Wisconsin Man On Trial For Shooting Black Neighbor Over Alleged Burglary

A Wisconsin man will start his trial this week for shooting his 13-year-old black neighbor for allegedly robbing his home last year.

John Spooner shot Darius Simmons after the teen was taking out garbage at 10 a.m. The 76-year-old accused him of stealing $3,000 worth of guns from his home.

Simmons told the 76-year-old that he did no such thing, but Spooner pulled out his handgun anyway and shot him in the chest from only five feet away. The teen’s mother, Patricia Larry, was outside at the time of the incident and witnessed her son being killed.

“My son, Darius Simmons, was shot and killed in front of me,” she said. ‘It’s affected me, my friends, my work.”

A neighbor, Toni Johnson, was watching television when the incident happened.

“I looked out the door and saw the mother kneeling over her boy at the curb, screaming, ‘my son!’ and the old guy was standing right over there by the stop sign with his dog, just waiting,” she said.

Spooner’s defense attorney, Franklyn Gimbel, admitted that the man shot the teen, but he didn’t intend to kill him. He also said that he has an expert who will testify that Spooner suffered from a mental illness at the time that prevented him from knowing right from wrong.

This case has been compared to the Trayvon Martin case, but Gimbel said that the only similarity is that the victims were both black teens.

“I am concerned to the extent that the jury blends in the details of what that outcome might have been,” Gimbel said. “Otherwise it should have no bearing.”

If Spooner is convicted of first-degree intentional homicide, he will face life in prison.

Do you think Spooner really meant to shoot his black neighbor? What kind of punishment does he deserve if he is convicted?

[Image via Shuttershock]