0 IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE FOURTH JUDICIL CIRCUIT, IN ND FOR DUVL COUNTY, FLORID. CSE NO: 0-CF- DIVISION: CR-D STTE OF FLORID -vs- MICHEL DUNN, Defendant. 0 STTE OF FLORID ) COUNTY OF DUVL ) 0 Trial before the Honorable Russell Healey, Judge of the Circuit Court, Division CR-D, as cause in this matter came to be heard on the th of February, 0, before Melanie D. Simpkins, Certified Realtime Reporter, Registered Professional Reporter, Florida Professional Reporter and a Notary Public in and for the State of Florida at Large. OFFICIL REPORTERS, INC. 0 EST DMS STREET JCKSONVILLE, FL 0 (0) -00
PPERNCES: 0 NGEL COREY, ttorney at Law, State ttorney, ppearing on behalf of the State of Florida. JOHN GUY, Esquire, ssistant State ttorney, ppearing on behalf of the State of Florida. ERIN WOLFSON, ttorney at Law, ssistant State ttorney, ppearing on behalf of the State of Florida. COREY STROLL, Esquire, ppearing on behalf of the Defendant. 0
I N D E X 0 0 PGE FEBRURY, 0... OPENING STTEMENT BY MR. GUY... 0 OPENING STTEMENT BY MR. STROLL... LIYH HRRIS... DIRECT EXMINTION BY MS. WOLFSON... CROSS EXMINTION BY MR. STROLL... STEVEN SMITH... DIRECT EXMINTION BY MS. COREY... CROSS EXMINTION BY MR. STROLL... REDIRECT EXMINTION BY MS. COREY... NDREW WILLIMS... DIRECT EXMINTION BY MS. COREY... CROSS EXMINTION BY MR. STROLL... REDIRECT EXMINTION BY MS. COREY... 0 SHWN TKINS... 0 DIRECT EXMINTION BY MS. COREY... 0 CROSS EXMINTION BY MR. STROLL... REDIRECT EXMINTION BY MS. COREY... MRIH GRIMES... DIRECT EXMINTION BY MS. WOLFSON...
STTE'S EXHIBITS NO. PGE... 0 0
0 0 P R O C E E D I N G S FEBRURY, 0 THE COURT: Mr. Strolla, Mr. Guy. MR. STROLL: Yes, sir. MR. GUY: Sir. THE COURT: I've lost the motion now, my copy of it. ctually I think the clerk's got it. What was it called, Mr. Strolla? MR. STROLL: I apologize, Your Honor? THE COURT: The last motion that we're arguing. MR. STROLL: If I may have a second to grab it, Judge? THE COURT: Okay. What was it called? MR. STROLL: The defendant's Motion in Limine regarding comments, acts, inactions and or similar. THE COURT: Basically related to testimony that he left, went to the hotel, stayed there for whatever period of time, did whatever they did and then went to -- MR. GUY: Left the next morning. THE COURT: Home the next day. MR. STROLL: Took the dog out to urinate. THE COURT: Your Motion to -- in Limine to exclude that is denied. I think it is something
0 0 that goes to the weight of the evidence and can be considered by the jury and there's some case law that I can cite. MR. GUY: nd, Judge -- THE COURT: Which I'll cite perhaps later or in a written order that I don't have at my fingertips but I reviewed about it. MR. GUY: Yes, sir. Judge, we've asked the families to come in if that's okay if you're ready. THE COURT: We just talking about the two folks? MR. GUY: I think so. THE COURT: Okay. THE BILIFF: Judge, both sides? THE COURT: Mr. Strolla, do you want them? No. Just -- just really Mr. Davis and Ms. McBath, I think. MR. STROLL: Your Honor, just for housekeeping matters can I have boxes on the table? THE COURT: Yes. m I getting Mr. Davis and Ms. McBath? MS. COREY: Judge, we're in recess, right, or you want us to be quiet? THE COURT: Well, we're kind of in recess but I'm going to have the Davises -- Mr. Davis and
0 0 Ms. McBath come in. MS. COREY: Yes, sir. THE COURT: nd then I'm going to leave and they're going to bring everybody else in here. MS. COREY: Yes, sir. Did you hold onto that whole list of witnesses' names? Did you keep that? THE COURT: Yes. MS. COREY: I'm going to e-mail the court reporter one just for spellings. I'll e-mail it to her. If you had it there I was going to run and have it copied. Judge, I've got it. THE COURT: You got it? MS. COREY: Yeah. I can e-mail it to her, Judge. THE COURT: Okay. I don't have it at my fingertips. I'm not sure where it went. MS. COREY: Judge, one other quick thing when the witnesses take the stand you'll give them a quick explanation about touching the screen and all that or you want us to do that? THE COURT: Yeah, I'll do it. MS. COREY: You'll do it. Thank you. THE COURT: Mr. Davis and Ms. McBath I need them right now. ctually they -- have them come up this way a little bit. Good morning, Ms. McBath
0 0 and Mr. Davis. Just wanted to say good morning to you, welcome you. You're good right there. nd need to tell you a couple of things because I know you've been waiting a long time for this trial and I know today may be a day that actually may be rather emotional for you. First thing I want to explain to you is we've prepared a seating chart. Maybe you've seen it. I don't know. To accommodate media and to accommodate general public, to accommodate the family of obviously your son and the other boys that were in the vehicle and to accommodate Mr. Dunn's family. Because we want to make this as seamless a process as possible we have you, I think, seated on the second row just so there's -- in case there was some sort of an emotional response I don't really want it to be something that's seen by the jury, so that's why I had you on the second row and I apologize for that because I suspect probably you would like to be on the first row but I think you'll be able to see and hear fine. I just want to make sure that we have a clean trial and we don't have any issues, not that you would create one deliberately obviously, so I tell
0 0 you that so you know what the situation was with that seating chart. Secondly, obviously, you know, there may be some things that are going to come out during the course of the trial, I suspect there are, that would be very, very emotional to you. I have seen some of the evidence. I have an idea of what some of the testimony may be but that being said -- and I know how hard this is. It's easy for me to say and not going to be easy for you to do it. I've got to ask you to do the best you can to check your emotions. If a tear comes to your eye I understand. Hopefully you'll have a tissue or something and just wipe your eye. If it gets to a point where you're somewhat overcome you will probably need to leave the courtroom, go outside, you know, to get yourself recomposed. My suggestion is and I understand that the State ttorney's Office has got a room or two where they have -- they're going to have -- whatever this live feed is that we're going to have they'll have it there, so you could go there and continue to watch even though you were still in an emotional state and then once you're composed and at our next break you can come back in.
