MILWAUKEE MAN, 72, CONVICTED OF KILLING 13-YEAR-OLD BLACK NEIGHBOR
By KYLE JONES kjones@ashlanddailypress.net
Posted: Wednesday, July 17, 2013 10:00 pm
Defense will seek to prove mental illness
John Henry Spooner, 72; Patricia Larry and a photo of her 13-year-old son Darius SImmons, shot to death by Spooner May 31, 2012.
John Henry Spooner, a 76-year-old Milwaukee resident, has been convicted of first-degree intentional homicide. Henry had suspected that a 13-year-old neighbor, Darius Simmons, had broken into his home and stolen weapons in May of 2012.
Spooner’s own security camera footage shows him confronting Simmons while he was retrieving his family’s trashcan. Spooner is shown pointing a gun at Simmons from about six feet away, and then briefly pointing the gun at Simmons’s mother who is standing on her porch off camera. Spooner then points the gun back at 13-year-old Simmons and fires, hitting the boy in the chest.
After Simmons managed to stumble away, Spooner then fired another shot that missed. Simmons then collapsed in the street and died in the arms of his mother, Patricia Larry.
Video below, from Spooner’s own security camera, was shown at trial
Spooner lingered after the shooting, pacing up and down the sidewalk until police arrived. Officer Richard Martinez testified that while he was handcuffing Spooner, the shooter proclaimed, “Yeah, I shot him.”
The trial will now enter into the second phase in which the defense will attempt to prove that Spooner was mentally ill at the time of the shooting.
UPDATE: Wis. man to testify in neighbor’s shooting death
Posted: Thu 3:21 PM, Jul 18, 2013
UPDATED Thursday, July 18, 2013 — 3:20 p.m.
Spooner being led into court.
MILWAUKEE (AP) — A Milwaukee man convicted of homicide this week will testify in the mental illness phase of his trial, against the advice of his attorney.
Seventy-six-year-old John Henry Spooner declined to testify in the first half of his trial. In that phase a jury convicted him of first-degree intentional homicide.
The judge asked him Thursday whether he wanted to testify in the second phase, which is designed to determine his mental competence at the time of the shooting. He said he wanted to make a statement instead.
The defense requested a break so he could be mentally evaluated. A doctor ruled him competent to proceed, and Spooner said he would testify,
Spooner was convicted Wednesday of fatally shooting of his teenage neighbor after accusing the boy of burglary. The trial is now in a second phase to determine his mental competence.
Copyright 2013: Associated Press
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UPDATED Wednesday, July 17, 2013 — 4:11 p.m.
MILWAUKEE (AP) — A psychiatrist testifying in the trial of a Milwaukee man who fatally shot his teenage neighbor says the man once killed his daughter’s kitten.
Spooner killed his daughter’s kitten. Many psychiatrists say killing animals is a prelude to killing humans.
Dr. Basil Jackson testified Wednesday in the second phase of a trial for 76-year-old John Henry Spooner. The testimony came hours after a jury found Spooner guilty of fatally shooting his 13-year-old neighbor after accusing the boy of stealing from him.
The second phase is to determine Spooner’s mental competence at the time of the 2012 shooting. [A psychiatrist already found Spooner competent to stand trial.]
Jackson says Spooner once killed a kitten that his daughter brought home because he didn’t want a cat. The psychiatrist, who was hired by the defense, says that sort of anger prompted Spooner to momentarily lose control during the several seconds that he fired two shots at the boy.
Copyright 2013: Associated Press
