Michael Dunn was convicted today for the cold blooded murder of Florida teenager Jordan Davis. Dunn killed the 17-year in 2012 after shooting into an SUV full of Black teenagers at a Jacksonville, Florida, gas station after an argument over the teens blaring their music too loud. Prosecutor Angela Corey said Dunn faces a life term along with a minimum of 25 to life for using a firearm and told The Associated Press, “It’s a vindication for justice. We believe that we have to have as much justice as we can to assure that Michael Dunn will never ever walk out of a prison.”
Duval County Judge Russell Healey set a tentative sentencing hearing for October 17 but said he would wait until Tuesday to ensure the date worked for Dunn’s defense attorneys. Dunn has said he shot at the vehicle because he thought Davis had a weapon and feared for his life, but the prosecution has alleged Dunn was the aggressor and pointed out he kept firing even after the teens fled. Three of the 10 shots that Dunn fired struck Davis, one of them cutting through his liver, a lung and his aorta. Investigators say Davis never had a weapon, nor was one found in the teens’ SUV or the surrounding area.
A jury found Dunn guilty of four charges in February, commanding at least 60 years in prison, but the jury was hung on the murder charge related to Davis’ November 2012 death. Jurors began deliberating on the new charges just before 10 a.m. ET on Wednesday, after Healey dismissed two of the three alternates and provided instructions for the charges jurors were to consider. The first charge to consider, Healey said, was first-degree murder, which would require that Dunn premeditated killing Davis. If the jury didn’t feel the state proved first-degree murder, it was instructed to move on to second-degree, which would mean Dunn killed Davis via a criminal or depraved act. The third charge was manslaughter, which would require a finding that Dunn unlawfully caused Davis’ death.
Dunn was convicted in February on one count of shooting into a vehicle and three counts of attempted second-degree murder — one each for Davis’ friends, Leland Brunson, Tommie Stornes and Tevin Thompson, who were in the Dodge Durango with Davis that day. The Satellite Beach, Florida, man hasn’t been sentenced on those charges, but prosecutor Eric Wolfson said at the time of the conviction that each attempted second-degree murder charge carries a minimum sentence of at least 20 years. There’s also a 15-year sentence possible on the conviction for shooting at the teenager’s vehicle, Wolfson said. With today’s conviction, Rev. Al Sharpton released the following statement:
“The conviction of Michael Dunn of first degree murder vindicates the committed work of the parents of Jordan Davis and all of us, who despite setbacks still tried to get the courts to deal with issues like this. Many say we cannot win cases in the courts and must resort to taking things in our own hands. Verdicts like this tell us even though the road is long and rough we cannot be deterred. It also says that loud music and wild claims cannot justify the taking of innocent unarmed lives.”
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