0 0 What I'm trying to avoid because I expect the courtroom is going to be full is people coming and going, coming and going, coming and going. It's a distraction to everybody including the jury and I don't want them to be distracted from anything. If for some reason, you know, all of a sudden we don't have hardly anybody in here then getting up and going out and coming back in might be an option. Normally that's what happens in a case because usually you don't have much of an audience, but I don't suspect that's going to be the case today. So if you'll indulge me there if that happens you can just excuse yourself. The bailiffs will get you outside and quickly get you to whatever room the State ttorney's Office has set up so you can continue to watch and then as I said when we have our next break come on back in when you feel that you can, okay? MR. DVIS: Okay. THE COURT: Thank y'all very much. THE WITNESS: Thank you, Judge. Thank you so much, Judge Healey. THE COURT: Okay. ll right. What I need to do is we need to bring all -- whoever's out there, whatever media and audience and such, bring them on
0 0 0 in and then once everybody's in place a bailiff needs to come and get me -- tell me they're in place. I'll tell the bailiff when they come back around and they can tell you go live and then I'll come out. We'll give them -- yeah. Just before -- okay. ll right. Y'all ready to go? MS. COREY: One more minute. Mr. Strolla wants to see -- I enlarged like you told me. He wants to look at it one more time, Judge, and then we're ready. (Recess.) MS. COREY: nd, Judge, for the record Mr. Strolla did look at what you asked us to do and, Mr. Strolla. MR. STROLL: Yeah, two -- Judge, the two photos were redacted appropriately. THE COURT: Okay. So with those redactions other than other objections they're fine? MR. STROLL: That is correct. THE COURT: nd so that -- that disk if you will will be stipulated into evidence as photographs through 0 -- through 0? MS. COREY: Yes, sir. nd so we've got that ready to go and then just three physical exhibits that I'm going to go over with Mr. Strolla so that
0 0 we don't have to stop and ask you to do it. We're asking you to go ahead and admit state's through 0. Those are the separated slides that you've already seen with the changes Mr. Strolla requested and, Judge, they're on one disk that goes to the clerk and then we just play it, you know. THE COURT: Okay. MS. COREY: For the jury. We're good? THE COURT: Yep. (Recess.) THE COURT: Good morning, everybody. MS. COREY: Good morning. MR. STROLL: Good morning, Your Honor. THE COURT: nd welcome to everyone that's here. We are here to commence the trial of the State of Florida versus Michael David Dunn. Is the state ready to proceed? MR. GUY: Yes, sir. THE COURT: Defense ready to proceed? MR. STROLL: So ready, Your Honor. THE COURT: ll right. nd if we can bring the jurors on in, please. (Jury in at : p.m..) THE COURT: Just remain standing and we're going to have you administer another oath. Good
0 0 morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome back. Just remain standing. If you would raise your right hand. The clerk is going to administer the oath to you as jurors in this case. (Jury sworn by clerk.) THE VENIREMEN: Yes. THE COURT: Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. You can have a seat. nd good morning or actually afternoon. Welcome back. gain I want to thank you for your time and attention during the course of the last three days in our jury selection and ask you to obviously continue to pay close attention to the matters that will ensue here this afternoon. You have -- you were selected actually yesterday and now have been sworn as the jury to try the case of the State of Florida versus Michael David Dunn. s you know from jury selection this is a criminal case, and the defendant, Michael David Dunn, is charged with five separate offenses. The first count was first degree murder. There are three counts of attempted first degree murder and the fifth count is shooting into an occupied dwelling. The elements of those offenses and the definitions that go along with it will be
0 0 explained to you at the conclusion of the case. You should know it's your solemn responsibility to determine if the state has proven its accusations beyond a reasonable doubt against the defendant, Mr. Dunn. Your verdict must be solely -- based solely on the evidence or lack of evidence and on the law that I will instruct you on at the close of the case. The indictment that was talked about over the last several days as you recall is a charging document only. It is not evidence and it is not to be considered by you as any proof of guilt. It is my responsibility to decide which laws apply to this case and to explain those laws to you. It is your responsibility to decide what the facts of the case may be and to apply the law that I instruct you on to those facts in order to reach a lawful verdict. Thus, the province of the jury and the province of the Court are well-defined, and they do not overlap. This is one of the fundamental principles of our justice system. Before we proceed I would like to give you a little outline as to how the trial is conducted so you'll have an understanding of what will come during the course of the afternoon and over the
0 0 next several days. t the beginning of the trial the attorneys will have an opportunity if they wish to make an opening statement to you. The opening statement gives them an opportunity and a chance to tell you what evidence they believe will be presented during the course of the trial. What the lawyers say, however, is not evidence and you are not to consider it as such. Evidence will come to you in the form of testimony from the witness stand, documents, photographs, things of that nature. Following the opening statements witnesses will be called to the witness stand to testify under oath. They will be examined and cross examined by the attorneys. Documents as I said and other exhibits, photographs, things of that nature may also be produced into evidence. fter the evidence has been presented the attorneys will then have an opportunity to make their final arguments to you. Following the final arguments of the attorneys then I will instruct you on the law that applies to this particular case. fter those instructions are given to you you will be allowed to go back into the jury room to
