Healy told the jurors that the jury would be sequestered once the trial gets underway through the jury reaching a verdict. The trial is expected to last until the end of next week.
--------------------------------------------------

I don't know the source predicting that the trial will finish by end of next week, but they must be on ludes. That seems very unrealistic to me and not at all in line with other murder trials. I think the court will be lucky if the trial is finished by the end of the month.

[SIXFOOTERsez]

He is an asshole, hope for a conviction on this one.
Yhey sure have missed the boat on some of them out here lately

[HairOfTheDog]

He is an asshole, hope for a conviction on this one.

He really is an asshole and he's full of shit. It's a very good thing that this went down with plenty of witnesses who were strangers to Dunn and the teens.

Dunn's defense is Justifiable Use of Deadly Force and he's using the buzz words to try to sell that story, but doesn't even come close to making a compelling argument to support that defense in his interview with police.

Snip:

"I was polite. I asked them nicely. ... I said, 'Hey, would you guys mind turning that down?' They shut it off, and I was like, 'Thank you,' " Dunn tells police.

One of the passengers became "agitated," Dunn further explains, and someone turned the music back up. Dunn says he wasn't sure if the teens were singing, but he heard someone say, "Kill him," so he rolled down his window and asked if they were talking about him.

"It was like, um, 'Kill that bitch,' " Dunn says, claiming that he saw one of the Durango's occupants produce what looked like a shotgun and open the vehicle's door.

Asked later if he was certain he saw a gun, he replies, "I saw a barrel come up on the window, like a single-shot shotgun ... It was either a barrel or a stick."

"I'm sh***ing bricks, but that's when I reached in my glove box, unholstered my pistol ... and so quicker than a flash I had a round chambered in it, and I shot," he says, adding that he has owned the 9mm handgun since 1990 and "always" keeps it fully loaded in his glove compartment.

He initially fired his weapon four times, Dunn tells police, and the Durango began to pull away.

"I was still scared and so I shot four more times ... trying to keep their heads down to not catch any return fire. And that was it," he says.

His girlfriend exited the convenience store to see what was happening, and Dunn told her, " 'Get in the car. We have to go.' I didn't feel safe there," he recalls during the interrogation.

The couple had plans at a "fairly expensive" bed and breakfast in St. Augustine, 40 miles south of Jacksonville, so they drove there and ordered pizza. Dunn didn't call police, he says, because he wanted to go back to his South Patrick Shores home, another 130 miles south of St. Augustine.

Dunn "was waiting till we get around people we know" to call authorities, and he wanted to ensure "our dog and everybody were where they needed to be. I did not want to bring a s**tstorm down on them in Jacksonville," he tells interrogators.

In hindsight, he says, he shouldn't have left the scene, but he was too afraid to stay. "I went over this a million times, and what I should've done is put the car in reverse" to escape the confrontation, he says, but "it was fight or flight. I don't think there was any time for flight at that moment. I was going to get shot."

One of the police interrogators tells Dunn, "I will be the first to tell you that there are no weapons in that car. I don't know what you saw."

"Is it possible when they drove off they dumped it?" Dunn asks.

"They never left the parking lot," the officer replies. "They drove off, circled right back around and came right back to that spot."

Toward the end of the interview, one interrogator tells Dunn, "There are clear-cut cases where you go, 'Yup, sure did, buddy. You defended yourself. Have a nice day.' "

Adds the other interrogator, "Let me be the first to tell you, this ain't one of them."

http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/05/justice/fl...?hpt=ju_c1
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The jury is in place and opening statements begin today.

Man, I hope this guy doesn't get away with killing a teen for no justifiable reason whatsoever.

[HairOfTheDog]

WITNESSES TESTIFY FOR THE PROSECUTION


Leland Brunson testifies about what happened at the gas station. He was Jordan Davis's best friend.


Tevin Thompson testifies as to how far the window was open when Davis and Dunn were exchanging words.

Snip:

“Are you talking to me?”

Those are the words that Michael Dunn said before he began shooting at a car full of teenagers including Jordan Davis, according to two teens who were riding in the Dodge Durango in which the 17-year-old Davis was killed.

Thompson testified that he, Davis, Tommie Stornes, 20, and Leland Brunson, 18, had planned to try to pick up girls at two local shopping areas and that they pulled into the Gate gas station around 7:30 p.m. for gum – “so our breath would smell good” – and cigarettes for the driver, Stornes.

According to Thompson, Stornes went into the gas station store and while the three other teens waited for their friend, Dunn pulled up in his car “really close” to their Durango. Dunn's car was so close, Thompson testified, that he wouldn’t have been able to exit the passenger seat he was in. Both Thompson and Brunson testified that the music playing in the Durango was loud enough that the car shook with the bass. The teens also testified that the Durango had tinted windows.

