A frightening assault ends in tragedy, when teenagers shoot splat ball guns at two brothers playing a nighttime basketball game. A fight ensues between the youths, leaving a 17-year-old dead at the scene. The Prosecution say the basketballer deliberately punched one of the shooters to death. But the Defense believe expert medical evidence could prove otherwise. Is he a one punch killer or protective brother?
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LearningTranscript
00:00Akron 9-1-1, what's the solicitation of an emergency?
00:23We're at the I-Promise School in Akron, Ohio.
00:25Okay.
00:26Our friend just got knocked out.
00:28Okay.
00:29We don't know what to do.
00:30Is your friend unconscious?
00:34Yeah.
00:35Is he breathing?
00:39The team was knocked unconscious and beaten to death.
00:42The narrative came out so early that this was this brutal, violent beating.
00:48The police are saying he brutally killed this kid.
00:52That's not him at all.
00:53Sean wouldn't hurt a fly.
00:54When I took this case, I took a young man who was facing spending the rest of his life in prison.
01:03Our worst nightmare became our reality.
01:09I just wish everybody was still alive.
01:13And if that was the case, I wouldn't be going through this situation.
01:16My name is Deshaun Stafford, and I was charged with murder.
01:28Yeah, that night, my cousin and my brother, we just started playing basketball.
01:38We like to, like, get our stress out on the court, and that's what we like to do when we're trying to have fun.
01:44We was playing basketball for almost, like, 30 minutes to an hour.
01:49We all shoot in hoops.
01:51After that, a car pulled up in the parking lot, and then when they pulled up, they had rolled down the windows and got to shooting.
02:01That's when my brother yelled out, like, the guns is fake.
02:04The guns is fake.
02:07My plan was to just go over there and talk to them and be reasonable, not start a bigger situation.
02:14But I guess they found it funny to keep it going and to shoot me in my face, and that's when a tussle began.
02:24I had hit him, and he had fell back and hit his head.
02:29But to me and everybody else, like, he was still breathing, even his friends.
02:34I made a 911 phone call saying that he was breathing.
02:38Is he breathing?
02:39Yeah, he's breathing. He's breathing.
02:41I'm thinking everything got right, and we end up leaving, going back to my house.
02:57Me thinking, like, that one punch killed him, it was kind of heartbreaking, because I wouldn't think I'd kill anybody.
03:04I just sat in the house, didn't know really what to do.
03:12I was scared, like, I didn't know which way to move, because I'm thinking, like, any of my moves can be a mistake.
03:18Good morning, Peyton.
03:40Good morning, John.
03:41My name is John Sin.
03:44I'm an attorney in Akron, Ohio.
03:45I've been practicing for 30 years.
03:48My practice area is in criminal defense.
03:51In this case, my client's name is Deshaun Stafford.
03:54Sean's a young man who was playing basketball on a public basketball court here in town.
04:02When a carload of strangers approached, started firing what appeared to be real guns at Sean and his brothers on the basketball court,
04:12a fight ensued, and a young man ended up dead.
04:15The police were saying it was a stomping to death, saying that he was violently murdered.
04:21They got me thinking, wait a second.
04:26Why did those other boys have those guns with them?
04:30Why did those other boys jump out of that car pretending to shoot at the kids on the court?
04:37What did the kid whose family called me, what did he do wrong?
04:41One of the first things that I had to do was try and determine, was this captured on film?
05:11I know that basketball court area, I know there's cameras there.
05:16My big concern was, is it going to show a self-defense case, or is it going to show a murder?
05:25What I'm really looking for is, who's the initial aggressor?
05:28Who started this thing?
05:31Can we slow this down a little bit?
05:34Let's see.
05:35That's Sean and his brother.
05:37The boys on the court are in the middle of a game.
05:38I can see them actually shooting hoops right now.
05:43Peyton, fast forward.
05:44Let's see if we can find the point.
05:50Here we go.
05:51Okay.
05:52Headlights are on.
05:53Mm-hmm.
05:54And the headlights hit the court.
05:57Boys they didn't know, boys from a different neighborhood, jumped out of the car shooting these guns.
06:03Can you go back a little bit?
06:07All right, so what I got here is I've got this individual running up with this gun in his hand.