0 0 deliberate your verdict. s we've discussed on numerous occasions over the last several days you should not form any definite or fixed opinion on the merits of the case until you have heard all of the evidence, the arguments of the attorneys and the instructions on the law that I will give you at the conclusion of the case. Until that time you should not discuss the case among yourselves. We've also talked about during the course of the trial we'll take breaks. You will have bailiffs with you during those breaks because of the sequestration issue, but during those breaks you will be allowed to do some other things. You should not discuss the case among yourselves or allow anyone to discuss the case with you or in your presence. If someone were to do something such as that obviously as we've discussed before you would inform one of the bailiffs and they will tell me and bring it to my attention and we can handle the matter from there. The reason for that is as again we've discussed on numerous occasions is the case must be tried by you only upon the evidence presented here
0 0 in the courtroom during the trial in your presence, my presence, the attorneys and the defendant, Mr. Dunn. You must not conduct any investigation on your own as we've also discussed. This includes reading newspapers, watching television or using a computer, a cell phone, the internet, any electronic device or any means at all to get information related to this case or the people and places involved in the case. This applies whether you are in the courthouse or at the hotel during your sequestration. Obviously you must not visit any of the places mentioned, and you should not look at the internet to try and observe anything along those lines. You must not have discussions of any sort with any friends or family members about the case or the people and places involved in the case, so even during visitation with family members as we've discussed you should not have any conversations with them about the case itself or the facts and circumstances surrounding it. We've talked a lot about this electronic age and the communication devices that are available to anyone. I need to stress to you again that you
0 0 must not talk about this case obviously face to face with anyone nor through any electronic device. You will not be able to use phones, computers or other electronic devices to communicate unless it's under certain supervision. Do not send or accept any messages related to this case or your jury service. Do not discuss this case or ask for advice by any means at all including posting information on the internet or website or such as that. You should also know and we've discussed this somewhat over the last couple of days that in every criminal proceeding a defendant has the absolute right to remain silent. t no time is it the duty of a defendant to prove his innocence. From the exercise of a defendant's right to remain silent a jury is not permitted to draw any inference of guilt, and the fact that a defendant did not take the witness stand must not influence your verdict in any manner whatsoever. The attorneys are trained in the rules of evidence and procedure. It is their duty to make all objections that they feel are necessary and proper. When an objection is made you should not speculate on the reason why it is made nor should
0 0 you speculate on what the answer to the question would have been had I allowed the question to be answered. The pads and paper in front of you you'll see there are for your ability to take notes if you wish. If you'd like to take notes during the course of the trial you may do so. On the other hand, you do not have to. You're not required to. It's just there for your individual use if you so desire. ny notes that you take will be as I said for your personal use. You should not take them with you from the courtroom when we are on breaks. We will gather them up and watch over them for you and the same thing in the evenings. When you have finished -- when the case is finished and you go back for deliberations you'll be allowed to take the notes back there with you for you to review again for your own personal use. You should not share your notes with any of the other jurors and you should just use them for your use to help your own recollection of the testimony and the evidence. lso let me caution you about getting too involved with note taking itself. Different people
0 0 take notes in different ways. The -- some people take notes almost verbatim. Others are shorter about it. Do not let the note taking distract you from what's going on. When the witnesses are called to the witness stand the attorneys will be asking questions. When they ask a question and get an answer they're not looking over to see if you have finished taking notes. They're going to continue on in this process, so be careful about that. Sometimes you're writing something down because you believe it to be very important. You may miss the next question and or the next answer. It may not have been particularly important but it may have been, so just I caution you about that and ask you to be careful when you're taking the notes. Whether or not you take notes you should rely ultimately on your memory of the evidence, the testimony that has come before you. You should not be unduly influenced by the notes of any other juror. gain the notes are for your particular use, so if you were to get into the jury room and collectively as a group decide somebody was the greatest note taker you've ever seen you cannot rely on their notes as a group. The notes are just
0 0 0 for yourself, and as I said your greatest tool is your memory of the evidence but you can use the notes to help you with that. So with that said, we're ready to begin with the opening statements. We'll hear first from Mr. Guy on behalf of the state. Mr. Guy. MR. GUY: Thank you, Your Honor. May it please the Court? THE COURT: Yes, sir. MR. GUY: Counsel. Good afternoon. THE VENIREMEN: Good afternoon. MR. GUY: s they had been so many times before the two best friends were side by side. Jordan Davis and Leland Brunson sitting in the back seat of a friend's SUV in the middle of a holiday weekend of mall hopping and girl shopping, but this moment was unlike any other the two best friends had ever spent. Bullets, nine of them, had come crashing through the glass and metal surrounding them. Some of the bullets had whizzed by their heads and the heads of two other teenagers who were in the car. Some of the bullets had been stopped by the metal in the doors but some of the bullets were unaccounted for, and so four terrified teenagers