Thompson told the court that Dunn said: “Turn your music down I can’t hear myself think.” Thompson says he obliged, but that Jordan Davis objected, saying, according to Thompson, “F**k that, n****r, turn it back up.” Thompson turned the music back up, and that’s when Davis and Dunn began “having a conversation back and forth.”

Both Thompson and Brunson said that it was Davis who escalated the verbal sparring. The teens told the court that they never heard Dunn curse or yell at Davis. Brunson said that at one point, Davis said, "I'm tired of people telling me what to do."

"Are you talking to me?" Brunson said he saw Dunn get a gun from his glove compartment, cock it, aim it out his window toward where Davis was sitting, and start shooting.

Both teens testified that Stornes put the car in reverse and that Dunn kept shooting as the teens sped away toward a nearby parking lot. Brunson testified that Davis fell into his lap and that he knew his best friend had been hurt when he called his name and Davis didn't answer, and he saw blood on his own hands after touching Davis' chest. Brunson and Thompson testified that Davis was "gasping for air."

Full story: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/teen-testifi...ing-to-me/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sounds to me like Dunn was pretty pissed off at Davis for being mouthy with him, so he pulled his loaded gun from the glove box and shot at a car full of teens because he felt disrespected. Just like the old man in the movie theater who shot a father to death over texting and popcorn.

No one is denying that Davis started the verbal back and forth with Dunn after Dunn told the kids to turn their music down. But, the only one claiming that Jordan was trying to get out of the car or could have had anything that resembled a gun is Dunn.

[HairOfTheDog]

Suspect's Fiancee Testifies


Rhonda Rouer - Dunn's girlfriend who was with him at the gas station when he shot Jordan Davis.

Rouer told jurors that she had two rum and colas and Dunn had “maybe three or four” at the 2012 wedding of Dunn's son prior to pulling into the parking lot of a Jacksonville gas station beside a red Dodge Durango blaring loud music.

“I hate that thug music,” Rouer testified Dunn told her. Rouer replied “Yes, I know,” and then exited the vehicle.

Rouer went inside the gas station to get a bottle of wine and a bag of potato chips. Moments later, Rouer told jurors, “I heard pop, pop, pop.”

Rouer then said she heard a second set of “pop, pop, pop,” and turned around and saw Dunn outside. After Rouer exited the store, she told jurors Dunn told her to get in the vehicle. When Rouer got back in the car, she testified seeing Dunn put a gun back in the glovebox.

Rouer said they went back to the hotel, where Dunn ordered a pizza. She testified Dunn ordered the pizza because he thought it would make her feel better. She also said Dunn fixed a rum and cola for both of them in the hotel room.

The next morning, Rouer woke up and saw reports on TV about the shooting at the gas station. She testified that she told Dunn that she wanted to go home right away, despite having prior plans. They returned to his home where he was later arrested.

http://www.hlntv.com/article/2014/02/08/...?hpt=hp_t2

[HairOfTheDog]

FINAL PROSECUTION WITNESSES; PROSECUTION RESTS ITS CASE



Jurors saw dramatic photos of the body of slain Florida teenager Jordan Davis Monday during the trial of the man accused in his killing, Michael Dunn, and viewed clothing Davis was wearing the evening he was shot to death.

ME Stacey Simons said Davis was killed by “multiple gunshot wounds.” One bullet, she said, entered the right side of his chest and punctured his diaphragm, liver, lungs and aorta. She showed jurors clothing Davis was wearing, showing the bullet holes in the clothing she said were consistent with wounds on his body.

The bullet wound that pierced Davis’ chest “would have been fatal in a matter of minutes,” Simons testified. Two other wounds pierced Davis’ right and left thighs near his groin, she said.

But in a combative cross-examination, defense attorney Cory Strolla asked whether Davis might have been standing outside the vehicle while he was shot. The position Davis was in when he was shot could be key as jurors determine whether Dunn shot in self-defense. (In his opening statement, Strolla told jurors that Davis was trying to get out of the Durango when Dunn shot him.)

Another law enforcement department analyst, Maria Pagan, testified earlier in the day about the steps Dunn took before shooting the teen, bolstering prosecutors’ contention that he acted with premeditation. Dunn would have had to remove the gun from its holster, load the chamber with a bullet and then apply six pounds of pressure to fire it, Pagan said.

