Michael Dunn was shackled as he walked to the podium before Judge Russell Healey.
Dressed in an orange jail jumpsuit, Dunn leaned in to the microphone and apologized for killing 17-year-old Jordan Davis.
It was five weeks shy of two years after the shooting at a Southside gas station.
He said he wanted the Davis family to know he regretted what happened and he was sorry for their loss. And, Dunn said, if he could, he would do things differently.
Dunn renewed his contention that he feared for his life. “I did what I felt I had to do,” he said.
“Still, I am mortified that I took a life,” Dunn continued Oct. 17, “whether it was justified or not.”
Sixteen days earlier a jury had determined it was not justified and Dunn had committed first-degree murder. An earlier trial had a hung jury on the charge involving Davis’ death.
Davis’ family was not comforted by the words of their son’s killer. Lucy McBath forgave Dunn for the shooting that happened the night after Thanksgiving. “I pray that God has mercy on your soul,” she said in court.
His father, Ron Davis, said he called that night Black Friday for a different reason.
“The old Ron Davis died that night with Jordan,” he said.
The shooting that started over loud music in the car Davis was in left two families without sons. One a teenager whose life ended that November night in 2012, the other a 47-year-old man who would spend the rest of his days in prison with no chance of parole.
Mathis only one in 56 Allied cases facing time
One-by-one, dozens of defendants in the $300 million Allied Veterans of the World money laundering case pleaded guilty to lesser charges.
One-by-one they were told there would be no time in jail.
Except one: Jacksonville attorney Kelly Mathis, whom investigators called the “mastermind” of a gambling ring.
The former Jacksonville Bar Association president was convicted by a jury of 103 gambling-related charges in the Allied case, which centered around the operation of dozens of Internet cafes. He remains free while appealing his case.
Among those who pleaded guilty were Jerry Bass, national commander of Allied, and Robbie Freitas, the former first vice president of the Jacksonville Fraternal Order of Police.
Freitas and Nelson Cuba, longtime FOP president, were among several owners of Internet cafes that were raided in 2012.
The former FOP leaders were photographed through bank security cameras making several deposits and withdrawals through shell companies that officials said were used to funnel illegal gambling profits.
Officials tracked deposits of $576,100 and withdrawals of $571,400 in accounts controlled by the two former Jacksonville police officers from Sept. 4, 2009-Dec. 30, 2011.
There is only one Allied defendant yet to have his case settled: Cuba.
How to fund legal services for the poor
It was a tough year for legal aid groups, as money from nearly all funding sources were either reduced or disappeared all together.
It led to layoffs and fewer workdays for Jacksonville Area Legal Aid employees.
The Florida Bar Foundation, once a primary funding source, has suffered because the economy has wrecked its Interest on Trust Accounts program. That caused the money for legal aid services to drop to about $12 million a year from close to $30 million six years ago.
Then, the City Council cut a proposed $443,000 funding match in a tough budget year.
A push for the state Supreme Court to raise annual Florida Bar dues by $100 has yet to be decided. That would raise about $10 million a year for legal-aid services.
In November, Supreme Court Chief Justice Jorge Labarga formed a commission to determine how to provide access to legal services for those who need it. Local members on the commission include U.S. District Judge Timothy Corrigan; Jim Kowalski, executive director of Jacksonville Area Legal Aid; retired appellate court judge William Van Nortwick, who has joined the Jacksonville office of Akerman; state Sen. Rob Bradley; and Jacksonville attorney Thomas Edwards Jr.
Bills by council members Bill Gulliford and Warren Jones to help with funding remain in committees.
In the end, though, six JALA employees remain without jobs and the office is closed two Fridays a month through the end of 2015.
Several new faces on the bench
For the first time in two decades, the 4th Judicial Circuit will have a new chief judge, a spot held since 1993 by Donald Moran Jr. Judge Mark Mahon was selected by fellow judges to succeed Moran, whose retirement is effective Friday.
Mahon is the son of the late Lacy Mahon Jr., a prominent Jacksonville lawyer for decades. The younger Mahon served in the state Legislature from 2000-07, when he was appointed a circuit judge by former Gov. Charlie Crist.
Gov. Rick Scott appointed several new circuit judges in 2014: County Court Judge Russell Healey replaced the late Jean Johnson, County Court Judge Angela Cox took Moran’s spot and attorney Marianne Lloyd Aho filled the vacancy left when Brian Davis became a federal judge.
Terrell Hogan attorney Mike Sharrit was elected to replace Brad Stetson, who retired.
General Magistrate Lester Bass was appointed by the governor to replace Healey in county court.
No replacement has been named for retiring Circuit Judge E. McRae Mathis, whose last day is Wednesday.
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