06:16And from a distance, it's a big gun.
06:18If someone came at my brother like that, I mean, he would be terrified.
06:23And I was genuinely shocked at the way that they approached the boys at the basketball court.
06:30Those look like real guns.
06:31Yeah, you would never know.
06:32Especially, it's 10 p.m. in Akron, Ohio.
06:36It's dark.
06:38And that's what approaches you.
06:40I think anybody would be terrified.
06:42Anybody would have been scared.
06:43You saw the boys on the court flee to the other side of the court off camera.
07:00And now you've got the boys with the guns walking back.
07:04Walking back to the car.
07:06Here comes Deshawn with a basketball in his hand.
07:14Looks like he's going to confront them.
07:20Ethan gets out of the car.
07:24And now they move into the parking lot.
07:27You can see the victim get back out of the car when he could have drove away.
07:31When I saw that, I knew this was something the jury had to see.
07:50What we were hoping for was that we could see into the dark.
07:54That we could actually see the crime occur.
07:56But you just couldn't.
07:57And apparently there's a fight going on between two boys or three boys in that parking lot.
08:03I grabbed the gun and we all got into a tussle.
08:12After he got up, I guess the first person he seen was my brother.
08:15And he started going after him.
08:18So after that, my brother like, come over here and help me.
08:23Like, you got to get him like he too big.
08:25So as I was coming up to him and he was turning towards me, I had ducked and then hit him.
08:30Just like, like a regular punch.
08:33It wasn't no Superman punch or nothing like that.
08:39As quick as it happened, it's over.
08:42Everybody starts walking back.
08:44It just seems like nobody knew how serious it was.
08:48Because no one's acting as if it's that serious.
08:51Peyton, can you get up the second camera footage?
08:57I think there's another angle.
09:02So what I'd hoped this would show was that the boys on the court were just behaving themselves.
09:09And I'd hoped that it would show a genuine fear response.
09:15Had lights come in.
09:20Now you know that the car just pulled in.
09:22Now what's the reaction of the boys on the court?
09:31They've taken off.
09:33Boys on the court.
09:35Running.
09:36They're getting the heck away from something as fast as they can.
09:40What are they running from?
09:42Two kids with guns.
09:44I got hit.
09:50It felt like a little pinch.
09:52But the noise that it made, it sounded like it was a real gun.
09:56So like I was scared.
09:57We were just trying to make it to the gate.
10:00Because it's only one entrance and one exit.
10:02As we running, I guess somebody hops out the car.
10:06And started trying to chase us down with the pellets.
10:09Eventually they realized that the bullets they were getting hit with weren't made of metal and steel.
10:15And ultimately, that's when you see Deshaun walk up with his basketball in his hand and confront him.
10:22Confront the kids in the car.
10:26One of the issues that we had was, even though it's clear that these boys thought it was a real gun at first,
10:33it also became clear that at some point everyone knew this was a prank.
10:37The question becomes, what happens next?
10:41What are your rights then?
10:43The prosecutor's going to say, no matter what else happened, at the end of the day, this is just a toy.
10:50When I got this videotaped statement, we were hoping that what he had told us was going to be reflected with what he told the police.
11:12Sean was looking to spend the rest of his life in prison.
11:15Before he ever sat down in my office, before we ever talked about a strategy, the police dragged him out of bed.
11:22They put him in a room and they asked him questions.
11:25And Peyton and I both knew that it could be our undoing.
11:28I'm just sitting there, just freezing, waiting on them.
11:35And, like, I end up asking one of the officers, before they put me in there, can I get, like, a shirt or something to cover my feet with, because it was real cold.
11:45I definitely felt like I was an animal.
11:47Once you got murdered on your name, I guess you worthless and you don't mean nothing, whether you innocent or guilty.
11:54You see a cold, scared kid sitting there, about to get questioned about some very serious matters.
12:02And it's tough to watch.
12:08Sean?
12:10We want to put this down information from you.
12:13When you say you got it on the court, who was on the court?
12:17Me and my brother.
12:18Some other dude.
12:19Some other dude? Do you know that other dude is?
12:22Pause that.
12:23That's where we got a little tied up.
12:26Sean knows who's there.
