JACKSONVILLE, Florida (CNN) — Jurors found Michael Dunn guilty of first-degree murder Wednesday in the 2012 shooting death of 17-year-old Jordan Davis.
Dunn was charged with murder after shooting into an SUV full of teenagers following a squabble over the music emanating from the teens’ vehicle.
Dunn has said he shot at the vehicle because he thought Davis had a weapon and feared for his life, but the prosecution has alleged Dunn was the aggressor and pointed out he kept firing even after the teens fled.
Three of the 10 shots that Dunn fired struck Davis, one of them cutting through his liver, a lung and his aorta.
Investigators say Davis never had a weapon, nor was one found in the teens’ SUV or the surrounding area.
A jury found Dunn guilty of four charges in February, commanding at least 60 years in prison for the 47-year-old, but the jury was hung on the murder charge related to Davis’ November 2012 death.
Jurors began deliberating on the new charges just before 10 a.m. ET on Wednesday, after Judge Russell Healey dismissed two of the three alternates and provided instructions for the charges jurors were to consider.
The first charge to consider, Healey said, was first-degree murder, which would require that Dunn premeditated killing Davis.
If the jury didn’t feel the state proved first-degree murder, it was instructed to move on to second-degree, which would mean Dunn killed Davis via a criminal or depraved act.
The third charge was manslaughter, which would require a finding that Dunn unlawfully caused Davis’ death.
Killing Davis was lawful, Healey told the jury, if Dunn acted in the heat of passion or if he unintentionally caused Davis’ death. The jury could also find Dunn not guilty if he was in danger, acted in self-defense and exacted a justifiable use of force, the judge instructed.
Dunn was convicted in February on one count of shooting into a vehicle and three counts of attempted second-degree murder — one each for Davis’ friends, Leland Brunson, Tommie Stornes and Tevin Thompson, who were in the Dodge Durango with Davis that day.
The Satellite Beach, Florida, man hasn’t been sentenced on those charges, but prosecutor Eric Wolfson said at the time of the conviction that each attempted second-degree murder charge carries a minimum sentence of at least 20 years. There’s also a 15-year sentence possible on the conviction for shooting at the teenager’s vehicle, Wolfson said.
