Michael Dunn, a middle-aged white man, was sentenced to life in prison without parole, plus 90 years, by a Florida judge on Friday for killing an unarmed black teenager in an argument over loud rap music.
Dunn, 47, a software engineer, testified at his murder trial last month he thought he was defending himself from an armed threat when he fired 10 rounds at an SUV carrying four teens at a Jacksonville gas station parking lot, killing Jordan Davis, 17, in November 2012.
Under Florida law, first-degree murder is punishable by life in prison without parole. Dunn received an additional 90 years in prison for earlier convictions on three counts of attempted murder of the other teens, none of whom were injured. Prosecutors waived the death penalty before trial.
Meanwhile, down the road from me:
A West Virginia state trooper, who killed a teen after allegedly harassing the young man for months, will not face charges for the deadly June shooting, according to the Bluefield Daily Telegraph.
A Mercer County grand jury failed to hand down an indictment against trooper B.D. Gillespie of the West Virginia State Police in the death of Timothy Hill, 18, who was shot twice and fatally wounded near Gillespie’s Mercer County home.
Hill was shot following a brief struggle with Gillespie, with the trooper claiming that the teen reached for his weapon.
According to Gillespie, he tracked Hill and two other men down after his wife claimed some men were tampering with his personal vehicle and state-issued cruiser parked in the driveway.
Following questioning, Gillespie let the other two men go, but said that Hill became belligerent leading to a struggle where he used pepper spray and his baton on the young man.
After Hill was reportedly subdued, with the help of a neighborhood man, Gillespie claimed that the teen attempted to grab his weapon, leading Gillespie to shoot him twice.
According to Hill’s mother, Gillespie had a history with her son, saying he had bullied him in the months prior, but never thinking it would lead to the young man’s death.
“I figured he would try to arrest him over something stupid once he turned 18, or try to beat him up,” Michelle Hill said. Her son turned 18 in May.
“That’s kind of what I was expecting,” she added. “I didn’t know he was going to kill my son right in front of my house.”
The guy has a history of harassing people- threatening someone who was having his yard cleaned with not having it cleaned fast enough, sitting on his porch with a radar gun, and generally being an asshole and a menace. Bullies being bullies, he will feel emboldened by this and learn that he can get away with it. So not only did the Grand Jury crap all over Hill, but they probably inadvertently sentenced someone else to death in the future.
What’s so grand about grand juries, btw?