12:27He's covering for his cousin.
12:29Yeah.
12:29He doesn't want anyone else dragged into that.
12:31So right then, he starts lying.
12:33And I understand why he's lying.
12:35That's a hurdle for us.
12:36That's something because they could clearly prove.
12:40They know.
12:40Yeah, they know he knows.
12:41He knows who they are and they know that he knows who they are.
12:44Yeah.
12:45He shot me in my face.
12:46He was like, so I hate him.
12:48And then his friend got out of the car to shut it up.
12:51And whatever it was like.
12:52And that was happening at my brother came and shut it up.
12:57And he died.
12:59I'm awesome.
12:59So that's what I've got.
13:00What is this right here?
13:02What's that from?
13:02That's from the road.
13:04I hit my head.
13:05Like, literally, Ethan, I mean.
13:06How do you hit your head?
13:08He literally grabbed my head.
13:11He literally grabbed my head.
13:12And then when I picked him up, literally went down, both on down.
13:16I got my head.
13:17My head was literally hit.
13:19This boy slammed him on the ground, slammed him on the head.
13:24My understanding is Sean slammed him on the head so hard he threw up.
13:28And then at some point, he slammed the other boy.
13:30So we slammed him and punched him down.
13:32And then what happened when he fell?
13:34He literally let him back up.
13:36My brother was helping over his foot.
13:38Yeah, I hit him a couple times.
13:39We let him back up.
13:40And then he started following my brother.
13:42Because he was about to leave.
13:44He still trying to fight my brother.
13:45So he's starting out with my brother.
13:47Yeah.
13:49Even Deshawn's saying in the video that he let them back.
13:52He let the victim back up.
13:54You don't let somebody up you're trying to kill.
13:56That's for sure.
13:57No.
13:57And at that point, the other boy goes after his brother.
13:59What you hear is, the victim squared up with my brother.
14:04You never at any point hear, my brother's trying to square up.
14:09Legally, I'm checking the boxes in my head that, okay, that's defense of another.
14:14And that's legally sufficient.
14:16I wasn't sure how the public would take that.
14:18And I wasn't sure whether a jury would understand it.
14:20So, you know, he caught me over there.
14:22You hit him.
14:23You know, right to sleep.
14:24Okay, so then when he fell, what happened after that?
14:27I hit him to the time.
14:30He was pulling himself on the ground?
14:32Yeah.
14:32When Sean told on himself about throwing the punch that put the victim on the ground, that we could handle with self-defense.
14:41What we couldn't explain was Sean admitting to beating the victim when he was down on the ground.
14:45To them, that was as good as a confession.
14:47And that was a real problem for us.
14:51Yeah.
14:59Me and Sean met through one of my best friends at the time.
15:04She was like, hey, you know, my friend has a friend for you.
15:07So, we should just hang out, go bowling.
15:11And that's what we did.
15:12And after that, we were inseparable ever since.
15:16Sean was contagious.
15:23He's like the person you want to be around.
15:26He always had a smile.
15:27He always could make you laugh.
15:29It felt like I knew him for so many years when we first met.
15:33It was, I don't know, love at first sight.
15:38We were 16 and 18 when we welcomed our son, Ty-Ty.
15:45And he was like a natural.
15:51Becoming a father is like something more than I ever thought it would be.
15:59I'm sitting there just thinking about the situation, thinking about my family, like,
16:04thinking about is everything going to be the same when I come home?
16:08Am I ever coming home?
16:09I was feeling, it was just, I was emotional.
16:13It was lonely because we moved into our apartment together and I was there alone with our son.
16:20It was a hard rock to overcome.
16:23The police are saying he brutally stomped and killed this kid.
16:28That's his personality.
16:29That's not him at all.
16:31And Sean wouldn't hurt a fly.
16:33If he didn't defend himself, he would not, like, it would not happen.
16:41Peyton, will you get on the Matrix for me and see if we can pull up everything we have?
16:46We had to go over the kids in the car, the victims' friends.
16:52The best information you're going to get is going to be from the eyewitnesses.
16:55Unfortunately, the eyewitnesses were involved up to their eyeballs with this thing.
17:06It's the same room, but it's a whole different atmosphere in there.
