Trevor Dooley Found Guilty of Manslaughter

[Formaldehyde]

Follow-up from this OT thread from 2010:

Vigilante "Get off My Lawn" Justice Apparently Alive And Well In Florida

Jury finds Trevor Dooley guilty in manslaughter case

Money or lust or addictions often drive people to kill, but a manslaughter conviction handed down by a jury Monday was an unusual one: 71-year-old Trevor Dooley, the jury decided, shot and killed a young neighbor for "nothing."

Dooley, a school bus driver with no record of violence, now faces up to 30 years in prison for fatally shooting 41-year-old David James in front of James' 8-year-old daughter as they wrestled on the ground after arguing over a skateboarder.

The senselessness of the September 2010 tragedy has perplexed the community for two years and made national news.

"A man started an argument over nothing," said Assistant State Attorney Stephen Udagawa, "and killed somebody over it."

Jurors needed only about 90 minutes Monday to decide.

Dooley's wife, Patricia, married to him for more than 40 years, collapsed on a courtroom bench when she heard the verdict. They were both school bus drivers. They kept to themselves in the East Lake neighborhood of Valrico. She gardened. He played with a ham radio.

She had to take his gun out of his pocket when she laundered his jeans. Both had concealed weapons permits.

After the trial, Jamaican-born Dooley blamed racism for his conviction.

"Do you really think that if it was the other way around and the skin color would be different we would be here today?" he asked reporters. "We wouldn't."

Dooley's attorneys never suggested at trial that his skin color played a role. James was white. The jury of two women and four men was multiracial.

In convicting Dooley of manslaughter with a weapon, the jury rejected his claim of protection under Florida's "stand your ground" law.

The jurors had no problem with the law itself. It just didn't apply, one said. "The whole silly thing was over a skateboard," said jury foreman Walter Joss, "and it just escalated."

An argument between Dooley and James got the attention of a married couple, Michael and Michelle Whitt, who were practicing serves on the adjacent tennis court.

The bizarre nature of the dispute, they said, caused them to stop and watch. It quickly took a lethal turn.

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.

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.

Besides manslaughter, Dooley was convicted of improper exhibition of a weapon and open carrying of a firearm, both misdemeanors. He was allowed to remain free on bail until his sentencing by Hillsborough Circuit Judge Ashley Moody on Jan. 10.

Convicted of killing his neighbor, Trevor Dooley talks of race but not remorse

TAMPA — While this week's manslaughter trial of 71-year-old Trevor Dooley was emotionally tangled, his sentencing on Jan. 10 promises to include a whole new volatility: race.

Under Florida sentencing guidelines, Dooley could receive between 10 and 30 years for shooting and killing his 41-year-old Valrico neighbor, David James, beside a basketball court in 2010. They had argued over a skateboarder using the court. But prison isn't automatic. The judge could hear things about Dooley, whom a jury found guilty Monday, that move her to leniency — even to a sentence of probation.

Remorse is the most common mitigator. It's described this way in state guidelines for leniency: "The offense was committed in an unsophisticated manner and was an isolated incident for which the defendant has shown remorse."

But no one has heard remorse from Dooley. That could affect his chances of prison.

"Remorse matters a great deal. Lack of remorse matters just as much," Tampa defense lawyer Rick Terrana said Tuesday. "It goes a long way with a sentencing judge."

In his own testimony, Dooley portrayed himself as the true victim, saying he fired only to save his life. After trial, Dooley, who is black, told reporters the whole case was racist. David James was white.

"Do you really think that if it was the other way around and the skin color would be different, we would be here today?" he asked. "We wouldn't."

On Tuesday, 76-year-old Tampa lawyer Delano Stewart — who broke the color barrier in the Public Defender's Office in the 1960s — said he wants to appear at the sentencing to tell the judge that Dooley is right.

"Trevor Dooley should never have been charged with manslaughter," Stewart said. "Race still plays too much of a part in charges and sentencing. There was racism in the charge. If Dooley had been an older white man, he would never have been charged."

Do you think justice has been served? Do you think Dooley would now be free if he were white instead of black?

Is this verdict a foreshadowing of what might occur in the George Zimmerman case? Will that jury also find that stand-your-ground didn't pertain? That the defendant's story of what occurred was also inconsistent with with the other evidence? Will they also decide that Zimmerman shot and killed Trayvon Martin for "nothing"?

 

[Quackers]

Reading the bolded parts it looks like the witnesses testiomony (all three of them) contradict Mr Dooley's version of events. So yeah send him down.

 

[DroopyTofu]

Just because two races are involved doesn't mean an issue has to be turned into a race issue. But somehow people always find a way to make it into one. I doubt his race had much to do with the sentencing.



Also, when I read the thread title, I my first thought was of Derick Dooley, the University of Tennessee football coach. I know he hurt the team, but I was pretty sure that couldn't be considered manslaughter

 

[emzie]

You don't get to claim stand your ground if you picked the fight to begin with.

 

[Berzerker]

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.

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.

3 witnesses saw James "attack" Dooley - that aint manslaughter, and Dooley even warned him by showing the gun before retreating. What was James thinking?

 

[Formaldehyde]

It sounds like James was trying to disarm Dooley before he did something even more stupid, like kill someone.

The part of the story that isn't covered all that well in this article is that Dooley first went home to get his handgun and stuck it in the waistband of his trousers prior to again confronting James and his child.

 

[Berzerker]

sorry, 4 witnesses saw Dooley trying to retreat

 

[Formaldehyde]

"Sorry", you have no idea how many people testified to what.

According to this witness from the video I posted in the other thread, it was James who was retreating when Dooley spun around and pulled the handgun out.


Link to video.

 

[Berzerker]

I'm quoting your article, 4 people said Dooley was retreating - even James' girl

in the other thread?

 

[JollyRoger]

Maybe Zimmerman will be able to use this case to demonstrate why you should be in reasonable fear that a black man will shoot you.

 

[JohnRM]

It is hard to know what to think based on the OP. If Dooley attempted to retreat and James continued the fray then I believe that he was justified in the shooting. However, I have to believe that I don't have all of the evidence before me and must put my faith in the multi-racial jury that convicted him.

 

[Berzerker]

from the other thread

James then "called out to the suspect, questioning his display of a firearm," according to a sheriff's office report. Dooley turned around and pointed the gun at James, who lunged for it. As they struggled over the gun, the men fell to the ground, the gun went off and James was shot once in the chest, killing him as his 8-year-old daughter watched.

if thats what happened I'd convict Dooley

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.

and if thats what happened, Dooley should have walked

it sounds like this Dooley was treated about the same as Zimmerman initially, both answered questions and went home. Dooley even did his bus run the next day...

 

[lovett]

It is hard to know what to think based on the OP. If Dooley attempted to retreat and James continued the fray then I believe that he was justified in the shooting. However, I have to believe that I don't have all of the evidence before me and must put my faith in the multi-racial jury that convicted him.

Justified in the shooting?

I can't see how one could every justify taking a life on the basis that the person one killed pushed you over. A little violence does not warrant death. We might want to exonerate the man legally (and I'm doubtful about this) but I fail to see how we could justify his action morally.