Life In Prison Sentence for Man Who Shot Jacksonville Teen

Michael Dunn
 

Michael Dunn of Brevard County was sentenced Friday for life in prison without parole for shooting a Jacksonville teen over his loud music.

Prosecutors said the shooting occurred at a gas station nearly two years ago. Dunn and his fiancée were heading home after leaving a wedding reception when the two stopped at the gas station. After an argument broke out over 17-year-old Jordan Davis’ loud music, Dunn shot and killed the teen.

According to News 13, the sentence came at the end of a retrial after a jury couldn’t come to a conclusion on the murder charge in the first trial earlier this year. In the first trial, Dunn received a 60-year sentence after being convicted on three counts of attempted murder. Dunn was found guilty Oct. 1 after the retrial and is now sentenced to life in prison.

News 13 legal analyst Mark NeJame said second trials tend to favor the prosecution and he doesn’t see any grounds for appeal during the retrial.

“I don’t see anything thats glaring,” NeJAme said. “The odds are he’s going to be serving the rest of the life in prison.”

Prosecutors brought out many of the same arguments during the retrial that they had at the first trial eight month earlier. According to News 13, Assistant State Attorney John Guy told jurors that arguments on the night of November 23, 2012 were about a kid being a kid, refusing to turn down his music and an adult refusing to walk away and pulling a gun out instead.

“He did the best he could to save his own life. He shut his mouth and he cowered away from the gun,” said Guy in reference to how Davis reacted to the gun Dunn pulled on him.

Dunn hired a new attorney for the retrial, Defense Attorney Waffa Hanania, who stood by the self-defense claim, stating that it was Davis who escalated the events that night.

“‘I should kill you right now’ that’s the testimony you’ll hear from the stand that came out of Jordan Davis’ mouth. He took it up another notch when he brandished a shotgun or something that looked very much like one,” Hananai said during the retrial.

The defense’s claims differed from the first trial in that they claimed Davis had something that looked like a shotgun, not exactly a shotgun, when Dunn fired three shots into Davis’ car, killing the teen.