17:10They've got shoes, they've got shirts, they've got water on the table.
17:13They're not chained to the table.
17:14So it's a much friendlier dynamic.
17:17First off, you're not getting in trouble, okay?
17:22We just wanted to give a good statement from you about what happened to them.
17:25Me and Ethan, you texted me, you said, what's up?
17:28You said, you're trying to go shoot people with a splat?
17:30With a board beat guns?
17:32Why isn't this kid in any trouble?
17:34He's in a car, they know it.
17:37He's pretending to do fake drive-by shootings on people.
17:40They know it.
17:41And the first thing to tell him is he's not in any trouble?
17:43Yeah.
17:44Yeah.
17:45Suddenly we hopped in the car, and we were, like,
17:46looking for people to go shoot their guns at.
17:49And they were, like, we saw people at I Promise.
17:51And they were, like, oh, yeah, let's go, like, go over there and shoot at them.
17:55The first thing the kid says is,
17:57we were out looking for people to shoot.
17:59I remember watching this thinking, okay,
18:01if this kid keeps telling the truth, this is all going to work out.
18:06At first, like, he was just finding back against them.
18:09And then they all came over and jumped him.
18:10What happened after he fell?
18:11He was just, like, laying there, and they were just kicking him.
18:14They just trying to pit me in jail for murder,
18:18and they trying to say I brutally beat this boy,
18:21and it wasn't nothing like that.
18:23Where were you at?
18:27I was in behind the fence.
18:29To the back.
18:30I was in the fence.
18:31Okay.
18:32You think it's out of the car,
18:33does it approach you?
18:34Start fighting, and then the other person, you know,
18:36I said this, walked slow, right, and jumped in.
18:39Okay.
18:40So I hopped out.
18:41I wanted to help, but it was bad.
18:45Watched, like, all of it.
18:47So what happened after they knocked you?
18:49Maybe.
18:50Well, you got to learn the world.
18:52Just, we're all in the talk.
18:55It's all sending a message to the jury,
18:57which is he was beaten to death.
19:00If this statement stands, this case is over.
19:04This case is over before it started.
19:07It was just lies.
19:08Somebody came and attacked me,
19:10and all I did was defend myself.
19:11You got to go back to January of 2021,
19:27the year before this happened.
19:31Ohio was the 37th state
19:33to enact a Stand Your Ground law.
19:37Basically, what was going on in this country
19:39was law-abiding folks were tired
19:43of having to run away
19:45when confronted with violence.
19:56What Stand Your Ground was all about
19:58was telling regular folks
20:00that they no longer have to run away from crime.
20:05And as long as you're not the one
20:07that caused the fight,
20:09you can use reasonable force
20:11in defending yourself
20:13or someone you love.
20:15So the burden of proof shifted.
20:17And now, after 2021,
20:20what changed is,
20:22not only does the state have to prove
20:24that you used force committing a crime,
20:27but now it's their job to prove
20:29that you weren't defending yourself.
20:31They've got to prove that.
20:33And it was a massive shift.
20:34As exciting as it is
20:39to be maybe the first guy
20:41to use it successfully,
20:42it's new law.
20:44What if I'm the first guy
20:45to use it and I flop?
20:47The law looks good on paper,
20:49but paper doesn't weigh much
20:51when you weigh it next to a dead person.
20:54You can't do your job
21:07as a lawyer
21:08until you've walked the same steps
21:13that your client walked,
21:15until you can live it through their eyes.
21:18According to the video evidence,
21:24what we see is a basketball game,
21:27boys playing basketball.
21:32As well lit as it is
21:34on this basketball court at night,
21:36it's just as dark in that parking lot.
21:38So, on this bright court,
21:42all these boys see is the headlights.
21:45And the surveillance video shows
21:48the shooters come out of this parking lot,
21:50they run down this path,
21:52and they block this exit.
21:55And the boys on this court have no escape,
21:58and they have nowhere to go.
22:02What would anybody do?
22:03What can you do?
22:04In my neighborhood,
22:10drive-by is kind of common.
22:12I mean, it's been a lot of shootings by drive-by.
22:15A lot of stores got shot up,
22:17a lot of houses got shot up,
22:18a lot of people died from drive-by shootings.
