Jeffrey Ziegler Who Shot At 14-Year Old Brennan Walker Found Guilty of Two Charges

In April 2018, in the Detroit suburb of Rochester Hills, Brennan Walker missed his school bus.  His mom had taken his cell phone from him the night before, so he could not call or get a map to school.  He attempted to follow the path of the school bus but became lost.  He went to a house, rung the bell, and Jeffrey Ziegler grabbed a loaded shotgun.  Brennan ran, and Jeffrey took a shot at Brennan’s back.  Fortunately, he missed.

For more background on the case, see the post at this link.

Ziegler was charged with assault with intent to murder and felony firearms. The jury was given instructions on a lesser charge of assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder.  It took the jury three hours of deliberation to find Ziegler guilty of the lesser charge.  It carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.  Ziegler was also found guilty of possessing a firearm in the commission of a felony. which has a mandatory sentence of two years in prison.

Former Atlanta Police Sargent Trevor King Convicted On Federal Charges of Using Excessive Force

Tyrone Carnegay (Photo credit: WSBTV

On October 13, 2014, a Walmart customer in Atlanta, Georgia was attacked by a security guard, accused of shoplifting.  The security officer was 48-year old, off-duty Atlanta police Sargent Trevor King.

King used his department issued expandable baton hitting the customer multiple times, breaking the customer’s leg in two places.  King alleged to seeing the customer, 53-year old Tyrone Carnegay, weigh a tomato then try to exit the store without paying.  However, Tyrone had a receipt for the tomato in the bag.

In April 2016, Tyrone filed a lawsuit. His attorney, Craig Jones, told the NY Daily News:

“He got whacked seven or eight times across the shin and actually broke both bones, both the fibula and the tibula,” Carnegay’s lawyer, Craig Jones, told the Daily News. “This tomato not only cost him the dollar they overcharged him. It also cost him over $75,000 in medical bills, which I intend to get them to pay many times over.”

The lawsuit names Walmart, King and another employee as defendants.

Tyrone was chained to his hospital bed.  The broken leg wasn’t his only injury.  He also suffered a ruptured artery that later oozed blood out of his cast.

Because of the cost of the tomato, Tyrone believed that he was overcharged, and after paying for it, returned to the produce section and checked the price on a scale.  He went back in line to challenge the cost, but then decided not to and left the line.  A security employee alerted King who assumed that Tyrone was leaving the store without paying for the tomato.  Tyrone had actually bought $20 worth of items in the store.

After the lawsuit was filed, the Atlanta Police Department opened an investigation.

Dylann Roof Convicted

The jury in Dylann Roof’s federal trial deliberated less than 2 hours, and convicted him on all counts of hate crimes, obstruction of religion and weapons charges.

The panel of nine Whites people and three Blacks  will reconvene on January 3, 2017 to decide whether Roof is sentenced to death or life in prison without parole.

Minutes after the verdict was read, Roof told U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel he wanted to represent himself during the penalty phase.

Fox news reports;

Baltimore Cop Wesley Cagle Found Guilty of Assault

On Dec. 28, 2014, Baltimore police officer Wesley Cagle and three other officers responded to a commercial burglary. Authorities say 47-year-old Michael Johansen ran from the building and officers ordered him to show his hands.

Victim, Michael Johansen, shows surgical scars resulting from being shot by Baltimore police.

Officers said that Michael reached down as if going for a gun, and two officers shot him. Prosecutors say that Cagle then approached Michael who was lying on the floor and shot him once in the groin.

Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby brought charges against Cagle.  Michael Johansen survived and testified against Cagle at trial.

The Baltimore Sun reports;

“In a rare conviction in a use-of-force case against a police officer, jurors found Wesley Cagle, 46, guilty of first-degree assault and a handgun charge. Prosecutors said Cagle shot Michael Johansen in the groin as he lay in the doorway of an East Baltimore corner store after two other officers had shot the man.”

The jury’s foreman was interviewed and said that the video where Michael had his hands up saying he was unarmed, helped the jury reach its verdict of guilty.

“There was no need for him to take that final shot,” said jury foreman Jerome Harper.

Michael testified that he was a heroin addict who was looking for money on the night he was shot.

Colorado Police Officer Found Guilty of Second-Degree Murder

Thursday night, Jack Jacquez Sr. said he was burning all of the documents he amassed in a case concerning the murder of his son.  He said he was doing it to get the stress from the court proceedings off his chest.

Jack Jacquez on left, James Ashby on right.