0 0 began an ominous roll call. Tommie, Tevin, Leland, Jordan. Everybody responded to the sound of their name except Jordan Davis who was lying in the back seat with his head in Leland Brunson's lap. Unbeknownst to any of them three of those bullets had found their target. One of them had entered his right leg. One of them had entered his left leg and one of them had entered his right side, tore through his liver, passed through both of his lungs and shredded his aorta and then the blood that for years had run so naturally through Jordan Davis' veins and arteries was pouring out of them and so the two best friends were side by side for the last time. Jordan Davis gasping for air was taking his last breaths of life and Leland Brunson who was cradling his dying friend was taking his last breaths of innocence, and at that exact moment the man who fueled by anger and intent had fired ten times, ten, into a car of unarmed teenagers was driving away as though nothing had happened. Michael David Dunn pointed a semiautomatic pistol at four unarmed kids from a distance much closer than you and I and then drove off. He
0 0 didn't call the police. He went to his hotel with his girlfriend and he called a pizza delivery man and ordered a pizza and took his little dog for a walk outside the hotel, turned on a movie and made himself a big tall rum and Coke, and not long after an emergency doctor at Shands Hospital pronounced Jordan Davis dead. That defendant put his head on his hotel pillow and went to sleep but, ladies and gentlemen, as you are about to learn there are some things that defendant will never, ever be able to run from, the physical evidence, the bullet trajectory through the car and through Jordan Davis's body that will prove to you beyond any doubt that when that defendant opened fire Jordan Davis was sitting in his car seat with the door closed with nothing in his hands and he was leaning over away from the gunfire toward Leland Brunson. Secondly, the words from that defendant's own mouth at the time of the shooting, words of hate, words of intent, words that he can't now take back, and most importantly the memories, the retched, indelible memories of the three boys who survived and the host of witnesses at a gas station including his own girlfriend who he made witnesses
0 0 to a homicide. The date was November rd, 0, the day after Thanksgiving. Everybody knows it now as Black Friday, and -year-old Jordan Davis got together with his best friend, -year-old Leland Brunson, both of them students at Wolfson High School, and as teenage boys want to do they called two other friends to go to the mall to look for girls, so they called -year-old Tevin Thompson, a student at tlantic Coast High, and -year-old Tommie Stornes, and the four teenagers jumped into Tommie Stornes' red Dodge Durango and went to the Town Center and struck out. The only person of note they ran into was Jordan Davis's on-again, off-again girlfriend, liyah Harris. nd then they climbed back into the car and head for another mall, the venues Mall, but they stopped. They stopped at a Gate Gas Station at the intersection of Southside Boulevard and Baymeadows Road, and Tommie Stornes pulled in to a parking space right in front of the door facing the store. Tommie Stornes got out to go inside to get some cigarettes for himself and some gum for the other boys, and Tevin Thompson and Leland Brunson and Jordan Davis sat in the car listening to music,
0 0 their music, loud music, rap music. nd then into their lives and into the parking space right beside them pulled the defendant, and after his girlfriend got into the store he turned his attention to the boys, but before his girlfriend got out of the car he turned to her and said I hate that thug music that was rattling his rearview mirror, and his girlfriend just looked at him and said, I know, and went in the store. nd rather than go into the store himself or move his car the defendant chose to roll down his window. He was right next to Tevin Thompson. Tevin Thompson is in the front passenger seat. The defendant was in the driver's seat of his car, and he looked at him and he said, hey, can you turn that down? I can't hear myself think, so Tevin Thompson turned the music down. But Jordan Davis who was sitting behind Tevin Thompson in the rear passenger seat didn't want to be told what to listen to or at what volume to listen to it at, so he said F him, turn it up, and he didn't say that. He said the word and he didn't say him. He said the N word. He said turn it up. So Tevin Thompson turned the music back up, and then Jordan Davis and the defendant started jawing
0 0 at each other. Jordan Davis is foot inches tall, pounds. The defendant is six four and well over 00 but they exchanged F-bombs back and forth, and at about the time Tommie Stornes got back in the car the defendant rolled down his window again and said are you talking to me? nd Jordan Davis looked at him and said, yeah, I'm talking to you, and then the defendant said you're not going to talk to me like that, and in the same motion he reached in his glove box and grabbed his pistol and he pulled the slide back to chamber a live round, and with two hands he pointed out his window back at Jordan Davis' door and pulled the trigger three times. Every one of those shots in a nice tight little circle went through the door and into Jordan Davis' body. Tommie Stornes, the driver, as you can imagine was terrified and put the car in reverse and backed up. The defendant didn't stop. He kept focused and aiming on the car and he pulled the trigger four more times, and you'll see the bullet holes in Tevin Thompson's door, one after the other, three. The fourth shot missed. nd then Tommie Stornes backed all the way up
