White Jury Could Not Ignore Video this time. White Man who Murdered Unarmed 13 yr Old Black Boy in front of Mother gets life sentence

From [HERE] and [HERE] When racist suspect John Henry Spooner, 76, told white police officers last year that "they are going to throw the book at (him)" for shooting Darius Simmons, he was right.

Spooner was sentenced Monday to life in prison without the possibility of parole, a punishment Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Jeffrey A. Wagner said fit the "horrific, egregious act" of killing a 13-year-old neighbor.

"There should never be any light in the tunnel for you," Wagner said to nods in the courtroom gallery, filled to near-capacity Monday afternoon. "This is one of the worst of the worst."

The judge also ordered Spooner to pay $58,551 in restitution to the Simmons family.

Spooner appeared in an orange jumpsuit for the first time Monday, his prison apparel replacing the short-sleeved, checkered shirt he had donned during his trial last week. As Wagner told him he would spend the rest of his life behind bars, Spooner gazed back impassively. The psychopathic white man's own surveillance cameras show him confronting a 13-year-old Black boy on a sidewalk outside of their houses, pointing a gun at the teen and firing into his chest from a few feet away. 

In the surveillance footage, Spooner emerges from his house that morning and confronts Simmons. He points a gun at the boy, who quickly moves backward a few steps. Both Spooner and the teen direct their attention toward a porch at Simmons' home, where Simmons' mother is standing. Moments later, Spooner points the gun back at Simmons and fires, hitting him in the chest. [MORE]

Darius Simmons' mother (above) testified Tuesday that she watched from her front porch as John Henry Spooner gunned down her son. "As I turned around, Mr. Spooner was standing there in front of Darius," Patricia Larry said. "He got a gun and he pointed it at Darius."

She said Spooner, 76, demanded that Simmons put his hands up, and the 13-year-old Darius complied. Larry said she asked the defendant why "he had that gun on (her) baby."

"He told Darius that he's going to teach him not to steal," she said. "And he shot him."

Larry continued, struggling to choke back tears as she described the aftermath of the shooting.

"I ran off the porch to my son," she said. "I checked for a pulse. I checked both of his wrists. He didn't have a pulse so I went to his neck, and it was very faint... I pulled up his shirt and I could see that he had a bullet hole." She said her son was unarmed and did nothing to provoke Spooner. [MORE]

Spooner's sentencing hearing followed a weeklong trial split into two phases — a guilt phase and an insanity phase. A jury found Spooner guilty of first-degree intentional homicide in Simmons' death on Wednesday and, two days later, deemed him criminally responsible for his actions, rejecting Spooner's insanity defense in less than 15 minutes of deliberation. Spooner took the witness stand Thursday against the advice of his lawyer and told a stunned courtroom that he considered Simmons' death "justice."

Simmons was retrieving a garbage can from the curb when Spooner gunned him down, demanding the teenager return four shotguns he believed Simmons had taken from his home two days earlier. When Simmons said he did not have the guns — and when his mother, Patricia Larry, threatened to call the police from the front porch — Spooner shot the teenager in the chest. He fired a second shot that missed, and attempted a third, but his gun jammed.

Police searched the victim's home after the incident and found none of the missing guns.

Spooner addressed the court again Monday during his sentencing hearing, reiterating his exasperation over the stolen guns and dwelling on the perplexity of videos retrieved from his surveillance cameras successfully capturing his confrontation with Simmons but failing to show who had broken into his home two days earlier.

He said he didn't know if what he did was right or wrong.

"I feel sorry for Darius. He had nobody who loved him enough to teach him to go straight," Spooner said, eliciting an expletive from Simmons' older brother, Theodore Larry.

Spooner alleged during his trial that Simmons' mother directed the burglary, telling her children to rob a "sick, old man," he said.

"May God forgive you, Ms. Larry, for your lying and cheating and stealing," Spooner said. "I don't know if I did right or wrong. The jury didn't tell me. Nobody told me."

Wagner tried to remove any doubt in Spooner's mind, telling him, "You did wrong. You took the life of a child."

"It was an evil act," Wagner added. "That family is left without the love of their child. (Simmons) will never be able to experience childhood, to go through high school ...to go to college, to get married, to have children. You took that all away from him."

Though bound by a mandatory life sentence, the court had the option of permitting the consideration of Spooner's release with extended supervision after a minimum 20 years in prison, Assistant District Attorney Mark Williams said before the sentencing.

Williams asked Wagner to impose the maximum sentence and to deny Spooner the chance of ever leaving jail.

"He's going to die in prison with murderers and rapists, and that's the choice he made," Williams said. "He believed what he did was right, and that's what makes him so dangerous."

Larry, on the other hand, said Monday she would pray for Spooner, that she has "no hate for this man."

Still, she said she wants Spooner "to be held accountable for what he did to (her) son Darius Simmons" and asked Wagner to sentence him to life in prison.

"He is a menace to society," Larry said. "No mother should have to go through this."

Larry read only a brief, prewritten statement and declined to comment after the sentencing. Simmons' brother and the family pastor, Steve Jerbi, also made statements asking for a life sentence.

"My brother lost his life over something he didn't do," Larry said. "(Spooner) should be in jail for the rest of his life."

A maximum sentence

Defense attorney Franklyn Gimbel said the court's decision about parole eligibility was inconsequential, calling the prospect of Spooner living for another 20 years "totally improbable." Afflicted by cancer, heart disease and recurring bouts of pneumonia over the years, his client does not have long to live, Gimbel said.

Yet because his conviction marked Spooner's first contact with the criminal justice system, Gimbel asked the court to leave open the possibility that Spooner be considered for release after 20 years, albeit as an "academic exercise," Gimbel said.

"Prior to the day of May 31, 2012, John Spooner was an average working human being," Gimbel said. His four adult children did not attend the trial because they do not "endorse their father's conduct," Gimbel said, but "they love their father."

Wagner said the severe sentence would deter others.

"If someone else hears about this case or reads about it, they will know that offenses like this ...and the lack of remorse and repentance call for a maximum sentence," Wagner added.

He also denied Gimbel's request to provide Spooner with protective custody, a precaution Gimbel said was necessary "because of the racial undertones that have been raised about his behavior underlying the offense."