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."
That depends on the totality of the circumstances. If having the gun pointed at the intruders was legitimate, then just because the actor did not intend to pull the trigger it doesn't turn a legitimate action into manslaughter.
I can easily see the AD occurring when, depending on whose version one believes, the punk lunged at Mr. White, or tried to slap the gun away.
My husband has always told me that if I have to shoot someone, I better drag them inside the house before the cops come.
Seriously, you can’t just shoot someone for being on your property, they have to at least be at the threshold.
Accidental death is accidental death. PERIOD.
The only exception I can think of is if someone grabs for your gun and in the struggle, the gun goes off. But that is not your fault and there’s no way to prove whose finger applied pressure to the trigger or if someone’s finger applied pressure to someone else’s finger that pressed against the trigger. And besides, if someone actually grabs your gun, you now have grounds to defend yourself with deadly force.
If you can’t control your own trigger finger then don’t pick up a gun in the first place.
Now, in the case of mr white, even if he had never fired the gun and no one was hurt, in my opinion, he MIGHT still be guilty of brandishing a firearm. I’d have to know more of the details. But since he killed the kid accidentally, the details are a moot point and I don’t care what they are.
If I was mr white, I would never have said I fired accidentally. I would’ve said the kid made a grab for my firearm and I shot him. Then there would be something to argue about. Also, I never would aim for someone’s face. In a panic situation, a person shoots to knock the person back or down. Shooting in the face makes people think of a deliberate execution.
Mr white is not only guilty, he is too stupid to own a firearm in the first place. I’m not saying the kid he killed was smart. The kid was just as stupid of not more so.
If a punk lunged at him and he fired in self defense, why the hell would he then claim he didn’t intend to fire the firearm? Either he did it intentionally as an act of self defense, or it was an accident and he is negligent. THere’s no in between.
|
Agreed. He used a huge amount of time to mishandle a rather simple event.....the sort of situation that anyone with the most basic grounding or interest in the law would have handled completely differently.
I'm delighted that you've found it to be worthwhile; thank you for your kind words :-)
Diversity has some advantages. This tragedy isn't one of them.
The NY Daily News does not have to excerpted. The NY Post, Sun and Times have to excerpted. I don't read the NY Observer often enough to remember.
FReepmail me if you want on or off my New York ping list. Have a Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!
And as we just found out, do that in New York and you go to prison...
In his shoes, I would have likely done the same thing. You protect your family at all costs even if the law is against you.
And the thugs go to Disneyland.
The jury or the prosecutor didn't think so. Story doesn't say what the original charges were so we can't tell if it was the prosecutor or the jury which found him guilty of manslaughter, which is at least a couple of degrees below first degree murder, depending on the state.
In his shoes, I would have likely done the same thing. You protect your family at all costs even if the law is against you.
If he and his family had actually been under an immediate threat I would agree 100%.
Unfortunately, Mr. White chose to go outside, waving a gun inches from the faces of the unarmed mob, and needlessly escalated a situation that could very easily have been diffused by the police. He was only placed under a life threat because he chose to escalate the situation.
Just good ol’ boys, havin’ some fun? If he’d stayed inside like a good boy everything woulda been fine?
i have the same reaction.
if these guys were coming after a family member, i would take it very seriously.
he went outside to protect his family from a drunken mob.
He was charged with 2nd degreee manslaughter. Apparently the verdict was not beyond a reasonable doubt, because the jury foreman was in tears when she read the verdict. Beyond a reasonable doubt doesn't generate tears, guilt and the conflict of uncertainly does. The jury was apparently intent on heading off to Christmas activities.
"At 9 p.m., the forewoman, through tears, read the decision to a hushed courtroom."
But not generally of manslaughter, except involuntary manslaughter. Was manslaughter the original charge?
Depends on your definition of "everything being fine".
Well, you got a point there.
I don’t know the answer. And I don’t know how the penalties compare for manslaughter vs involuntary manslaughter. Nor do I know how the definitions of the two kinds of manslaughter compare. I would probably support the lesser of the two charges for mr white and base that position on my present ignorance of the matter.
This throws a whole new curve into my assessment of the shooting. If I were on the jury and had to decide guilty or not guilty, and the DA went after the guy for a charge that was too stiff, I’d probably find him not guilty...even though I personally think he should be punished for what he did. If he’s charged with the wrong offense, I’d vote not guilty.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.