In October 2014, his son, 27-year-old Jack Jacquez, was killed in his mom’s kitchen by Rocky Ford, Colorado police officer James Ashby. Ashby claimed that he thought Jack was a burglar.  However, Jack’s mom, Viola, told The Denver Post that Ashby opened fire on her son inches from her face.

The Colorado Bureau of Investigation reviewed the shooting and decided that Ashby lied about circumstances that led up to and followed the shooting, finding that many of his statements contradicted physical evidence and witness accounts.  Ashby was arrested a month after he killed Jack.  Ashby was charged with second-degree murder.  He was also fired from his job.

Man Who Likened Himself To George Zimmerman Found Guilty of Second Degree Murder

Lukace Kendle. Found guilty of second-degree murder and attempted murder.

Twenty-nine year old Lukace Kendle is going to prison. Friday, he was convicted of second-degree murder with a firearm and attempted murder in the June 1, 2012, shooting that killed Kijuan Byrd, 29, and paralyzed Michael Smathers, 38. Kendle faces life behind bars.

Smathers, who is paralyzed from Kendle’s bullets, testified at the trial that after barbecuing, he and Michael Smathers went to Club Rol-lexx to shoot pool. They played a few games and watched the Miami Heat game, then left the Club and went to Smather’s truck in the parking lot to smoke a joint. They had planned to go back inside the club.

Kendle showed up, parking in a tight spot next to Smathers’ truck. He got out of his car and put on an all-black uniform with a vest, baton, gloves, a knife, ammunition and his gun. The three men exchanged looks. Michael and Kijuan got out of Michael’s truck to go back into the club. Kendle opened fire. He continued firing bullets into Kijuan Byrd’s back even as he tried to crawl to safety under Michael’s truck.

The killing was captured on video surveillance.

Three Los Angeles Sheriff Deputies Convicted

In February 2011, Gabriel Carrillo came to the Los Angeles county jail to visit his brother. He had a cell phone, and mouthed off to the deputies when told that it was a misdemeanor offense to bring a cell phone into the visitation room.  Deputy Pantamitr Zunggeemoge arrested Gabriel, and took him into a break room where there is no video.  Zunggeemoge handcuffed Gabriel, and confiscated the cell phone.

Gabriel Carrillo who usually looks like this …

Gabriel Carrillo

came out of the break room looking like this.

Five deputies beat, kneed, and pepper sprayed Gabriel.  Once they were content that they had taught Gabriel a lesson, the five deputies in the room gathered to concoct a story to justify the beating. Sergeant Gonzalez, the supervisor, told them to say that Carrillo had one hand free from handcuffs so he could be fingerprinted, when he began swinging wildly with the loose handcuff using it as a weapon, giving the deputies no choice but to beat him within an inch of his life.

Anita Smithey Convicted of Second Degree Murder

Anita Smithey

It’s a case that did not get much attention outside of the Florida. In or about April 2012 after George Zimmerman was charged with second degree murder for killing unarmed 17-year old Trayvon Martin, I began researching stand your ground cases in Florida. Smithey’s case was one of several that caught my attention, along with the cases of John Orr, and Trevor Dooley.

On May 4, 2010, Smithey shot and killed Robert Cline III, her estranged husband. She claimed that he was raping her after they had consensual sex, and cut her throat and stabbed her in the side. Smithey claimed that she shot Robert once in the chest. The medical examiner however, said that there were two entrance wounds.

Virginia Cop Sentenced To A Mere 3 Years For Killing Unarmed Woman

When policemen break the law, then there isn’t any law – just a fight for survival. Billy Jack

(Hat Tip to Joseph Norton for the following case)

She has a name; Patricia Cook. She was killed in Culpeper, Virginia on February 9, 2012.

Patricia was 54 years old. No one knows why she was in the parking lot of Epiphany Catholic School, but while there, she was approached by Culpeper Police Officer Daniel Harmon-Wright.  Officer Harmon-Wright said he received a call of a suspicious vehicle.

Wright fired two shots into Patricia’s vehicle. The first two rounds, fired at point-blank range, tore into Cook’s face and arm. Patricia managed to drive away, but Harmon-Wright did not stop shooting. He shot Patricia 5 times; a round entered her brain, and the another round severed her spine and veered into her heart.

Harmon-Wright claimed that he shot Patricia in self-defense, opening fire after Patricia rolled up her car window, catching his fingers inside the car window and dragging him as she drove off. An eyewitness said otherwise; that Patricia had rolled up her car window before shots were fired.  The evidence asked the logical question of how Harmon-Wright’s hand was caught in the window since he shot through the window of Patricia’s vehicle.