Before He Kills Again

Obviously, this interview was not considered admissible evidence in the Florida Murder Trial of Michael Dunn in his shooting of 17 year old Jordan Davis after a dispute over loud music at a Jacksonville convenience store. Nevertheless, Dunn is all but certain to face a lengthy prison sentence as he was convicted on three counts of attempted second degree murder — one for each of three of Dunn’s friends who were also in the line of fire. Dunn had been charged with first-degree murder, as well as the attempted murder of three of Davis’ friends who were with him in his sport utility vehicle as Dunn shot ten rounds at the car. 

The shooting occurred after Dunn asked the boys to turn down their music while parked next to him in a Jacksonville convenience store parking lot. His fiancée, Rhonda Rouer, says the last thing she heard him say was, “I hate that thug music.” Rouer was in the convenience store when she heard gunshots, and when she ran outside, he told her to get in the car and they drove away. 

Dunn claimed he saw a gun and believed the boys were armed and dangerous. But police found no gun in the car. He said he heard Davis threaten to kill him, and responded by rolling down the window of his car and asking, “Are you talking to me?” Dunn and Rouer spent the night in a hotel, as planned, and their testimony differed about what happened that night, and in the days that followed. Dunn’s friends testified that they knew him as a calm and non-violent man. Obviously, no one every to get testimony from Charles Hendrix, Dunn's neighbor, who  describes violent behavior, lies, insurance fraud, cocaine use, bragging about putting a hit out on someone, and a first wife who said he'd held a gun to her head and threatened to kill her. He says Dunn bragged that he was smarter than everyone else and could outthink them.

During closing arguments, prosecutor John Guy told jurors, “Jordan Davis didn’t have a weapon. He had a big mouth. And that defendant wasn’t gonna stand for it. And it cost Jordan Davis his life.”

The police never found the imaginary gun that Dunn claimed was his reason for "standing his ground" and committing not only murder, but attempted murder upon the other occupants of the car.

Dunn’s lawyer Cory Strolla cited Florida’s Stand Your Ground law in his closing argument, “His honor will further tell you that If Michael Dunn was in a public place where he had a legal right to be, he had no duty to retreat and had the right to stand his ground and meet force with force, including deadly force.” As in the George Zimmerman trial, the Stand Your Ground law was included in the jury instructions. 

Just prior to the trial, the state’s attorney’s office released a set of letters Dunn sent from prison revealing significant animus toward blacks. “The more time I am exposed to these people, the more prejudiced against them I become,” he said in one. “This jail is full of blacks and they all act like thugs,” he said in another. The letters did not come into play during trial. But they reveal the sort of racial undertones that have been prominent in many Stand Your Ground cases. One study found that white defendants with black victims are far more likely to have their killings deem “justified” under the Stand Your Ground law.

Dunn fits the classic psychopathic profile of a serial killer. He believed that he was above our definition of morality. He believes he is smarter and can outwit our sluggish and primitive legal system. He is a classic manipulator. He cried on the stand in a classic psychopathically manipulative performance about  his concern for his puppy dog but he showed no absolutely concern over the kid he murdered.

Michael Dunn is a sick dangerous man who believes he is above our primitive morality. He is deluded enough to believe he is smarter than you. The "Stand Your Ground" laws in Florida and many other states are the tool sick bastards like him use to believe that their sick egos are superior to ours, He may go to jail, but not for long and he will kill again. This ain't much, but here's a petition from CREDO to repeal the "Stand Your Ground " Laws. They make a pretty compelling case in their  documentation to demonstrate the ineffectiveness of the laws and the destructive nature we live with in our society.