22:31Because I've been in a drive-by shooting before,
22:33it made me feel kind of anxious to go outside,
22:36like, worried I might get shot again.
22:40So, when I first heard the noise,
22:42I definitely felt like we was gonna die,
22:44because it sounded like it was a real gun.
22:49It wasn't until they realized
22:50that they weren't bleeding out
22:53that they heard the laughter.
22:55It occurred to Sean
22:57that this joke wasn't so funny,
22:59that someone needed to say something
23:01to these boys.
23:02The crime scene photographs
23:06place the entire incident right here.
23:11This is where the body was found.
23:19We were told that the victim died
23:21of blunt force trauma.
23:23Something struck him,
23:24and something caused his death,
23:26and it struck him in his head.
23:27That is consistent
23:28with somebody being beaten to death.
23:31That's consistent with somebody
23:33being kicked to death.
23:34What I pointed to
23:35was the pavement.
23:38Had this happened
23:40just 20 feet away on that grass,
23:44we wouldn't be here.
23:45Had the deceased
23:46hit his head on that cushioned basketball court,
23:49this wouldn't have happened.
23:50But instead,
23:52he hit his head on this,
23:56this hard asphalt.
23:58asphalt.
24:01It wasn't the punch
24:03that caused the death
24:04in this case.
24:06It was this pavement.
24:07Sean was charged with murder,
24:18and in Ohio,
24:20murder carries life in prison.
24:21If I was going to defend Sean properly,
24:26I knew a jury had to understand
24:28what was used that night.
24:30I saw the photographs
24:31of this gun
24:35that the police were calling a toy.
24:37Was this a toy?
24:39Was this a gun?
24:41Was it something in between?
24:43I didn't know,
24:44but I needed to know.
24:45There's a potential
24:52for 20,000 rounds
24:53of these little gel balls
24:56coming out of that gun
24:58at approximately 1,000 per minute.
25:02And it sounds exactly like
25:04the last time Sean got shot.
25:09Sounded like it was
25:10a real machine gun going off.
25:12So I'm thinking, like,
25:14we all probably finna die
25:15and nobody gonna make it.
25:22Sean got hit
25:23hundreds of times,
25:25and it stung,
25:27and it left a mark.
25:29In broad daylight,
25:30maybe it does look like a toy.
25:32Question becomes,
25:33what's it look like
25:34in a dark parking lot?
25:35What's it look like
25:36when someone's jumping
25:37out of a car firing these things?
25:39The reality is,
25:40this thing didn't look
25:43like a toy that night.
25:44The boys on the court
25:46clearly reacted
25:47as if this were a firearm.
25:50The self-defense case
25:51where the jury's gonna look
25:54at whether or not
25:55self-defense is reasonable.
25:58I had to get the jury
26:00to hear what this thing sounds like
26:03and to see what this thing's all about.
26:16It was hard going out in public
26:19because I didn't want nobody
26:20to notice me.
26:22You know, notice me
26:23and then, you know,
26:24put two and two together.
26:25And so I didn't want me
26:27or my family to be hurt by this.
26:29I didn't feel like a murderer.
26:34I felt like all I did
26:35was protect me and my family
26:36at that moment.
26:38And I just didn't feel
26:41like the person
26:42they was trying to portray me as.
26:49Sean, he wouldn't hurt a fly.
26:51So when it turned into that,
26:54he was just sitting there
26:56telling me he don't think
26:58he could go away from our son.
27:01He don't think that
27:03he could be away from me
27:05because he built our family.
27:09Like, he, you know,
27:10we created a family.
27:12We were just starting to build it.
27:13And then it just gets ripped away
27:15so fast.
27:24If we were going to claim
27:25that there was self-defense
27:28or that the victim in some way
27:30brought the trouble
27:32to the basketball court that night,
27:34we needed to go after that narrative
27:37that the victim could do no wrong.
27:40What really changed for us
27:41was we got a big pile of discovery.
27:44There's a reference to drugs.
27:51We weren't told about this.
27:53We had to find this on our own.
27:55We had to dig for this
27:56in the reports.