0 0 and pulled off as fast as he could into an adjacent parking lot, but the defendant didn't stop. Instead he opened his driver's door and put his legs out and took aim again and pulled the trigger three more times. Every one of those shots hit the car, two of them in the back where the taillight is, one of them in the rear window that crisscrossed the car passing between all four of their heads and came in the back right window and ended up in that little sun visor above Tommie Stornes' head. Tommie Stornes got out of the parking lot and stopped the car to see what was wrong, to see who and what had been hit and they started that roll call that Jordan Davis couldn't respond to, and Tevin Thompson and Tommie Stornes got out and they opened the back doors and they saw Jordan Davis and they saw Leland Brunson and they realized what had happened, and they jumped back in the car and they didn't park or turn it around. Tommie Stornes put it in reverse, straight back to the Gate Gas Station where there was lighting and people and help, and people did come. The defendant had already pulled off with his girlfriend and the four teens were back in the Gate
0 0 parking lot, and people did come and pull Jordan Davis out of the car and put him on the ground and tried in vain to perform C.P.R., and rescue came and put him in the back of an ambulance where he was taken to the hospital and pronounced dead. Ladies and gentlemen, this case, the evidence in this case is going to take you back, back to November rd, 0 at about : p.m. when those gunshots rang out, and you will be witnesses then and you'll hear from each of the three boys who lived in the car. Leland Brunson, a wisp of a kid, maybe, maybe 0 pounds, maybe and Tevin Thompson, big guy, round face, smiles a lot, and they'll tell you about the interaction between Jordan Davis and the defendant, that Jordan Davis was upset, no doubt. He was cussing, no doubt. He raised his voice, but he never threatened the defendant. He disrespected the defendant, and Tommie Stornes, the driver, who came back to the car and saw the defendant pull his gun. nd you'll learn that Jordan Davis the only thing he had on his person was a cell phone and a pocketknife, and both of those things were in his pockets when he was shot and killed, and when they
0 0 cut his clothes off him his little pocketknife and his cell phone were in his pocket. But you won't just have the people in the car. This happened at a gas station before :00 p.m. on Black Friday on the southside. You'll hear from people like Steven Smith, a contractor, who stopped there to get something to drink and who walked out the front door of the store. The defendant's car was the first spot next to the door and he was stopped by what he heard the defendant say. You're not going to talk to me like that, and he looked maybe ten feet to his right and saw the defendant pull that gun and aim it out the door at point-blank range at the car next to him and pull the trigger and saw the red Dodge Durango back up and the defendant keep firing and saw the Dodge Durango pull off and the defendant keep firing. You'll hear from people like ndrew Williams who was on the street, and when he heard the shots he pulled into the gas station and he pulled Jordan Davis out of the car because he had a medical background, and he put his hands into Jordan Davis' chest in vain. You'll hear from people like Shawn tkins who
0 0 had the wherewithal to remember the tag number of the defendant's car before it pulled off. That was given to the police. People like Samantha Eichas who pulled in just before the boys pulled back in and saw the holes in the car and saw the panic on their faces and called. You'll hear from people like Christopher and lyssa LeBlanc, a brother and sister, who had dinner at the Loop Restaurant which is in the next plaza. They were walking back to their car when they heard the gunshots and they saw the red Dodge Durango coming towards them and stop suddenly and they saw two black males, Tommie Stornes and Tevin Thompson, get out of the car and look in the back. They didn't know what they were looking at, that it was Jordan Davis. They just saw them get out of the car. They didn't see him leave the car, the area of the car. They didn't put anything in the car. They didn't take anything out of the car. They just looked in the back and then they got back in and put it in reverse and the LeBlanc's got in their car and they called. But you won't just have witness testimony.
0 0 0 You will have forensic evidence, a bone-chilling audiotape because the Gate Store has surveillance, video surveillance, on the inside of the store only and so you'll see Tommie Stornes, tall guy, real skinny, got dredlocks maybe down to his shoulders go in and buy a pack of cigarettes and some gum and you'll see the defendant's girlfriend, Rhonda Rouer, put a bottle of wine on the counter and a bag of potato chips and then all of a sudden out of nowhere three remarkably loud bangs, the shots that killed Jordan Davis, and then pause, four more shots and then the long pause when the boys pulled off and he opened his door, three more shots, all of which hit the car. nd you will have the car itself, the red Dodge Durango, that was at the scene of course and it was secured and you'll see through the photographs that when the bullet went through Jordan Davis' closed door it blew pieces of the inside of the door into the car, big pieces of plastic and rubber into the car because the door was closed. nd they searched the car. There was a basketball in the back. There were basketball shoes. There were clothes. There were the big
0 0 -inch speakers. There were cups on the floor. There were no weapons, no guns, no bats, no tire irons. There was a camera tripod stuffed under one of the seats. nd they took that car down and they put dowel rods in each of the nine holes in the car so you could see exactly the angle that they came in at and you'll see the three through Jordan Davis' door and the three into Tevin Thompson's door and the three in the back and the long dowel rod that goes from the back of the car to the front right through Tommie Stornes' sun visor. nd, ladies and gentlemen, you won't just have what happened in the Durango. You're going to have what happened in his car because when his girlfriend, Rhonda Rouer, heard the gunshots like everyone else she was shocked and she stepped outside, and the defendant yelled to her get in the car, and she just stood there and he yelled at her again get in the car, and she did and they pulled off. North on Southside Boulevard, maybe three miles to the Sheraton Hotel. They had cell phones. The defendant didn't call, didn't drive to a police substation. He drove to the parking lot.
