Roca/NewsJohn White and his wife Sonia as they leave the courthouse after his guilty verdict was handed down.
Roca/NewsMembers of the Cicciaro family celebrate the verdict.
Posted on 12/22/2007 10:38:31 PM PST by Stoat
Saturday, December 22nd 2007, 10:25 PM
Roca/NewsJohn White and his wife Sonia as they leave the courthouse after his guilty verdict was handed down.
Roca/NewsMembers of the Cicciaro family celebrate the verdict.
The black Long Island father charged with shooting a white teen was convicted of manslaughter Saturday night by a jury that rejected his claim he was defending his family from a "lynch mob."
John White, 54, was found guilty of gunning down 17-year-old Daniel Cicciaro last year in the racially charged case.
"We're going to Disney. Wooo!" the victim's father, Daniel Cicciaro Sr., crowed, as he left the Arthur M. Cromarty Court complex in Riverhead, L.I., Saturday night.
"My son is finally vindicated," the teen's mother, Joanne Cicciaro, said. "The truth prevailed.
"It was never about race. It was about individuals and individuals' actions."
Cicciaro's relatives started honking their horns in the parking lot.
White, who also was convicted of criminal possession of a weapon, had maintained that the shooting was accidental. He was permitted to remain free on bail until sentencing, when he is to face a prison term of 5 to 15 years.
He had no comment last night.
The ruling came on the fourth day of tense jury deliberations that followed a trial in which defense attorneys referenced the Ku Klux Klan in arguing the shooting was justified. Jurors reported they were deadlocked on Friday.
Reaction in the courtroom was muted after Judge Barbara Kahn had warned the spectators against "public displays of approval or disapproval when the verdict is read."
White testified during the trial that he was trying to protect his family when he brandished a gun last year after a group of angry white teenagers showed up at his doorstep late at night to confront his then-19-year-old son, Aaron.
John White had been sleeping inside his home in Miller Place, a predominantly white community in eastern Long Island, on Aug. 9, 2006, when Aaron woke him to say that a group of angry teens was headed to their house bent on beating him up.
Minutes earlier, Aaron White had gotten into a fight with the boys after being asked to leave a house party.
The elder White first grabbed a shotgun, but then opted instead for a pistol he kept in his garage.
He and his son, who had picked up the shotgun, walked to the end of the driveway to confront the angry gang, who hurled racial epithets.
John White said his gun went off accidentally after Cicciaro lunged for it.
"He wanted to stop these people who said they were coming to kill his son," defense attorney Fred Brewington said in closing arguments.
Suffolk County Assistant District Attorney James Chalifoux said White should have simply locked the door and called police - and not gone outside to confront the teenagers with a gun.
He also sought to downplay the racial element, telling jurors the Brooklyn-raised White never said anything about a lynch mob until the case went to trial.
The defendant's wife, Sonia White, said only, "We are blessed by the Lord."
I'm sure we'll find out in the next day or two why the jury deadlocked.
You are ignorant of tactics and survival. You are a casualty waiting to happen.
I have seen the elephant, and I don’t need an ignoramus telling me how to handle this type of situation.
Jesse and Al would have showed up. The NAACP and the Black Panthers would have staged a march, singing We Shall Overcome. The high school would have held a candlelight vigil.
A white Mr. White would have been charged and convicted of first degree murder. Then he would go to federal court to be convicted of a hate crime. He would be successfully sued for millions in civil court, along with the city, the police department, the high school, the parents who hosted the party, and the MySpace website.
THAT'S what would have happened.
A lot of folks magically calm down at the sight of a gun in the hands of those they are threatening.
Not always of course, and especially not those who have self medicated themselves into a semi-stupor.
Not in NY and the punks knew that. That's what gave the little punk the faux balls to slap the gun away in the first place. Even though their intent was to commit a class C felony, they were free to go about their business, because NY requires victims to submit to criminal conspiracy and mob action.
Umm, you had the gun for self defense, but did not intend to shoot at that time. Either version of events, that the kid lunged at him, or that the kid tried to slap the gun away, supports the idea of an accidental discharge.
No _itch, your son had conspired to, and was intent on committing a Class C felony. He caused Mr White to respond in fear to your punk kid's actions in the middle of the night in a way he was neither trained, nor prepared to handle.
"Cicciaro's relatives started honking their horns in the parking lot."
Hurray! Thugs and criminals can still operate with impunity in your liberal hell hole.
He was supposed to just let the teenagers (but old enough to be soldiers) beat him and his son up? Glad I live in Texas.
If you fired accidentally, you are negligent. And therefore guilty.
Exactly. I'm sure in Mr White's case it was son first, laws second, but now he has to pay for liberal laws.
You don't have to say more.
Or if the hoods were in the process of robbing him, and the gun accidentally goes off? What then?
Nothing is immaterial. We're put on this earth to make choices. What his lawyer resorted to in court doesn't matter as far as what happened that night. And I again say that you take a gang to a man's house and threaten his son, your life is in your hands an it's nobody's fault but your own, liberal courts notwithstanding.
Mr White was forced to act in a way he wasn't prepared to under severe duress, in the middle of the night, at his home and on his premises, and to a mob intent on committing a Class C felony. Any accidents that Mr White may have caused are the responsibility of those punks in the mob that forced White's actions in the first place.
Not necessarily. Dodge City was safer than Washington DC of today, or the New York City of the "Wild West" era.
Some of do live in the "wild west" and find it a nice peaceful, and mostly safe place.
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It seems that there are many posters here who think that laws in New York are the same as those in the Lone Star State. Although in many cases it would certainly be nice if that were the case, unfortunately it's not.
Now that depends on the situation and the jurisdiction. Certainly don't say it if the facts indicate otherwise. But it's not necessary in enlightened states which allow for use of potentially deadly force in defensive of more than just one's life or limb.
OF COURSE you do, particularly in places with saner self-defense laws than what exist in Long Island, New York. Unfortunately, Long Island is not Texas, and the laws aren't the same.
On the basis of a telephone threat? Or was it a warning? The one might get you a detective in the morning. The other probably would get you a squad car..sometime.
But the call should have been made anyway. Mr. Horn in Texas was *on the phone* with the 911 dispatcher, until he stepped out of his house, was confronted with the burglars in his yard, and shot the buggers. He even charged his shotgun while still on the phone.
Cute. The jails and prisons are full of people who acted outside of the local laws either through arrogance, belligerence or stupidity, and Mr. White will now be joining them.
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