27:57When I see scales
27:59used to measure out marijuana,
28:01when I see multiple plastic baggies
28:04used to package marijuana
28:06and sell marijuana,
28:08what I realize is I've got a kid
28:09who's not as squeaky clean
28:11as we thought he was.
28:14The narrative came out so early
28:31that this was this brutal,
28:32violent beating.
28:33So potential jurors
28:34were just hearing about
28:35this violent stomping.
28:37And we didn't know
28:39what the medical evidence
28:40was going to be.
28:48I remember when I got
28:49the medical reports,
28:50I sat down
28:51and I went through them.
28:54And at that point,
28:55I knew we had a tribal case
28:58because I knew
28:59that what we had been saying
29:01made sense
29:01and that the version
29:03of events
29:04that the state
29:04had been pushing,
29:05it wasn't supported
29:06by the evidence.
29:10What did I find
29:11in the medical reports?
29:13There were three
29:15documented injuries.
29:17So we had a punch
29:18to the eye
29:19that caused
29:19a superficial injury.
29:21We had a punch
29:22to the mouth
29:23that also didn't
29:25loosen any teeth.
29:25It was also deemed
29:27to be a superficial injury.
29:29And then there was
29:30what they called
29:31a superficial contusion
29:33to the chest wall.
29:34I think the state
29:35wanted to say
29:36that it was a kick.
29:38But at the end of the day,
29:40none of that mattered.
29:41Basically,
29:42what the doctor said
29:43was what killed
29:45this kid
29:45was falling back
29:47and hitting his head
29:48on the pavement.
29:51This was a one-punch fight
29:54where Deshawn
29:55punched the victim
29:57in self-defense
29:58and the victim fell back
30:00and the pavement
30:01did the damage.
30:24The first day of trial,
30:41I was thinking like
30:42they're probably
30:43not going to be
30:45on my side.
30:50I never imagined
30:51nothing like that
30:53in my life.
30:53It definitely sounds scary
30:55how you pin your life
30:58in other people's hands
30:59and they making a decision
31:01whether you can make it
31:02home or not.
31:14It was a scary situation.
31:16Like, we both were scared
31:17still.
31:18I had to tell them,
31:19like, we just got to
31:20keep our head up
31:21and get through this.
31:24Okay, Marty,
31:25please be seated.
31:27Day one,
31:28day one was hard.
31:31I knew the prosecutor
31:31was going to lead
31:32with some powerful evidence.
31:34A 17-year-old,
31:36going to be a senior,
31:38a firestorm,
31:39was dead.
31:40He was beating,
31:42bleeding from his face,
31:43from his mouth,
31:44from his head.
31:46We can't fix the tragedy
31:47that happened that night.
31:49But we can prevent
31:49another tragedy.
31:51We can stop throwing away
31:52young lives
31:53on a prank
31:54that went wrong.
31:56At the end of this,
31:58you're going to find
31:59that the four skews
32:00was reasonable
32:01and that
32:03Sean acted in self-defense.
32:07The first witnesses
32:08they're going to put up
32:09are going to be
32:10the police officers
32:11on the scene.
32:12And the scene was bad.
32:13He definitely
32:14was beat up.
32:17I, you know,
32:18I didn't notice
32:19any kind of stab wounds
32:20or gunshot wounds
32:21or anything that stuck
32:21out in my mind
32:22other than his face
32:23was pretty beaten.
32:25I scored the points
32:26where I could.
32:27What are digital scales
32:28used for
32:29in your experience
32:30as a police officer?
32:31I found only two uses
32:32for them personally
32:33in common on the street.
32:36One is used by a dealer
32:37who would want to
32:38weigh out drugs
32:40for someone they're selling to.
32:41Another is used by someone
32:43who's buying for personal use
32:44that wants to make sure
32:45they're not getting cheated.
32:48But the reality is
32:49there's nothing I can say
32:51that's going to change
32:54the photographs
32:55that were taken
32:56of the deceased
32:58laying on that parking lot
32:59all by himself.
33:10Take us through, like,
33:11what you see going on
33:12with the fight.
33:13Ethan gets, like,
33:14knocked out
33:15and then he's on the ground
33:16and then they're, like,
33:17stomping and kicking.