0 0 He put his gun back in the glove box and he walked inside. Didn't tell anybody at the front desk. He just went upstairs, and he called a Pizza Hut delivery service to get a pizza and got his little dog and he went down and he took him for a walk and then turned on the movie and poured a big tall drink of rum and Coke and then he went to sleep. But in the morning Rhonda Rouer turned on the news and there was a story of a shooting from the night before at a gas station on the southside and a -year-old boy had been killed, and she told the defendant about the news story and then they packed their bags and went home to Brevard County two-and-a-half hours away, and you'll learn that they had been at a wedding before stopping at the store, the defendant's son's wedding, and they skipped their plans for Saturday night in St. ugustine and drove back to Brevard County and unpacked their bags and went inside. But through the night while the defendant was sleeping the detectives were working. Remember the guy who wrote down the tag number, Shawn tkins? They ran the tag. It came back to the defendant, and in the middle of the night they put together
0 0 photospreads with the defendant's picture and showed them to the three boys. Tevin Thompson who was right next to the defendant recognized, identified the defendant. That's the guy who shot at us, and he signed his name, and they got an arrest warrant and they went to Brevard County the next morning and arrested the defendant who had not a mark, not a scratch on him, and they seized his car and in the glove box was a Taurus nine-millimeter pistol with ten rounds missing and a magazine underneath it, another full magazine, and they searched that car. There was a shell casing on the front floorboard right by the defendant's right foot. There were four shell casings in that little trough between the windshield and the hood that the expelled casings had been caught in that matched the five casings at the scene. nd you will hear from a ballistics expert, Maria Pagan, with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and she will tell you exactly how the defendant's gun operates, what the trigger pull is, fancy term. It's just the amount of force it takes to pull the trigger, and she'll tell you that to expel a single bullet you have to pull the trigger
0 0 one time. To fire ten times a person has to pull it ten times, and she'll show you how the gun works. But, ladies and gentlemen, you're also going to learn in this trial as Ms. Corey discussed with you yesterday real trials are not like T.V. and the witnesses are not well-spoken actors and actresses. For example, Shawn tkins, the guy who was standing there who had the insight to write down the tag number, he's in prison now. Since November of 0 he's been arrested and prosecuted, sentenced to prison. Tommie Stornes, the -year-old driver of the car, was on probation at the time, felony probation, and he had a curfew. He was supposed to be home at :00 p.m.. He was violating his curfew when the gunshots went off at :, and when you listen to the witnesses' testimony you'll hear inconsistencies, real life inconsistencies, the way it happens in everyday life. nd finally, ladies and gentlemen, you will hear from Dr. Stacey Simons, the medical examiner who performed the autopsy on Jordan Davis' body, critical testimony, and she will take you through and show you the path of each bullet, how two
0 0 bullets entered the backs of his legs around his groin, one of which lodged in his left hip and you'll see an x-ray of the projectile and you'll see the projectile itself, and the third bullet that went into his right side about midway up and passed through his liver and his lungs and his aorta, and you'll see that the path of the bullet is like this because Jordan Davis was like this when he was shot and killed leaning away from the defendant, and you will see an x-ray of that bullet lodged in his chest. nd, ladies and gentlemen, at the end of this trial Judge Healey will read to you the law, the law that applies to all of us, the laws that apply to each of us, and we are confident that after you hear the evidence and all of it, all of it, that you will know beyond any doubt in your head, in your heart, in your gut that when that defendant pointed that pistol at the car full of unarmed teenagers and started and continued to pull the trigger he was guilty of shooting into an occupied vehicle, guilty of three counts of attempted murder and guilty of the first degree murder of Jordan Davis. Thank you for your time. Thank you, sir. THE COURT: Thank you, Mr. Guy. Mr. Strolla.
