Roca/NewsJohn White and his wife Sonia as they leave the courthouse after his guilty verdict was handed down.
Roca/NewsMembers of the Cicciaro family celebrate the verdict.
Posted on 12/22/2007 10:38:31 PM PST by Stoat
Saturday, December 22nd 2007, 10:25 PM
Roca/NewsJohn White and his wife Sonia as they leave the courthouse after his guilty verdict was handed down.
Roca/NewsMembers of the Cicciaro family celebrate the verdict.
The black Long Island father charged with shooting a white teen was convicted of manslaughter Saturday night by a jury that rejected his claim he was defending his family from a "lynch mob."
John White, 54, was found guilty of gunning down 17-year-old Daniel Cicciaro last year in the racially charged case.
"We're going to Disney. Wooo!" the victim's father, Daniel Cicciaro Sr., crowed, as he left the Arthur M. Cromarty Court complex in Riverhead, L.I., Saturday night.
"My son is finally vindicated," the teen's mother, Joanne Cicciaro, said. "The truth prevailed.
"It was never about race. It was about individuals and individuals' actions."
Cicciaro's relatives started honking their horns in the parking lot.
White, who also was convicted of criminal possession of a weapon, had maintained that the shooting was accidental. He was permitted to remain free on bail until sentencing, when he is to face a prison term of 5 to 15 years.
He had no comment last night.
The ruling came on the fourth day of tense jury deliberations that followed a trial in which defense attorneys referenced the Ku Klux Klan in arguing the shooting was justified. Jurors reported they were deadlocked on Friday.
Reaction in the courtroom was muted after Judge Barbara Kahn had warned the spectators against "public displays of approval or disapproval when the verdict is read."
White testified during the trial that he was trying to protect his family when he brandished a gun last year after a group of angry white teenagers showed up at his doorstep late at night to confront his then-19-year-old son, Aaron.
John White had been sleeping inside his home in Miller Place, a predominantly white community in eastern Long Island, on Aug. 9, 2006, when Aaron woke him to say that a group of angry teens was headed to their house bent on beating him up.
Minutes earlier, Aaron White had gotten into a fight with the boys after being asked to leave a house party.
The elder White first grabbed a shotgun, but then opted instead for a pistol he kept in his garage.
He and his son, who had picked up the shotgun, walked to the end of the driveway to confront the angry gang, who hurled racial epithets.
John White said his gun went off accidentally after Cicciaro lunged for it.
"He wanted to stop these people who said they were coming to kill his son," defense attorney Fred Brewington said in closing arguments.
Suffolk County Assistant District Attorney James Chalifoux said White should have simply locked the door and called police - and not gone outside to confront the teenagers with a gun.
He also sought to downplay the racial element, telling jurors the Brooklyn-raised White never said anything about a lynch mob until the case went to trial.
The defendant's wife, Sonia White, said only, "We are blessed by the Lord."
Neither the man nor his son was in danger of violence at the time he grabbed his gun and went outside. By his going outside with a gun, he escalated a noisy drunken tirade into a deadly encounter
What if the colors of the parties to this incident were reversed?
I would have done exactly the same thing. Angry mob coming after my son? They’re damn lucky they’re not ALL dead...
They may have been planning to SET THE HOUSE AFIRE, if the black family had stayed inside, though.
And at the point where they actually start to do so, he has every reason to leave the house and start shooting. And to keep shooting until they are all down, for that matter. It would, then, have been quite obviously self-defense.
When he admitted to shooting the kid “accidentally” he lost his case.
Interesting story. Thanks for posting.
Someone would have started up a defense fund for Mr. White
True......but if they had broken in, then you are justified to shoot and kill one or all with a gun or shotgun. It was stupid of him and his son to confront them outside. Always, always stay inside and call for help.
Exactly.
“Them” refers to Hillary supporters? I don’t see as anyone was limiting his rights. I never heard “lynch mob” mentioned other than by the side sympathetic to the murderer. Anyone who thinks these drunken kids overwrought by emotion at the thought of their friend being threatened with rape is a lynch mob is likely more in line with a liberal point of view.
I am as pro-firearms as they come, and yet I realize that with each and every one of the more than 200 firearms I own, comes a reasonable expectation when I bring any one of them into play the outcome could be lethal and I must be prepared to bear that responsibility.
To me it is just common sense that you do not leave the cover of your home. To do so is just plain stupid and lacks good common sense in my opinion. We do not live in the Wild West and quite frankly that is a good thing. Mr. Horn and Mr. White, in my opinion, should have shown the wisdom one would expect from men of their age and not behavior given to overly-excited adolescents. You go to the edge of the driveway, armed, expose yourself to a possible drive-by and then kill an unarmed drunken punk. Sorry, that is just too much stupidity for me to try to defend. The same appears to be true for his lawyers.
I agree. Plus it's bad strategy to expose yourself to your attackers like they did.
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If they were outside in the street or even on your lawn and you came outside with the gun then you would be guilty of a criminal act. If one of the teenagers ended up dead then you would go to jail.
If they tried to forcibly enter your house then you could shoot them all without fear of legal complications.
Another post of yours says that you live on LI. You should know the laws where you live.
Bingo. Therein lies the answer, being trained. Although a little common sense goes a long way.
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Or maybe they were just fooling around and really wanted to take the kid to the local diner for an ice cream sundae.
Isn't it fun to make stuff up?
I just have to disagree. You take a gang to a man’s house and threaten that man’s child then you have your life in your own hands.
Going outside with a drawn gun into a situation like that suggests a profound ignorance of the law on the part of Mr. White, and ignorance of the law is not an excuse for breaking it.
May not be the law in Texas.
Joe Horn was originally stopping burglars from fleeing with their loot. This guy was preventing assault, or at least criminal mischief during the nighttime. Plus, this poor guy lived on Long Island. Joe Horn lives in Texas.
>>>>When he admitted to shooting the kid “accidentally” he lost his case.
Exactly. To invoke a SD defense, you have to say “I shot him on purpose because it was only thing I could do to save my life, my son’s life, etc.”
If the colors had been reversed, the shooter would have been charged with a hate crime in addition to manslaughter, and there would have been calls for him to be charged with murder.
Having said that, I sympathize with Mr. White. He seems like a decent fellow who panicked and made a terrible mistake under trying circumstances. This is just a sad, sad situation all around.
The drunken gang were idiots for showing up at Mr. White’s home and hoodlums for behaving the way they did. They were probably punks who wouldn’t have done anything more than stand out there and yell, but really you never know.
White should have warned them from inside his house and let the cops take care of it. If they tried to break in, he would’ve been justified in taking tougher action in my opinion, though the laws in liberal New York probably say otherwise.
His two big mistakes were going out there with the gun and later trying the race card defense, which may have backfired. I’m not a lawyer and know nothing about New York law but my guess is that he’s technically the guilty party here for going out there with a firearm to confront them. But he has my sympathy and I wouldn’t object to a sentence reduced to fines or community service.
I guess it really comes down to how threatening the punks were.
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