Michael Dunn, who killed Jordan Davis in argument over loud ‘rap-crap’ music, to be retried after first jury failed to reach verdict

A Florida man who shot dead a black teenager in an argument over loud rap music blaring from a car returned to court on Monday for a new trial, seven months after a jury failed to reach a verdict on a charge of first-degree murder.



Michael Dunn, 47, claimed he was acting in self-defence when he fired 10 shots at an SUV containing Jordan Davis, 17, and three of his friends at a Jacksonville petrol station in November 2012.

Although the jury at Dunn’s February trial convicted him of three counts of attempted murder, for which he has yet to be sentenced, they could not agree on the murder charge despite more than 30 hours of deliberations.

Davis’s family called it an “injustice” that they hope to see corrected at Dunn’s retria, which began with jury selection Monday morning at Jacksonville’s Duval County courthouse with jury selection. The same prosecution team from the February mistrial, led by state attorney Angela Corey, will present a case playing into themes of race and Florida’s self-defence and gun control laws.

“We have a problem in America with who gets the benefit of the doubt,” John Phillips, a Jacksonville lawyer who represents Ron Davis and Lucia McBath, Davis’s parents, told the Guardian on Monday.

“If Michael Dunn, a middle-aged, white software designer, walks in front of your car, you think nothing of it, but if it’s a black teenager like Jordan Davis he is all too often falsely perceived as more of a threat.

“We hope the jury sees and hears more about the overall picture of Michael Dunn and Jordan Davis. Jordan was a good kid. He did nothing to warrant his death that night.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Ronald Davis, the father of slain teen Jordan Davis, talks to the media outside Duval County courthouse. Photograph: Bob Self/AP

At the original trial, Dunn claimed he had “respectfully” asked the teenagers to turn down the music in their red Dodge Durango after he and his girlfriend Rhonda Rouer pulled in next to them at the gas station, but that his request was met with aggression.

Dunn, who said he’d stopped for wine and snacks on his way to a hotel after his son’s wedding, insisted he opened fire only after he saw Davis pointing what looked to be a shotgun at him.

His lawyer Cory Strolla told the jury that Dunn was being threatened and had no duty to retreat under Florida’s Stand Your Ground law.

But police found no weapon in the teenagers’ SUV, and prosecutor Erin Wolfson portrayed Dunn as a loose cannon who “lost it because he was disrespected by a mouthy teenager”. Forensic evidence showed that Dunn continued firing his 9mm handgun at the back of the SUV even it was speeding away.

After the shooting, Dunn and Rouer left the scene but witnesses took his vehicle’s tag number and he was arrested the following morning at his home in Satellite Beach, Florida, 175 miles away.

In testimony, Dunn said he was “crazy with grief” when he learned Davis was dead. He also denied calling the rap “thug music” but admitted he thought it was “rap-crap” and that it was “ridiculously loud”.

Trial judge Russell Healey denied a motion from Dunn’s new defence lawyer, Waffa Hanania, to move the trial away from Jacksonville because of concerns that it would be impossible to seat an impartial jury. But Healey said he would reconsider if jury selection, which is expected to last several days, proved impossible.

The trial will hear testimony from dozens of witnesses and could last several weeks. At its conclusion, Dunn will be sentenced for the February convictions. He faces up to 20 years each for the attempted second-degree murders of Davis’s friends, and an additional 15 years for firing into a vehicle.

Davis’s parents are now activists for stricter gun control laws and have addressed Congressional hearings. Last month Ron Davis was in Ferguson to support the family of Michael Brown, a black teenager who was killed during a confrontation with a police officer.

“The way they say it, they’re still parenting, trying to prevent this happening to any other family,” Phillips said.

“It’s a tough day for them today. They know Dunn will probably be in jail for the rest of his life but this trial is not about the attempted murders, it’s about justice for Jordan Davis.”