Dunn fired the gun 10 times, hitting the SUV nine times, and he would have had to pull the trigger every time using more than six pounds of pressure each time, Pagan said. Pagan answered affirmatively when prosecutor Angela Corey asked, “Does that take a conscious effort of the shooter to have a second-round come out?”

Jacksonville Sheriff's Office Detective Andrew Kipple testified Saturday that the location of nine bullet holes in the SUV showed that the Durango's driver and his front-seat passenger barely escaped being shot.

According to authorities, Dunn became enraged and he and Davis began arguing. One person walking out of the convenience store said he heard Dunn say, "You are not going to talk to me like that."

Dunn, who had a concealed weapons permit, pulled a 9 mm handgun from the glove compartment, according to an affidavit, and fired multiple shots, striking Davis. No gun was found in the SUV.



Jordan Davis' father, (Ronald ^), took the stand and recalled Leland Brunson and Tevin Thompson visiting him to console him after the shooting. Of Leland, “He was going back and forth from the living room to bedroom and sitting on the bed, then came back to the living room,” Ronald Davis said. “Tevin Thompson was crying. He usually has a big smile on his face.” Davis said he has little recollection of the visit because of his own emotional agony.

Refs:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/pr...z2t1DssSyr
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/michael-dunn...rder-case/

[Duchess]

I'm looking forward to a guilty verdict.

It's sometimes very difficult to keep the faith in our justice system.

[Adub]

So is Dunn expected to take the stand today in his own defense? I played catch-up yesterday on youtube. It's the big scary black kid defense, once again. That gf/fiancé was ridiculous. I watched her police interview the day after the arrest and she was not a blubbering mess. Dunn is trying to use her as an excuse, at least the part of why they left the scene. And, she is playing along. She was acting.

I have the week off! And the schools here are on a 1 hour delay because of the fog. I want to see Dunn take the stand. The judge needs to get on with it.

Dunn is taking the stand!

http://www.actionnewsjax.com/content/liv...TSIgw.cspx

[HairOfTheDog]

Thanks, Adub.

He calls Jordan Davis his "attacker". Pfft.

He's full of it. He says he saw what looked like a gun when police interviewed him. No gun found; no opportunity for the boys to discard one.

Then, contents of Jordan's pockets include a pocket knife. So, Dunn's story becomes Jordan threatened him with a knife.

Nobody ever saw Jordan get out of the car and his friends say he didn't - but desperate Dunn's attorney now claims that Jordan's outta the vehicle when Dunn lost his shit.

I don't believe Dunn and his tears - not one bit. All the defense has presented is Dunn's friends and family saying he's never gotten mad before.

He had to take the stand. There are no experts or witnesses than can contradict the eye witnesses at the gas station and the state's experts, IMO.

Obviously, I think this guy is guilty as hell. If he doesn't get convicted of 1^st degree, he better get second degree. If he walks, I'm probably gonna cry - for real.

[Adub]

Mother fucker acted like somebodies little bitch on the stand.

[Duchess]

I missed it.

[HairOfTheDog]

I missed most of it too, but saw some clips and read some of the highlights.

Dunn came up with all kinds of shit on the stand that he didn't bother to mention in his police interview, as far as I can see.

He has ear damage caused by loud music, he says. But, he could hear what was being said in the car?




So, if he thought he saw a gun and shot at Davis to remove the threat to his life, why did he say he didn't think he'd shot anyone in his police interview? Why on earth didn't he call police and tell them about this car full of killers that forced him to shoot in self defense, and instead wait for police to come arrest him (based on a witness giving police his license plate)? Why didn't he tell his girlfriend that the boys had a gun? Why, why, why?

Because, IMO, he's a liar and has zero remorse about killing somebody simply because he lost his head when he could have just reversed, picked up his girlfriend, and split the scene or just shut his mouth and figured that teens might back talk to you if you tell them what to do in public - in front of their friends.

I thought he came across as a bad actor on the stand. Hope the jury thought so too.

[Tammy75]

I think he will be convicted.

I am NOT trying to defend him but I lived with *this thug music* rattling my windows from 4AM (thug was warming his car for 45 minutes with radio WIDE open outside my bedroom window---so he could take his girlfriend to work and then come home and start to drink and smoke until she got off work), causing headaches, anxiety to the point I was terrified to go outside, fearing for my dogs that stayed outside in our fenced in back yard and coming home to food, paint ball shots, etc and finally a dog that got out of the fence after 7 yrs of him not going near the fence or gate (oh there was a pit bull that was always in heat chained within a foot of our fenceline...) hearing f* this, mf* that, Gd* for hours(I am no prude and curse like a sailor....but never in front of people especially kids much less my stepdaugther), declining parenting time at our home for my Stepdaughter, cops at our home every other day, etc etc etc for six LONG months from December 2011-June 2012.

