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 Defense attorneys have said Michael Dunn, 47, who is white, acted
in self-defense when he fired 10 rounds at an SUV carrying four
teens, killing Jordan Davis, 17, while it was parked in a
Jacksonville gas station.
The jury asked to review security camera video from inside the gas
station that captures the reaction of the clerks to the sound of the
gunfire, as well as Dunn's fiancée, Rhonda Rouer, who had gone into
the store to buy wine.
The trial has drawn international attention because of racial
overtones and claims of self-defense.
Dunn is charged with first-degree murder and three charges of
attempted murder in the November 2012 shooting.
The judge denied a jury request to see the courtroom foam dummy used
to demonstrate the trajectory of the three bullets that struck
Davis, telling them to review the court transcript instead.
Davis was out on the town with friends when the argument broke out.
Prosecutors said Davis used foul language when confronting Dunn, but
that Davis was unarmed and never posed a physical threat.
"Jordan Davis didn't have a weapon. He had a big mouth. That man
wasn't going to stand for it, and it cost Jordan Davis his life,"
Assistant State Attorney John Guy said on Wednesday in wrapping up
the prosecution's case at the end of a week-long trial.
"This case is not about self-defense. It's about self-denial," he
said.
The case has drawn comparisons to the trial of George Zimmerman, the
former central Florida neighborhood watchman who was acquitted last
year of murder in the shooting an unarmed black 17-year-old, Trayvon
Martin.
If found guilty, Dunn, a software engineer who has been in custody
since the incident, faces up to life in prison. Prosecutors have
said they would not seek the death penalty.
The jury of 8 whites, 2 blacks, one Asian and one Hispanic is being
sequestered during deliberations.
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Dunn's attorney Cory Strolla denied at a press conference that
racism had anything to do with his client's decision to shoot into a
carful of black teenagers playing what he referred to on the stand
as "crap rap."
Strolla explained that young blacks and whites listen to "so-called
gangster music" and "unfortunately try to imitate" behavior they
hear described in the music.
Strolla was asked to explain jailhouse letters penned by Dunn in
which he used the word "thugs" to describe black inmates.
"The jail is full of blacks and they all act like thugs. This may
sound a bit radical but if more people would arm themselves and kill
these (expletive) idiots, when they're threatening you, eventually
they may take the hint and change their behavior," he wrote in one
letter.
Strolla responded that the letter was written after Dunn's life had
been threatened in jail.
Dunn took the stand in his own defense on Tuesday and told the jury
he started shooting in a state of panic after the exchange of words
grew more heated and he thought he saw the barrel of a gun in the
back window as Davis started to get out of the car.
Police said they found no weapon in the teens' Durango after the
shooting.
In what some analysts have said was key testimony during the trial,
Rouer told the jury that on the night of the shooting Dunn never
mentioned to her seeing a gun in the teens' car, despite later
telling police that was why he opened fire.
(Writing by David Adams; editing by Gunna Dickson)
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