Shame about the headline... since Zimmerman case was NOT about SYG.....
The Dunn case invokes SYG... Zimmernman case DID NOT.
Another Stand Your Ground showdown?Dec. 15, 2013 1:07 PM
by Rick Neale, Florida Today
MELBOURNE, Fla. -- Michael David Dunn lived the beachside life Northerners dream of: oceanfront condominium, successful software-engineering career, a pilot's license, a loving fiancee.
The day after last Thanksgiving, Dunn was in good spirits when he attended his son's wedding at a historic home overlooking the St. Johns River in Orange Park, a quaint Jacksonville suburb.
But after the wedding, Dunn got into a parking lot dispute with teenagers at a gas station that ended with a 17-year-old dead and Dunn charged with murder.
At first blush, the 47-year-old Dunn appears to be the kind of guy you'd welcome as a next-door neighbor, said John Phillips, the lawyer representing Davis' family.
"It's hard to try to construct somebody that's had a night like that, who seemed very normal coming in - the average person on the street - and then becomes, to some extent, a vicious killer," Phillips said.
"Recklessly firing 10 shots at a gas station, on one of the busiest shopping days of the year," he said.
Phillips said Dunn views Florida's Stand Your Ground law as a Monopoly "Get Out Of Jail Free" card.
That's not the man Dunn's daughter, Rebecca, knows.
Describing her father as kind, loving, adventurous and "crazy-intelligent," she calls him her best friend and No. 1 supporter, besides her mom. The 21-year-old recalled how he used to wake her up so they could watch the sun rise together on the beach.
"I feel like I'm in an endless nightmare now," said Rebecca, who has received death threats since the shooting.
Police portray the South Patrick Shores resident as an out-of-control gunman who became enraged over loud rap music booming from a nearby car, grabbed a 9mm pistol from his glovebox and fired two volleys into a Dodge Durango containing four black teens. The gunshots killed Jordan Davis and narrowly missed two other boys.
Dunn told detectives he acted in self-defense after he heard threats and thought he saw Davis raise the barrel of a shotgun above the SUV's rear passenger window. No gun was found, police said.
Dunn's murder trial is scheduled to start Feb. 3 in a Jacksonville courtroom. After George Zimmerman's high-profile acquittal last summer for fatally shooting Trayvon Martin, Rolling Stone magazine has labeled Dunn's case Florida's other major Stand Your Ground showdown.
[...]
Wearing a yellow short-sleeved collared shirt and striped shorts, fidgeting and wiping his hands on his knees, Dunn related his side of the story - but neither detective bought his version of events.
Rather, they said details of Dunn's story didn't match those at the crime scene. Neither the surviving boys nor independent witnesses at the gas station said Davis had a firearm or tried to exit the SUV - in fact, one of the boys later said Davis couldn't have exited a rear door because the child locks were engaged.
"If there was a shotgun coming up at you, we would expect you to do what you did. The problem that we have is, there is no shotgun. That's the bridge that we've got to get across," a detective told Dunn.
"You keep dwelling on this shotgun as if there's one at the scene. If there was a shotgun, a BB gun, any type of gun at the scene - hell, if there was a water gun that was black that looked real at the scene. ..." the detective said.......
...more at linkhttp://www.lancastereaglegazette.com/us ... le/4029387
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Do not go gentle into that good night.