Cops could never catch him distrubing the peace because that jackarse had a police scanner---one of the skills he learned in years in jail.

Now 6 months of torture is different than a couple of minutes but toward the end me, the girl who will never own a gun, considered getting one for the first time in 45 yrs. There were times I would have shot this thug if I had a gun.

I suffered PTSD for almost a year when I heard the bass of a car. I would actually get the shakes and freeze in terror.

So part of me understands.......

I know I know totally different circumstances but part of me does understand someone snapping because if I was not normally a so stable person, I could have gotten myself into something I never intended to.

Again I think he will be convicted but wonder if I had had a different outcome of my former thug neighbor, would I have had a defense on the actions I went through in my head daily?????

[HairOfTheDog]

PROSECUTION POINTS OUT CONTRADICTIONS IN DUNN'S TESTIMONY VS. HIS OWN ACCOUNTS TO POLICE AND FIANCEE

Was really glad to read this morning that the prosecution ended the day yesterday by challenging Dunn's self-serving version of events on the stand, point by point.

Snip:

Recalled the weepy fiancee to the stand
3:15 p.m. Update: Rhonda Rouer confirms for prosecutor Erin Wolfson that Michael Dunn never told her of a gun, a stick or a barrel on the way to the hotel or at the hotel or on the way to Brevard County.

Defense attorney Cory Strolla asks that could her mental state have impaired her recollections. She says yes and is allowed to step down (HOTD: oh, help me Rhonda, witness PTSD, temporary amnesia? - hard to swallow)


Played Dunn's recorded police statement for the jury
5:05 p.m. Update: A police interview between Michael Dunn and Jacksonville Sheriff's Office detectives Marc Musser and Travis Oliver was shown as part of the prosecution's rebuttal.

The interview highlighted contradictions between Dunn's testimony in court today and what he told police the day after 17-year-old Jordan Davis was shot and killed.

Dunn told police he'd had one drink. Today he agreed with his fiancee that he probably had three or four. He clarified that he was counting those four as being the equivalent of one normal drink. (HOTD note: the autopsy of Jordan Davis showed no traces of alcohol or drugs.)

Dunn also told police that he shot Davis as Davis was leaving the vehicle. On the stand, he said he shot Davis as Davis was jumping back into his vehicle.

He told police that he shot the car eight times. On the stand, he said he shot at the car 10 times.

Full story: http://jacksonville.com/news/crime/2014-...z2t7QPdbEb

[Adub]

Judge is reading the jury instructions.
And then it goes to the jury

[HairOfTheDog]

Prosecution Closing Argument:
Assistant State Atty. Erin Wolfson told jurors that Jordan Davis, 17, was unarmed when Dunn, 47, fired 10 shots at an SUV in which Davis was sitting. Wolfson said no witnesses saw any of the four teenagers in the vehicle with a weapon and that police searches turned up none.

"This defendant was disrespected by a 17-year-old teenager, and he lost it. He wasn't happy with Jordan Davis' attitude. What was his response? 'You're not going to talk to me like that,' " prosecutor Wolfson said. "He took these actions because it was premeditated. It was not self-defense."

Defense Closing Argument:
But Dunn’s attorney, Cory Strolla, pressed the self-defense claim and argued that Dunn had a right to shoot if he reasonably thought he was in danger.

“We understand Jordan Davis was human and this was a tragedy,” Strolla said. The attorney added later, “Deadly force is justifiable if Dunn reasonably believed he faced an attempted murder of himself or another.”

In his summation, Strolla said the state had failed to prove its murder case or to disprove Dunn's assertion that he acted in self-defense. He described that as “two mountains” the jurors had to climb before deciding to convict Dunn.

Strolla said Dunn fired his gun only when he saw Davis wielding a weapon from inside the Durango SUV and felt threatened. “He's had that gun for 20 years and never pulled it once,” Strolla said. “He told you that nobody has ever scared him, no one has ever threatened him like that.”

Police didn't find a weapon in the SUV, but Strolla contended that the teens got rid of it during the three minutes they were in an adjacent parking lot after fleeing the gunshots. He said detectives should have immediately gone to the area and searched but failed to do so.

Jury Deliberations:
The sequestered jury began its work by choosing a foreperson before beginning to consider the case.

Dunn faces five charges, including first-degree murder and three counts of attempted murder, in the November 2012 shooting at a Jacksonville, Fla., convenience store and gas station. The jury can also consider lesser charges. If convicted of the major counts, Dunn could spend the rest of his life in prison.

Ref:
http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/...z2tA88TaOW