John Spooner and Darius Simmons (Video)

The John Spooner case is nothing like the George Zimmerman case.

That isn't stopping the media and others from drawing parallels.



From Mediaite:

With the George Zimmerman murder trial over, the cable news industry will likely moving on to other stories any day now. This evening on Fox, Shepard Smith brought up a trial happening in Milwaukee, Wisconsin that is “so similar to the Zimmerman case that the judge in this new trial warned the jury don’t even think about what happened in Florida.”

Lawyers in the murder trial of 76-year-old John Spooner apparently had trouble finding jurors whose views of the case have not been tainted by the Zimmerman coverage. Spooner is on trial for shooting and killing a 13-year-old African-American kid named Darius Simmons. But as Fox reporter Gregg Jarrett explained, Spooner is not claiming self-defense, but rather that “mental illness drove him to mistakenly believe that his young neighbor had stolen some guns from his home” and that “he didn’t intend to kill” Simmons. In this case, there is surveillance video of Spooner shooting the young boy, who had his hands up, multiple times.

Darius Simmons was killed by John Spooner.

This was not a case of self-defense at all.

Spooner had no reason to fear for his life. Simmons wasn't bashing Spooner's head on concrete.

Surveillance video shows Spooner shooting Simmons, point-blank.

From FOX6 News:

Opening statements began Tuesday, July 16th in the trial for 76-year-old John Spooner. Spooner is accused in the shooting death of 13-year-old Darius Simmons.

In court on Tuesday, surveillance video was shown, allowing jurors to see the incident as it happened.

The state alleges Spooner shot and killed Darius Simmons on May 31st, 2012 while Simmons’ mother watched.

Spooner is accused of confronting Simmons as he was taking out the trash.

Spooner reported his home was burglarized and items were taken — including some shotguns. Officials say Spooner reportedly believed his next-door neighbor, Simmons, was to blame.

The surveillance video was captured by cameras mounted on Spooner’s own home.

Spooner told police on the day of the shooting that in recent years, he was beaten, had a lung removed due to cancer, lost his wife, and his house had just been burglarized, with four of his shotguns having been stolen. Spooner said at the time, he was at his breaking point.

Surveillance video shows Spooner’s neighbor, Simmons coming outside to take in a garbage cart in the morning of May 31st.

Spooner believed Simmons stole his guns, and confronted him, pointing a pistol at the boy. The two have a brief confrontation before Spooner fires twice at close range, killing Simmons.

Witnesses, from neighbors to the garbage man also saw it happen.

Milwaukee Alderman Bob Donovan testified he spoke with Spooner before the murder, running into him at a restaurant. Spooner told him he was not happy with the police investigation into his burglary.

“To the best of my knowledge, John said there were other ways of dealing with situations like this,” Alderman Donovan said.

In opening statements, the prosecution explained the two steps of the trial. One, jurors will decide if Spooner murdered Simmons. If yes, they will decide whether he suffers from a mental disease or defect.

What Spooner did is indefensible. That's probably why it's being argued he suffers from a mental disease or defect.

There is video of what happened.

I don't see similarities between Spooner and Zimmerman.

Spooner wasn't beaten. There is no doubt that he wasn't in a struggle to save his own life. Nonetheless, he took the life of Darius Simmons.

The Leftist media aren't doctoring 911 calls. Prosecutors aren't overreaching. There isn't a nationwide, orchestrated effort to paint Spooner as a racist. Obama didn't say if he had a son he'd look like Darius Simmons.

Where are the similarities?

There's no reason to trump up the incident. There's video.

Spooner's defense claims he didn't mean to kill Simmons.

What did he think would happen when he shot him in the chest?

Spooner's own surveillance video shows that he came out of his house, then shot and killed Simmons.

It's hard to imagine anyone coming to a different conclusion.

Is the elderly Spooner mentally impaired?

I have no idea. The jury will decide after hearing the evidence.

If he is found to be so severely impaired that he didn't understand shooting a boy in the chest could kill him, then I don't think Spooner will be set free.

Bottom line: The cases are dramatically different.