Florida finally got it right! Michael Dunn Sentenced To Life Plus 105 Years Michael Dunn will spend the rest of his life behind bars for the murder of unarmed teen Jordan Davis! NBC News reports: A Florida man convicted of first-degree murder for shooting a teenager to death over loud music was sentenced to life without parole Friday. Michael Dunn, 47, was convicted of killing Jordan Davis, 17, in November 2012 after he shot into a SUV of four teenagers 10 times when an argument broke out over loud music coming from the teens’ vehicle. Dunn was sentenced to an additional 90 years in prison for three attempted murder convictions and another 15 years for firing into an occupied vehicle. “Our justice system works. This case demonstrates that our justice system does work,” said Judge Russell Healey at the sentencing. Dunn was found guilty on three counts of second-degree attempted murder in January, but a mistrial was declared on the first-degree murder charge. A jury in early October found Dunn, who is white, guilty of murdering Davis, who was black. Testimony during the sentencing, including a statement by Davis’ father, Ron Davis, lasted about an hour. Prosecutors did not pursue the death penalty, according to NBC South Florida. BLACK…LIFE…MATTERS!!! Now can they PLEASE arrest Darren Wilson ?!
Indiana doctor George “Scott” Samson reportedly killed his new bride, Kelly Ecker Samson, at their mansion the very same night he married her. Samson also took his own life in a stunning turn of events. Doctor Kills Bride, Commits Suicide It’s far from clear as to exactly what sparked the murder-suicide , but shortly after guests cleared out of their home, Kelly Ecker, 50, called 911 three times. In the first call, she screamed, “He’s beating the s–t out of me!” In the second 911 call, someone answered but got disconnected. In the third, Kelly screams, “Oh my god!” and shots were fired. Within minutes, she and her new husband were dead. Kelly was found dead, shot twice in her 10-year-old son’s bedroom. George Samson was found dead of a self-inflicted gun shot wound in the basement. Kelly’s son was home at the time of the shooting, as was an unidentified elderly couple; it is believed that the boy heard and saw his mother being shot. Friends are baffled as to what could’ve gone so horribly wrong, although some reportedly left the wedding reception due to the newlyweds arguing. The couple had just moved into the home this summer. The wedding and reception took place on the grounds, with the tent celebrating the affair still up as police swarmed the property following the tragedy. Vigo County Chief Deputy Sheriff Clark Cottom said: “The investigation has revealed that there was a verbal argument between the couple toward the end of the reception, which carried over to the after party at the couple’s home.” “Shortly after the last guest had left at around 1:17 a.m., Kelly Ecker Samson called 911 reporting that her husband had threatened to kill her.” “There were a total of three very brief 911 calls,” the law enforcement official said, “which in the first two the caller disconnected.”
American journalist James Foley was executed by the Islamic militant group known as ISIS earlier this week. The Sunni extremists videotaped Foley’s grisly murder and claimed that his beheading was a protest against US foreign policies. James Foley Executed By Islamic Militants It now seems, however, that Foley’s capture and killing were part of a desperate extortion plot. ISIS reportedly demanded that the US pay a $132 million ransom for Foley’s safe return. The American government refused to pay the ransom, but reportedly – under direct orders from the President Obama – US Marines embarked on an unsuccessful rescue mission to try and save Foley and other captives; “The U.S. government had what we believed was sufficient intelligence, and when the opportunity presented itself, the president authorized the Department of Defense to move aggressively to recover our citizens,” said White House counterterrorism advisor Lisa Monaco. “Unfortunately, that mission was ultimately not successful because the hostages were not present.” The rescue mission reportedly resulted in a firefight that killed several ISIS operatives, but no Americans. Other new details of Foley’s execution include the fact that the executioner in his video is a British extremist nicknamed “John” by hostages, due to his resemblance to Beatles singer John Lennon. Obama has come under fire from conservatives for continuing his vacation in Martha’s Vineyard in the days following the murder.
