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."
Nope.
It doesn’t matter. It was an accidental shooting.
HELLO! HAVE I STRUCK BRAIN YET?
In Texas, this home owner would get “no billed” by a grand jury, and he’d never get prosecuted.
Agreed, particularly if you're drunk, unarmed and only making noise. In a case like that you should expect to be unceremoniously hauled away by the police if you're lucky. If you're unlucky or belligerent, the police will give you a nightstick shampoo to help you to remember not to do it again.
If you're a homeowner, merely having a bunch of loud drunk kids trespassing on your property does not give you the right to go outside, wave a gun around and needlessly inflame the situation into one where somebody gets hurt or in this case killed.
Mr. White's life was only in jeopardy because he chose to go outside and escalate the situation beyond what it was. It's the police's job to diffuse a situation exactly like this and they're very good at it.
If, however, Mr. White had remained indoors, locked his door and called the police for assistance, and then the mob tried to break his door down I would absolutely be cheering for him if he had cut the punks in half with his shotgun, which he had in the house.
You'll be hard-pressed to find a more passionate supporter of the Second Amendment, gun rights and the rights to self defense than myself, but my support ends when people step outside of the law. In this case, Mr. White stepped outside of the law when he needlessly inflamed the situation and brought lethal force into play when his life did not have to be under threat....it only was because he chose to intentionally inflame the situation.
You said “goodnight” and I said “night!” back , I was wishing you well with your zzzzzzz.
But now you are back!
Did you get me any docs yet?
I have no doubt that Mr. White is wishing that he was living in Texas rather than New York right now.
Horn has a weaker case, because he was defending his neighbor's property without any previous agreement between the neighbors to do so. However, he didn't shoot till the robbers stepped onto his property.
Well some people just need killin'!
Well some people just need killin'!
LMAO
I’m sleeping.
ZZZZZZZ
Mr. White messed up.
-Stay in the house(EMPHASIS)
-blast away
-wait for the fuzz
Live the rest of your life free!!!
(move out of NY!)
>>But the whole race-card BS just pisses me off.
That aspect of this really clouds the issue. Despite my profound distaste for this approach, I find myself supporting Mr. White, once I look at the case.
The point I am unsure about - were the kids on his property, or were they out at the street?
What the h* was this guy thinking?!?
Something isn't right here...
If White had called the police, armed himself and stayed inside his house while waiting for the police and if then the boys had broken into his house and he had shot them he would not be going to prison.
What the h* was this guy thinking?!?
Something isn't right here...
Probably at least a couple of things:
In most states I would say "Absolutely!" but where he's living in New York he's still in violation of firearms ownership laws, which, although I vehemently disagree with their Constitutionality, are the local laws nonetheless. If you live in a given community you've got to understand that you must abide by the local laws....if you don't like it, then either change the laws or move to a more sane State or another community in New York State that doesn't have such draconian, illogical and unconstitutional laws on the books.
As far as the points you make outside of the firearms ownership issues, I agree 100%.
Yet I expect this from tyrannical socialists in the media and those pulling the strings of American society. After all, "divide and conquer" has always been a foundation philosophy of ruling tyrants. Why would we expect any less from socialist democrats who mean to control our lives?
Agree. The article and the pictures had me thinking “white trash” all the way.
Seems to me there is a serious simmering racial problem in this country. Let’s hope we can avoid the ‘60s again.
You're quite welcome :-)
there's definitely fault on both sides. It's a tragic situation altogether, and it's not being helped by the willingness of the media to fan the flames of racism and further poison the community. We are absolutely being balkanized by the onslaught of race-bait politics, and it's a dynamic that seriously threatens to tear our nation apart.
Yet I expect this from tyrannical socialists in the media and those pulling the strings of American society. After all, "divide and conquer" has always been a foundation philosophy of ruling tyrants. Why would we expect any less from socialist democrats who mean to control our lives?
Agreed on all counts, except in this case I think that it's important to remember that it was Mr. White who invoked The Klan and "lynch mobs" in this matter. When caught in a fatal mistake, his reaction is to claim that the shooting was "accidental" and to play the race card in order to provide justification for his actions and to play upon the likely political sympathies of a New York jury. He could have been honest and said "yes, your honor, I acted impulsively in the heat of the moment and didn't weigh my actions or their ramifications with an appropriate level of due consideration." but instead he had hoped to follow O.J. on the Race Card Freedom Train, which runs through the court system on the greased rails of white guilt.
If he hadn't come up with that tripe about the stories of lynch mobs, etc., he might have been able to make a case. I would guess the story was a desperate attempt to justify what he knew was a huge overreaction to some tipsy teens and the jury figured it out too.
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