News Nearby: Jury Deliberating in Loud Music Killing Trial

By Hunt Archbold and Deb Belt

Deliberations continue by a Jacksonville, Fla., jury in the trial of a 47-year-old white man charged with first-degree murder and attempted murder in the 2012 shooting of a 17-year-old black male from Marietta, Ga.

The case is drawing comparisons to last year’s highly publicized George Zimmerman-Trayvon Martin case in nearby Sanford, Fla., which resulted in Zimmerman being acquitted of second-degree murder.

On a late November 2012 evening, Jordan Russell Davis, 17, and several other teenagers were sitting in an SUV in a convenience store parking lot when Michael David Dunn and his girlfriend pulled into the store’s lot.

Dunn reportedly asked the teens to turn down the music playing in their vehicle. After he and Davis exchanged words, Dunn shot and killed Davis, authorities said.

After fleeing the scene, Dunn was arrested at his home the next day on charges of murder and attempted murder.

According to the police report, Dunn said he saw a gun and felt threatened. Police never found the weapon. 

According to WSB TV, Davis split time at his mother’s home in Marietta and in Jacksonville with his father.

The Jacksonville jury began its second day of deliberations Thursday by viewing video of the Southside Gate gas station where the fatal shooting occurred, reports the Florida Times-Union. The video shows people inside the store reacting to the gunfire in the parking lot.

There were no video cameras in the parking lot itself, so Davis’ shooting was not recorded.

Mark O’Mara, a columnist at the Times-Union, delved into what such a complex case asks of jurors. He wrote, in part:

“In a case like Dunn’s, where the strictly legal analysis is, arguably, too close to call, the heart takes over. I think the jury in the Dunn case will send a message with their verdict. They’ll tell us that we have to be very careful with our guns, and they’ll let us know that if we use a gun and fail to involve law-enforcement, we do so at our own peril.”