0 0 MR. STROLL: Thank you, Your Honor. May it please the Court? THE COURT: Yes, sir. MR. STROLL: Opposing counsels. Members of the jury, what did we talk about in jury selection? You can't use sympathy. You can't use anger. Can't use bias or prejudice, and no matter how soft Mr. Guy wants to talk and how slow he wants to tell you that's not the evidence. What he says is not evidence. What you hear from this witness stand, what you see with your own eyes with the state's witnesses is evidence, and as Mr. Guy put it real inconsistencies is real life every day. Well, every day people aren't on trial for crimes they didn't commit, and we talked about you can look at something and see two separate things looking at the same picture, and Mr. Guy told you his version. Mr. Guy told you what he believes the evidence is going to show, and again he could say it as slowly and softly as he wants but the Judge is going to instruct you the law is you can't use sympathy, empathy, anger, bias or prejudice. Now what did you hear Mr. Guy say? The first person to get upset and the evidence is going to show that the only person that cursed was Jordan
0 0 Davis, and his words to Michael Dunn were I'm going to fucking kill you. I should kill you right now. See, that's what Mr. Guy didn't tell you the facts were going to come out prior to any gunshots being fired, all because Michael Dunn asked for common courtesy. nd the gentlemen in that car will admit to you on that stand under oath that the music was so loud it was rattling the windows, the mirrors. They couldn't even hear themselves talk sitting in the same vehicle, but yet they want you to believe that this man so angrily coming back from his son's wedding said turn down the music, I can't hear myself think, and Mr. Thompson, the gentleman in the front passenger seat, we call shotgun, will tell you he could only see Mr. Dunn mouth those words, couldn't even hear him, and Tevin Thompson lowered it. nd what you're going to hear is the next thing my client says, Michael Dunn, was thank you, and he puts his window back up, and then as Mr. Guy says it the first words Jordan Davis says, fuck that nigger, turn it back up. That didn't come from Michael Dunn. Not a single remark, not a single curse word came from Mr. Dunn.
0 0 s a matter of fact, the gentlemen in the car will tell you that they never heard Michael Dunn curse. He never raised his voice, and he never yelled at them, and all three men in that car will tell you that the music was so loud they don't even know if Jordan Davis actually threatened Michael Dunn, but what you're going to find out through the evidence is law enforcement didn't care. The State ttorney's Office didn't care because the evidence is going to show that they took those three men to the homicide office to take their statement. They put them in a room, had video, had audio but they didn't use it. The homicide detectives are going to tell you that's not protocol. I've got to go to my assistant chief and my lieutenant. We don't video and audio people who are allegedly a victim of a crime. Okay. The homicide detectives are going to tell you that they even have tape recorders. They could use it. None of them did. s a matter of fact, the lead homicide detective, Detective Musser, was so unprepared he didn't even bring his laptop to the crime scene when he was summoned to go from his house. He couldn't even watch the surveillance video. He didn't watch the
0 0 surveillance video. He had his fellow officer go get it, not even a homicide detective. He didn't even know what was on it till days later. You're going to find out that Detective Musser asked another homicide detective, all right, you go get the video. I've got other stuff to do. The surveillance video of the shooting was so unimportant to Detective Musser he gave it to somebody else to delegate with no description of what he wanted. Now what you're going to find out about that surveillance video is there's video and there's audio. You can hear what's going on. You can see what's going on, and the one thing Mr. Guy didn't tell you the evidence is going to show that once the crime scene was what they call secure all of the witnesses from outside were brought into a little area inside that Gate Gas Station right underneath the cameras, right where there's video and audio, and some witnesses depending on who the state calls will tell you, yeah, people talked. Some people said the officers told us not to. Some of the witnesses said they didn't. Some said they were standing inside. Some said the officers were only outside.
0 0 0 But if you want to get through those inconsistencies all the detective had to do was look at the video, realize it's got audio and just ask the Gate Gas Station, hey, give me an extra hour or so while my witnesses are in there. Let's ensure that witnesses aren't talking to each other and then don't for days. nd what you're going to find out is on the video, in the surveillance video you're going to see a witness, one of the Gate employees, start immediately talking to the next customer in line about what just happened and what she saw. You're going to see her start talking to another Gate employee about what just happened and what she saw, and the video goes off ten minutes after it happens. Not because Michael Dunn said stop the video, because the police didn't care enough to preserve what the witnesses may have said on video, and we have audio, and the way Mr. Guy presents his evidence was nice and slow, methodical, almost premeditated. None of the evidence presented will show any of that, and like he said beyond any doubt you'll see Tommie Stornes walk out. He was the driver of the car. This is the man, his SUV
0 0 pumping the music and that's okay but he had no idea what happened. He gets into his truck and he doesn't see Mr. Dunn's person. He has to walk literally this close to Michael Dunn because Michael Dunn is the first car out the door, and guess where the red SUV is? It's right next to Mr. Dunn's car, and the state's witnesses will tell you that it was front to front, window to window, so Mr. Thompson is sitting right next to Mr. Dunn and Jordan Davis would be behind him. Mr. Stornes would have to walk right in front of Mr. Dunn, right in front of the red SUV and never claimed to have heard yelling, cursing, anything by Mr. Dunn, not even a visible sign of aggression or anger by Michael Dunn, but Mr. Guy didn't tell you that in opening statement. My next point is when you hear the witnesses testify don't just keep an open mind on direct examination. Listen for the cross examination. We talked about it in jury selection. I'm going to ask some real hard questions and there will be inconsistencies and there will be some questions they can't answer, but Mr. Guy tells you beyond all doubt.
