It could be racism, but there is also this extremely provocative act by the defendant....
(I don't think she reads the articles she doesn't link.)
The original article:
"They testified last week they saw Dooley flip up his T-shirt, revealing a gun in his waistband, as he cursed James. They said Dooley then turned and headed home, but James spun him around and tried to grab the gun."
Jury finds Trevor Dooley guilty in manslaughter case | Tampa Bay Times
Furthermore, for eeriness...
"The skateboarder, Spencer Arthur, also watched, stunned. He didn't see Dooley flash a gun but said he saw him pull out the weapon as he spun around.
Danielle could hardly remember anything. She clutched a toy bunny named Monica as she testified. She has been in counseling for two years. She said she only remembered Dooley trying to go home.
"
The only consistency in their testimony," defense attorney Ronald Tulin said to the jury, "
was that Mr. Dooley walked away. How can you convict him of manslaughter if he's trying to walk away?"
Dooley, who is 5-feet-7 and weighs 160 pounds, told jurors he had to struggle with a man 28 years younger who was 6-1 and 240 pounds. He said he pulled out the gun only after James grabbed him by the throat and began yanking him to the ground. "I had no other choice,'' he said."
"It just didn't hold water with what the other witnesses said," said Joss, 57, of Tampa.
Though the witnesses offered differing testimonies, those accounts were more consistent with one another than Dooley's, he said. And those witnesses had no motivations other than to tell the truth, he said.
"They really had nothing to gain," Joss said. "
They just seemed honest to me. It didn't match exactly 100 percent but, again, that's understandable. Three different people can see something three different ways."
Jurors didn't need a lot of time to reach a verdict, he said, because they were of one mind that the witnesses provided the most accurate testimony. He said there was no dissent."
Oh well. He's actually at home, strangely enough, since the Judge decided because of his age and lack of violent criminal record that he was safe in his own neighbor after a manslaughter conviction until the end of his appeal.