Oh. Theodore Wafer Shocked That He Was Found Guilty Of Renisha McBride’s Murder Via NYDailyNews A suburban Detroit man convicted of murder in the fatal shooting of a young, unarmed woman on his porch is “shocked” by the verdict and deeply remorseful over her death, his attorney said Friday. “He never intended to kill anybody,” Cheryl Carpenter told The Associated Press. “When a person doesn’t have intent, it doesn’t seem right for him to be labeled a murderer.” Theodore Wafer, 55, was convicted of second-degree murder Thursday in the death of 19-year-old Renisha McBride. He said he was afraid for his life when he decided to open the front door and fire a shotgun through a screen door, instantly killing McBride before dawn last Nov. 2. Wafer testified that he acted in self-defense in response to relentless pounding at his doors, but the jury didn’t agree. Prosecutors believe McBride may have been confused and was looking for help when she arrived at his Dearborn Heights home. She had crashed her car hours earlier, and an autopsy found she was very drunk. “We are shocked at the conviction,” said Carpenter, who didn’t speak to reporters immediately after the verdict. “We might not agree with what he did or how he did it, but he was honest with what he told us about that night.” Wafer’s sentencing date was moved to Aug. 20 from Aug. 25. He faces up to life in prison. “Even if he gets 15 years, that’s essentially a life sentence for him,” Carpenter said, noting Wafer’s age. We won’t lose a wink of sleep. Promise. Image via AP
Jamarion Lawhorn will be tried as an adult in juvenile court for the stabbing of his 9-year-old neighbor Michael Connor Verkerke. Lawhorn told police he lashed out because he “took too many pills” and because “nobody loves him.” ndn
This the kinda thing Bobby Shmurda got y’all dancing to? SMH Florida Boy Charged With Murder Of Homeless Man Via NYDailyNews A 12-year-old boy was collared for fatally shooting a homeless man in the head more than a month after the victim was found dead on a Florida street, police said. The boy — identified by WAWS-TV as Sharron Townsend — was collared Thursday for the murder of Thomas Trent, 54, after police identified the gunman in footage from a security camera near the June 28 shooting, Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office Assistant Chief Chris Butler said. “It’s a horrific event,” Butler told reporters. “Horrific for the victim…but also you’re talking about a 12-year-old child.” Trent’s body was found lying outside an abandoned restaurant in the city’s west side. Investigators found a surveillance camera a short time later between a dental care office and a tattoo parlor that recorded two young men walking near the site where Trent was killed. A few minutes later, the footage shows the two suspects running “with their shorts on their heads” towards the back of a strip-mall where Trent was shot, according to an arrest report. Police managed to identify the other boy in the video as a 16-year-old who was being held in jail on an unrelated charge. Apparently the 16-year-old dropped dime on the young bol. The teen was not considered a suspect, but Butler did not elaborate. He said the younger boy was charged after he admitted to being in the surveillance clip. “The suspect gave admissions, and he identified himself in the video and being present and involved in the murder,” Butler said. Police were still trying to determine why Trent was shot. “Thomas had a heart of gold,” his sister, Dawn McNabb, told the local Fox affiliate. “Yeah, he was homeless. Yeah, he had a problem drinking, but that didn’t make a reason for him to be killed. That didn’t make a reason for him to be a target.” By no means should this kid be allowed to be tried as a minor. Lock his lil bad azz up with all the hard rocks on the 4 tier. Image via Shutterstock
Would you be afraid enough to shoot without looking to see who it was first if someone was pounding on your door at 4 am? Michigan Man Claims He Shot Black Teen On His Porch Because He Feared For His Life The trial is underway for Theodore Wafer, a white suburban homeowner who shot 19-year-old McBride in the face as she sought help on his porch and he’s hoping the jury will sympathize with his fearfulness. Via Al-Jazeera America reports: Defense attorney Cheryl Carpenter on Wednesday appealed to a Detroit jury to “understand how Ted felt” before he shot an unarmed black teen on his porch last fall. “He was acting and reacting to escalating fear,” Carpenter said in her opening statement about Theodore Wafer, 55, on trial for second-degree murder and manslaughter in the death of Renisha McBride. “He had never been so scared in his entire life. It’s horrible and it’s sad that a 19-year-old woman is dead. But Ted is justified in what he did.” Whether it was reasonable for Wafer to think his house was under attack is the key question the jury must weigh as this galvanizing, racially charged trial proceeds in Detroit. Wafer is white and lives in the mostly white Detroit border city of Dearborn Heights. He killed McBride in the early hours of Nov. 2, when, he says, she was banging on