0 0 You're going to find out that not only does the SUV speed away, they drive over a hundred yards into another plaza filled with cars. There's two people allegedly 0, feet away from them, Chris LeBlanc and lyssa LeBlanc. Mr. Stornes gets out of the car, opens his back door. The call even says from Chris LeBlanc it looks like they're stashing something. Those are his exact words. Mr. Thompson gets out of his door, opens the back door. So now you've got two men from the SUV fumbling in the back looking like they're stashing something, not doing a roll call, not screaming, oh, my God, our friend's been shot, call. What does Tommie Stornes do? Calls and hangs up. What does Tevin Thompson do? Nothing. What does Leland Brunson do whose cradling his best friend dying? Nothing. Chris and lyssa LeBlanc, the brother and sister, will tell you that nobody was screaming, nobody was panicking and nobody was yelling, and here's the key: They're going to tell you that one of those men were on the cell phone talking but none of the men will be able to tell you who they recall talking to, yet Mr. Guy tells you the evidence shows they go back for help at a gas station with no medical personnel, with cell
0 0 phones where they could call in a lit plaza with people and cars. Now you're going to hear a statement that Ms. Wolfson gives, and if they play you the audio you'll hear Ms. Wolfson lead the entire time. You'll see her lead the witnesses the entire time of what answers she wants, and you're going to hear from LeBlanc say, well, I didn't see them get rid of anything, right? Because now they're trying to stash a weapon. They're getting it out of the vehicle. They could easily throw it underneath the car. They could be on the phone with their friend. Man, you got to get up here. Just got shot at. This is where it's at. Come get it. Click. That call is more important than to the men in the car. Chris LeBlanc will tell you, oh, yeah, I didn't see them get rid of anything either. Huh-uh. They really never left the truck, but see if he can tell you or Ms. LeBlanc can tell you that once they get out of the vehicle and the front doors are open and the back doors are open you lose sight of them. They have no idea what Tommie Stornes and Tevin Thompson are doing in the back of
0 0 that car because now at least Mr. Thompson's completely out of sight. They then reverse back. They still don't call. They pull into a parking spot, and Mr. Guy said Samantha Eichas, a very important witness, after a shoot-out they're panicked. Their friend is cradled taking his last breath. You would think that car would fly back in, pull into a spot. No. Ms. Eichas will tell you the red SUV pulled up right next to her calmly, slowly. Nobody said anything from the red SUV. She looked over and saw bullet holes, and Ms. Eichas asked is everything okay? She'll tell you I've never seen anything like that. I didn't know what to do. I was in shock because she wasn't there for the shooting. She pulled in after. The red SUV was gone for so long over a hundred yards away in another parking lot that people could pull into the plaza, talk on the phone, go to get gas and had no idea a shooting just occurred, and that is when one of the boys in the car says could you call for the first time, and not one witness will tell you where Tommie Stornes went when he got out of the truck. Not one witness can tell you where Tevin Thompson went when
0 0 he got out of the truck. The only person we know that stayed in the truck was Leland. Now they tell you a witness showed up who had medical training who gave C.P.R.. You're going to hear that there's officers standing at the red SUV and they let a civilian help pull Jordan Davis out of the car and administer C.P.R.. He was a lifeguard at years old and had never done C.P.R. in his life, and that's who the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office allowed to work on Jordan Davis and called it medical background experience, a guy who was a lifeguard when he was a kid. Now I don't fault that gentleman for trying, but if you look at the evidence and what the Sheriff's Office did and did not do it's unmistakable. They're not everyday inconsistencies. They don't take sworn statements from the gentlemen in the car. They don't even put him on video. They don't record him, but you know who they did record that night? Shawn tkins. In the same room Tommie Stornes, Leland Brunson and Tevin Thompson were they record a statement from a guy who saw nothing, and he'll admit he doesn't know why it happened. He never heard anything.
0 0 s a matter of fact, he says that my client pulled up before the red Durango which nobody will say, but they want you to believe he's so reliable you got to listen to him, the one who's now a ten-time convicted felon, and what Mr. Guy didn't tell you is that he even asked the state if he could get time off his sentence for testifying on behalf of the State of Florida, if he could stay in Jacksonville just a little bit longer and not go back to prison that would be great. The evidence will show that there was motive, bias on the part of the men in the vehicle. s a matter of fact, what Mr. Guy didn't tell you is Leland Brunson admitted that Jordan Davis tried to get out of the car. Leland Brunson even said Jordan Davis grabbed that rear handle of the Durango to get out, but you know what happened after that? Four days later, four days later the Sheriff's Office goes and checks the Durango. Why would they check the Durango? Because four days later every man in that car said, oh, the child safety locks were on. Jordan Davis couldn't get out, and if you don't know what the child lock is you pop it on. It's a little lever and you cannot open the car from the inside.
0 0 Now why would they all say that? Leland Brunson had been in that truck one other time. Jordan Davis had been in that truck one other time. They knew Tommie Stornes for less than 0 days and were driving around town and as Mr. Guy said the best friends driving around in the back of the SUV. Well, not Mr. Stornes' SUV. They didn't even know him. They just met him. So how would they know the child safety locks were on unless they talked to each other and tried to get their stories together. nd Mr. Ron Davis, the father of Jordan Davis, will even tell you that within a day or two after this they were at his house and that they were still so off on their stories he believed they were still in shock because none of the three men's stories made sense or were accurate. Now what do you think the evidence technicians found when they went to that SUV and looked at the back door? Where do you think those child locks were? They were off, off, meaning when Leland Brunson actually admitted that Jordan Davis tried to get out of the car he was trying to protect his dead friend from the truth, that Jordan Davis threatened Michael Dunn. You're dead, Bitch. This