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."
This being Lawn Guyland, it does not surprise me. Guns are for the police, and only “dangerous minorities” want to own guns, according to most Lawn Guyland residents. I would like to say that I am happy to be gone from such idiocy, but I live in NJ, where I can’t even carry a firearm in my car.
This “mob” was still a bunch of disgusting cretins. I have ZERO symphathy for the family.
Yep.
I'm siding with Mr. White on this one. My yard is my first defense zone, and when I have a gun standing defending my yard and some smart ass kid smacks my hand holding that gun, well I will be on trial too.
Screw hiding in the house, to damn scared to face the enemy face to face on my own property. I'm ashamed of some FReepers today.
You are not supposed to threaten anyone anywhere. But it shouldn't be a death sentence...
You would make a good neighbor, we think alike.
He had 20 minutes.
If he would have called 911 right away, the cops would have been there before the teens arrived. And since the underaged teens had been drinking, a number of charges would have been filed including a DUI on the driver.
But White took those 20 minutes to decide instead to make a stand.
No doubt he overreacted. But the kids did too.
What’s the law to do?
Fact is, though, that a 50 year old man, who is confronted by a group of young men in their prime, certainly has a right to bring a weapon into the picture. The great equalizer.
Funny. He could have called 911 and the cops might show up - after fifteen minutes or so.
Had he warned the punks to back off and fired a warning shot into the air, the cops would have been there in 30 seconds flat!
Yes indeed. And this is true everywhere.
#1 -- make sure you can legally shoot people on your property
#2 -- like some of the posters said, make sure you say, "I intentionally shot the guy because I feared for my life."
Mr. White did neither. He admitted to accidentally shooting the kid. In short, he admitted to manslaughter which is the felony that he was convicted of.
It doesn't matter what the extenuating circumstances are. He pretty much admitted that he carelessly took a life of a man due to his mishandling of the illegal gun.
The latest reports indicate the first one was only about 10 feet from Mr. Horn when he was hit. Eyewitness accounts put both on his oroperty when he exited his house.
His house, his neighbor's house, matters little, and not at all as things played out.
Anybody who owns a gun, and has not gotten formal training which includes the legal aspects of self defense, is a fool
At the minimum, buy a freaking book. I strongly recommend In the Gravest Extreme: The Role of the Firearm in Personal Protection (Paperback) as the best $12.95 a gun owner could ever spend
I didn't read one thing in the story that made me believe the father was scared. Pi$$ed off, yes.
The father has a loaded .32 Beretta. His son has a shotgun. They had 20 minutes before the teens arrived to decide what to do. They chose confrontation.
They did not call 911, but instead chose to go outside. There were five teens, but the teens were unarmed. White pointed his gun 3" from the teens face with a round in the chamber, hammer cocked, and his finger on the trigger.
According to witnesses, the teen slapped the gun away from his face, White re-centered the gun and then pulled the trigger. That's first degree murder.
It wasn't until the kid slapped the gun. A man comes out with a gun and tells you to leave his property, you leave.
Speaking as somebody who has actually been in the situation of having to draw a gun on a crackhead in self-defense, there is a time and place for everything.
Pointing a gun at somebody is something you only do as a last resort to protect yourself or your family from violent harm. A person who would draw on unarmed people who at the moment are doing nothing more than mouthing off, and has not yet suffered any damage except to ego, has no business owning a firearm
It was just plain stupid and bad tactics to boot. Why leave the protection of your house if you don’t have to? He should have armed himself, but as you have stated, stayed in the house and called the cops. If the “mob” broke in, kill ‘em all.
“The cops could have come and diffused the situation, as they frequently do.
He had an easy opportunity to diffuse the situation and prevent it from escalating, which he chose not to do. He chose to roll the dice and handle it himself, and this time the roll didn’t come up in his favor.”
No kidding. What a bad bad sheeple he was!”
You would leave. I would leave. But who knows what the heck would a 17 year old drunk kid would do?
But it still doesn't change the fact that you cannot shoot someone who isn't threatening you without facing legal charges. Read the entire thread again. I think you missed the big picture. Mr. White ADMITTED to "accidentally" firing the gun. That is manslaughter -- NOT self-defense.
That is what Mr. White got convicted of and it is immaterial what you or I think...
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