Ambar Ramirez Carmen Macri
Words by Ambar Ramirez & Carmen Macri
This month’s Crime Time takes a more serious turn. Instead of highlighting offbeat or unusual news from Jacksonville, we are focusing on the tragic 2013 case of Jordan Davis — a high school student who was fatally shot by Michael Dunn at a Gate gas station for playing his music too loudly.
Davis, along with close friends Tevin Thompson, Leland Brunson and Tommie Stornes, had just hit the Town Center on the first evening after Thanksgiving. As you can imagine, the outdoor mall was teeming with holiday shoppers, and the boys did their best to blend in, talking to some sales workers here and window shopping there. After browsing the stores for overpriced sneakers they already owned, they made their way back to Stornes’ red Durango, but not before running into Davis’ on-and-off again girlfriend, Aliyah, who was finishing up her shift at Urban Outfitters. The three boys would heckle Davis about Aliyah the whole ride back and probably would have continued those snide, innocent remarks while they played the Xbox on Davis’ father’s big screen TV if it weren’t for these next tragic events.
The four boys stopped at the Gate gas station on Southside Boulevard so Stornes could grab a pack of cigarettes. Meanwhile, the others stayed in the car with the windows down, listening to Chief Keef and teasing Davis about his on-again, off-again girlfriend. That’s when Dunn’s black Jetta rolled in, leaving little to no space between the two cars. Dunn had just returned from his son’s wedding and swung by the gas station so he and his girlfriend, Rondah Rouer, could pick up a bottle of wine and a bag of chips. Unbeknownst to the three boys left in the car, their night was about to take a tragic turn. Dunn wasted no time from throwing his car in park to hollering outside the window at the boys to turn their music down because he “hates that thug music.” Thompson, in the front passenger seat, quickly dialed the music down, not wanting to cause any problems. Davis wasn’t having it. He refused to let Dunn ruin their fun, so he unbuckled himself and reached across the center console to turn the music back up. Quickly after that, a verbal sparring match ensued between Dunn and Davis with f-bombs thrown left and right. Dunn retorted by yelling, “You’re not going to talk to me like that!” while reaching across to the glove compartment. At this point, Stornes has returned to the car and was in the process of strapping himself back in when he saw Dunn reach his hand out of the car with a Taurus PT 9mm pistol locked and loaded.
Thinking fast, Stornes yelled at his friends to duck while grabbing the shifter, trying to get him and his friends to safety. Nine shots were fired; four shots were fired as the Durango drove away, one pierced the liftgate, another clipped the visor, barely missing Stornes’s skull by an inch, and the first three shots had gone through Davis’s side of the car. Two of them lodged in his chest and groin.
Stornes pulled the Durango into a neighboring plaza to make sure everyone was OK. Miraculously, Thomson and Brunson were unscathed, though Brunson was covered in blood. That’s when Stornes noticed Davis slumped over on Brunson’s lap.
“Jordan was making that rattle people make when they’re dying,” Thompson said in a “Rolling Stone” interview. “That’s when Leland started to cry. I hugged him and tried to tell him it would be OK.”
Unfortunately, those three gunshot wounds would prove to be fatal.
Using the “Stand Your Ground” statute of self-defense, Dunn, a 6’4 tall, 280-pound white man stated that he felt threatened by loud music and a group of teenagers. Of course, that’s not what he would say in court. Instead, Dunn would spin the story, turning the terrified teenage boys into fully grown gang members thwhoat were calling up their gang buddies while piling out of the Durango. And, for good measure, Dunn told his hastily hired lawyer that he was sure he saw a shotgun aimed at him through the rear window of the car.
You see, Dunn was trying to spin the story to make it a case of self defense. Under the Florida “Stand Your Ground” law, lobbied by ex-NRA president Marion Hammer, individuals can use deadly force if they believe it’s necessary to prevent death or serious harm to themselves or others. The key part is that they don’t have to try to run away or avoid the situation first — in other words, they can “stand their ground” and defend themselves, even in public places, if they believe they’re facing an immediate threat. Since the passing of this law, “self-defense” killings have tripled, and violent crime has not reduced as the bill promised.
Dunn wasn’t facing an immediate threat, but he and his lawyers knew the law was a surefire way to get away with murder. What they did not account for were the dozens of witnesses who saw the four boys as just that — boys, not thugs — with no shotgun in sight. Dunn conveniently failed to mention the shotgun to his then-girlfriend during the altercation, only introducing the claim after consulting with his lawyer.
Despite having no solid defense, Dunn appealed for bond and was granted a hearing at the Duval County Courthouse, arriving in a mismatched suit and wearing a smirk. Unsurprisingly, his self-defense claim fell flat, and he was denied bail a week later.
Ultimately, in 2014, Dunn was convicted of attempted second-degree murder for firing at the other teens in the vehicle but the jury initially deadlocked on the first-degree murder charge. A retrial later that year resulted in Dunn being convicted of first-degree murder. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
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