Originally posted on 03/12/2018:

Quote Originally Posted by Auto Donk View Post
thanks, str.....

believe me, although it was a relatively quick verdict (3 hrs of deliberations), we talked all the angles through, and would have had even more to discuss if we hadn't settled on lack of self defense in the last fatal shot.

texas law says generally a defendant can't claim self defense if he "provokes" the confrontation in which he ultimately uses deadly force.....

that was another potential problem.....

and, as for the defendant, he didn't have any family show up to support him (OG had numerous family members throughout the trial), and it sucked to see a guy who'd made such choices have to pay for them, knowing deep down he had no one there -- both at trial, and most likely in his life -- to guide him in the right direction in life..... it was a sad day to convict him, knowing all the facts, but in the end, we felt we had to do our duty and follow the law....

I found no enjoyment or satisfaction in convicting him..... there were no winners in the case, only losers and those who'd experienced great loss.... on both sides -- one, the life of a loved son, the other the life of a young man now geared for prison for the next 9 or so years, for whom things could have certainly been different if he'd had a family during his teen years, as it certainly seemed he was lacking....

Yeah. I would expect nothing less .

Quite a sad story of a kid lost in the hood.

I was born and raised in Wash. D.C. and knew plenty of guys like that.

When I became a thoroughbred trainer I had plenty of guys from the Pimlico hood who came to work for me. They had no opportunity, no father, sometimes no mother, etc. Very sad. I tried to help those that tried to help themselves. Once you get to know them, the sorrowful feeling for them can really set in.
I had a kid named Neal come to work for me from the hood. We used to call him eel because he could slither through traffic in the lane and drive to the basket like not many can. We would play pick up hoops after the races back before I was married in my early 20's . He had a little brother named Lester (yep, we called him Lester the Molester), and he came to work for me as well. Long story short, Lester gets in a pinch selling pot and some guys in the hood are looking for him with a piece. Neal gets his gun and sticks up for his little brother. Neal gets shot and paralyzed for life from the waist down and Lester ends up in jail for about a year on drug charges and other stuff. Two employees lost and it broke by heart. They were about my age or a little younger. I was born a white kid in DC not rich but comfortable and they were born in Balt. in the hood with pretty much nobody. Life's luck of the draw.
I must have hired a hundred young guys from the Balt. slum at Pimlico over the years always trying to help where I could. But there is only so much you can do. All that those young guys go through makes me sad to this day when I think about their lack of opportunity.

Thanks Donk !