his door. To the prosecution, this is a straightforward case of a trigger-happy homeowner who opened the front door and shot McBride rather than, if he was truly afraid, calling 911. He called 911 after the shooting occurred. “There was no sign of any attempted burglary, there’s no evidence of any effort to breaking in,” said prosecutor Danielle Hagaman-Clark in her opening remarks. “His actions that night are unnecessary, unjustified and unreasonable. Because of that, a 19-year-old girl is dead on a porch in Dearborn Heights. Would you have called 911 first? The defense attorney is already doing a “bang up” job describing Wafer’s state of mind before he pulled the trigger: Carpenter said Wafer was fast asleep in a recliner in his living room when, at around 4:20 a.m., someone banged on his door. Fearful, he lay on the floor and groped for his cellphone but could not find it. Over the subsequent minutes he panicked, believing his home was under siege by possibly more than one attacker and asserting he heard metal in the front door frame “breaking.” “They’re coming to get me,” Carpenter said, narrating Wafer’s thoughts in the moment. “It’s metal breaking. Breaking! On his front door. Ted hears it. Ted is thinking they’re coming in. They’re breaking [into] my house. Why? He doesn’t have a clue. He just knows they’re coming in.” Carpenter sought to defuse the racial elements of the case by insisting that Wafer didn’t know the color or gender of the person when he shot her. All he knew, she said, was that he opened his front door, noticed the screen frame a few inches out of its hinge and then fired the gun when McBride leaped onto the stoop, startling him. “Ted is shattered,” Carpenter said. “He knows immediately that he killed somebody … It was only after that he saw it was a shorter person. She seemed dark-complected but he isn’t sure. He didn’t know anything before he shot. All he knew was, ‘People are breaking into my house.’” Do you believe that he didn’t know she was black? In the meantime there is a lot working against the prosecution’s case, namely the fact that an autopsy has established McBride’s blood alcohol level was twice the legal limit and witnesses have confirmed she was drinking and smoking marijuana earlier that night. After opening statements, prosecutors called McBride’s mother and best friend. Between the two of them, they established that McBride had drunk vodka and smoked marijuana in the evening of Nov. 1 at home. Her mother said she and McBride argued because the teen hadn’t cleaned the house, and McBride left the house by car at around 11:15 p.m. Around 1 a.m., she crashed her car into that of Carmen Beasley, who lives about a mile from Wafer on the Detroit side of the city limits. Beasley said she tried to get McBride to stay put as they waited for the police and an ambulance, but McBride vanished. “She just wanted to go home,” Beasley testified. “She wasn’t belligerent. She was young and she just wanted to be at home. That was her goal, to be home.” This case is so sad. We really feel for McBride and her family and the prosecution is building a strong case that Wafer’s greatest error was going to the door with a locked and loaded shotgun, a weapon likely to do serious damage at such close range. But if a stranger knocked on your door at 4 am can you say you wouldn’t do the same? It’s not like he could see in the dark that she was bleeding from the head and needed help. Do you think it’s an open and shut case of him being guilty of second degree murder and manslaughter? AP Images
SMH! Matt Barnes’ Aunt Murdered, Star Asks For Help Finding Killer On Social Media The aunt of Clippers’ star Matt Barnes was brutally stabbed and left for dead last week by her estranged husband, who went on the run shortly thereafter and has not been seen since. Matt is well-known to be all about his family , so we’re sure this is a very trying time. Via MailOnline : A furious Los Angeles Clippers star has begged his 262,000 followers for help tracking down the man who is accused of murdered his aunt. Matt Barnes, a 34-year-old small forward, told his fans: ‘This dude stabbed my auntie in the neck last week & left her for dead on the sidewalk, she ended up dying on the way to the hospital in the ambulance.’ The family of his aunt, Tanganyika Williams, 38, meanwhile, has created a GoFundMe page to raise $5,000 to pay for her funeral. Before the start of last season, Barnes signed a three-year, $10.2million contract with the Clippers. On Twitter and Instragram on Tuesday, Barnes posted a picture of the suspect, 51-year-old Michael Williams. Williams is accused of murdering his estranged wife, Tanganyika Williams, 38, after a fight at their Sacramento, California, home on July 8. Police identified Michael Williams as the suspect in the murder, but he fled the scene and police have not been able to find him, the Sacramento Bee reports. He is believed to be hiding out on the streets of Sacramento. This is a truly sad story. Out thoughts and prayers are with Matt and his family during this difficult time. We certainly hope the police are able to locate this fugitive quickly.
