JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — A juror was dismissed Saturday in the murder trial of a man accused of shooting a teenager during an argument over loud music outside a Jacksonville convenience store.
The dismissal followed a column posted online by Jacksonville alternative Folio Weekly that quoted a prospective juror who was not picked because he had previously written for that publication. Richard David Smith III said the juror who was picked had, in private conversations, questioned State Attorney Angela Corey’s competence during jury selection.
Smith, a onetime potential juror, told a columnist at Folio Weekly that a schoolteacher seated beside him during jury selection said she really hated Corey’s humor and questioned her competence out loud.
Folio Weekly posted the column Friday afternoon. On Saturday morning, trial proceedings were delayed while Judge Russell Healey, Corey and other attorneys involved in the case questioned the Folio columnist and the prospective juror. After more than an hour, they decided to dismiss the juror, who has not been identified.
One of four alternate jurors will replace the dismissed juror.
Michael Dunn 47, of Satellite Beach, is on trial on a charge of first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Jordan Davis. He was convicted of three counts of attempted second-degree murder in February and already faces at least 60 years in prison. That jury deadlocked on the first-degree murder count.
The prosecution spent a third day Saturday laying out its case that Dunn acted in cold blood when he killed Davis, who was sitting in the rear passenger seat of an SUV next to Dunn’s car. Dunn, who had just left his son’s wedding, asked Davis and the other teens in the car to turn down the music and a shouting match erupted between Dunn and Davis.
Dunn is accused of firing 10 times into the SUV, including several as the driver tried to get away. One of the shots killed Davis. No one else in the SUV was injured.
In testimony Saturday, detectives described Dunn’s arrest at his home, where he returned the day after the shooting when he learned from news reports that Davis had died.
