After more than 30 hours of jury deliberations over four days, a mistrial was declared on the murder charge yesterday that Michael Dunn faced in the fatal shooting of one of the black teens. The 12 jurors found Dunn, who is white, guilty of three counts of attempted second-degree murder and a count of firing into an occupied car.
The trial was the latest Florida case to raise questions about self-defense and race, coming six months after George Zimmerman was acquitted in the shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, about 201 kilometres south of Jacksonville.
Dunn was charged with fatally shooting 17-year-old Jordan Davis of Georgia in 2012 after the argument over loud music coming from the parked SUV occupied by Davis and three friends outside a Jacksonville convenience store. Dunn had described the music to his fiancee as "thug music."
Dunn showed no emotion as the verdicts were read. A sentencing date will be set at a hearing next month. Each attempted second-degree murder charge carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison, while the fourth charge carries a maximum of 15.
"We are so grateful for the charges that have been brought against him," said McBath of Dunn. "We are so grateful for the truth. We are so grateful that the jurors were able to understand the common sense of it all."
On Dunn's potentially lengthy sentence, Davis' father, Ron Davis, said: "He's going to learn that he must be remorseful for the killing of my son, that it was not just another day at the office.