Davion L. Jones
The Progressive left has complained vociferously about the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict. One of their strident hypotheticals is to claim a black man in Kyle's situation would never have made it to trial, let alone been found not guilty by a jury. From Julian Castro on twitter:
You know damn well that if Kyle Rittenhouse were Black he would have been found guilty in a heartbeat—or shot dead by cops on the scene.
This is demonstrably false.
A case which received no attention in the national media has numerous similarities to the Kyle Rittenhouse case. Davion L. Jones was found not guilty in a jury trial.
The events of the case happened on March 28, 2020, in LaPorte, Indiana. The events of the Rittenhouse case happened on August 25, 2020, in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Davion L. Jones, 21, of Chesterton, Indiana, traveled to a different town and was approached by a hostile crowd. Davion fired several shots, killing one white man and wounding a black man.
Davion drove to the LaPort County Sheriff's Department and turned himself in. Police found a .40 caliber Glock with a 50 round magazine in the car.
Chesterton is in Indiana. It is south and east of Chicago about the same distance that Antioch, where Kyle Rittenhouse resided, is north and west of Chicago.
Chesterton is about 17 miles from LaPort.
Antioch, Kyle Rittenhouse' home was about 15 miles from Kenosha.
Juries in both cases found the shooters to have acted in self defense.
Jones was held on a 15,000 dollar bond. He was charged with reckless homicide. From hometownnews.com:
Christopher wanted to pick up his girlfriend’s daughter because she was being harassed by a group of individuals, according to courtroom testimony.
When they pulled up, the evidence shows Christopher stepped out of the car and was surrounded.
The defendant stayed in the car and said a man approached him with a gun.
He says the man, Stanley Henderson, pointed the gun at him.
Fearing for his safety, Davion Jones told police he started firing with his eyes closed at Henderson who was shot multiple times.
The 21-year old Henderson survived.
One of the rounds hit Terusiak who was off in the distance a bit, authorities said.
Police say Terusiak died from a gunshot to the heart.
So far, Jones has not been charged with shooting with Henderson, claiming
that was self defense.
Jones of Chesterton was being held on $15,000 bond.
Jones said he was not initially aware if he had shot anyone. This correspondent has not seen any evidence that Terusiak was armed.
Tyler Terusiak from facebook, about 9 months before he was killed
Stanley Henderson's mother, Ruska Vraniskoski, started a GOFUNDME account for his recovery.
Over a year later, after a more complete investigation, a witness was found who said Henderson, the person Jones wounded with multiple shots, did not have a gun. The witness was reported to have been across the street, looking out from an upstairs window.
The charge was changed to murder and the bond was raised to $500,000, in July and August of 2021. From hometownnews.com:
Davion Jones was originally charged in La Porte Circuit Court with Level 5 felony reckless homicide. However, prosecutors on Friday upped the charge to murder. The 22-year old Chesterton man is charged with killing 20-year-old Tyler Terusiak last year in the 1400 block of Jefferson Ave.
Kyle Rittenhouse' bond was set at $2,000,000.
Both men turned themselves in to the authorities as soon as they could.
The Jones trial was held in November - December of 2021. Jones took the stand in his own defense, as did Kyle Rittenhouse at his trial.
On December 9th, Davion Jones was found not guilty by a jury of his peers, of all charges, within three weeks of the Rittenhouse verdict.
Kyle Rittenhouse shot and killed two white men and wounded one white man. All of the people he shot had pursued him and were attacking him while he was on foot, retreating. One of the men, Joseph Rosenbaum, was unarmed but had threatened to kill Kyle, pursued Kyle, and grabbed for his rifle.
The other man Kyle killed attacked Kyle with a skateboard and tried to take his rifle from Kyle.
The third man Kyle shot, Gaige Grosskruetz, was pointing a pistol at Kyle when Kyle shot him.
Davion Jones, a black man, shot and wounded Stanley Henderson, who appears to be a black man. Davion shot and killed Tyler Terusiak, a white man, some distance away. Henderson and Terusiak appear to have been friends.
It appears no weapons were found on or near either Terusiak or Henderson. Henderson was approaching Jones while Jones sat in a car.
Both cases had uncooperative witnesses.
Both Rittenhouse and Jones fired multiple shots.
Rittenhouse did not hit anyone he did not intend to hit. Jones claimed he did not intend to hit Terusiak.
There are hundreds of hours of video involving Rittenhouse the video was shown extensively in court. There may have been one video of the Davion Jones incident. It is unknown if it were shown in court.
The incidents occurred in two different Midwest states, Wisconsin and Indiana.
Jones had much lower bond than Rittenhouse.
Jones faced charges, but no weapons charges. The murder charge against Jones was levied 8 months after the shooting, after considerable investigation.
The murder charges against Rittenhouse were levied within 36 hours, with little investigation. The charges against Rittenhouse included unfounded weapons charges.
Both Jones and Rittenhouse faced what may have been considered hostile crowds. Rittenhouse was actively pursued. Henderson approached the car Jones was in.
Rittenhouse was legally and openly carrying a Smith & Wesson MP15 rifle with a 30 round magazine. Jones had a Glock pistol with a 50 round magazine in the car. It was probably not visible to the people outside.
It was not reported if Jones had an Indiana handgun license. It seems likely he did. He was not charged with the illegal possession of a handgun.
Both men, one white, one black, were found not guilty of all counts in Jury trials.
While there are similarities and differences, the differences in treatment by the authorities appear to be in Jones favor, not in Kyle Rittenhouse's favor. There is no evidence Terusiak was a threat to Davion L. Jones.
A black man can kill an unarmed white man and be found not guilty in a jury trial.
It happened in Indiana, not far in distance or time from the Kyle Rittenhouse case in Wisconsin.
©2021 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
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