33:19Sitting opposite
33:20to their family,
33:22they think I didn't show
33:23remorse
33:23so they're not going to see
33:25me as somebody innocent.
33:30That's black gun right there.
33:31Is that your spot?
33:32I don't know.
33:34They're the same, like,
33:35we have the exact same model.
33:37The gun
33:38had been in evidence
33:40fault for 15 months.
33:42I don't know much about these.
33:43I didn't know if the battery
33:44was going to work or not.
33:45Did you feel the battery
33:46was charged?
33:47I don't know.
33:48Well, let me ask this.
33:56I mean, you thought
33:57that he was going to
33:57hang him out the windows.
33:58Right.
33:59Well, then Ethan stops.
34:01Right.
34:01And Ethan says,
34:02get out.
34:03He's not, like,
34:04telling us to get out.
34:05We kind of just, like,
34:06oh, we stopped.
34:07Let's get out.
34:08Then you run down
34:09if you run down
34:10in the parking lot
34:11down that sidewalk.
34:15Yes.
34:16And those kids
34:17took off running.
34:20Uh, yeah.
34:21The jurors needed to hear this.
34:23I think that was a game changer.
34:30Day three,
34:31it was going either way.
34:33We had some points
34:34in day one and two,
34:35and we had some
34:36inconsistent testimonies,
34:38but we didn't have
34:39any hard evidence
34:40at that point.
34:47Doctor,
34:47if you could let the jury know
34:49the significance
34:50of slide number two, please.
34:52Uh, slide number two
34:53is a summary
34:53of the traumatic injuries.
34:55On the head,
34:56he had some abrasions,
34:57which are scrapes,
34:59contusions are bruises,
35:01lacerations are cuts.
35:03So he's got those
35:04primarily around the left eye
35:05and then around the mouth
35:07and the lips.
35:08I knew what I needed
35:11to accomplish
35:12with the medical examiner.
35:13I had the medical reports
35:14and, and I knew
35:16what had caused
35:17the victim's death
35:18and it was the concrete.
35:22So I slowed
35:23the medical examiner down
35:25and I had him talk to me
35:27at a very layman's level.
35:29None of those other injuries
35:32on his head,
35:33the scrapes and the bruises,
35:34the scrapes and the cuts,
35:35those didn't play a part
35:37in his death.
35:38They did not play
35:38any physiologic role
35:39in his death, no.
35:43It wasn't until
35:44the medical testimony
35:45clarified that issue
35:47that,
35:48that I thought on day three,
35:50we finally have a chance.
35:52We finally have a chance.
36:05When you say
36:06you guys were on the court,
36:07who was on the court?
36:08When I saw the jury,
36:17I felt devastated
36:18because when they were
36:19watching Sean's interview,
36:21they didn't react
36:22to it too well.
36:23Their faces kind of
36:24almost like dropped.
36:26It was like a sinking feeling
36:28with what he said
36:29throughout the interview.
36:30That statement
36:45was devastating.
36:48I could explain away
36:49why he lied about
36:50who he was with,
36:51but there's just no way
36:52to explain away
36:53the fact that
36:54Sean had admitted
36:55to beating the victim
36:56after he was down.
36:57All the goodwill
36:58we had worked out
36:59and it was all
37:01falling apart.
37:10Day four,
37:11we had a big decision
37:13and that was whether
37:13or not we were
37:15going to call witnesses,
37:17whether Sean
37:19was going to testify.
37:21I knew we had a chance.
37:23It wasn't a great chance,
37:24but it was a chance.
37:27And Sean could either
37:28send us over the top
37:29or sink us.
37:45Deshawn threw that
37:47knockout blow.
37:49He might have done
37:49like this.
37:50He might be right-handed.
37:51And it blindsided Ethan,
37:53and that was the knockout blow.
37:57That was the assault
37:58that then caused his death.
38:03I felt that the closing arguments
38:05went as good
38:06as it possibly could.
38:07We focused on one thing
38:09and one thing only.
38:10Was this punch,
38:12this one punch justified?
38:14These two kids
38:15weren't looking for trouble.
38:18Trouble came looking for them.
38:20We got four high kids
38:23with the splat guns
38:26out to bully some other kids.
38:29And they're going to pull up
38:30and it's going to be a big prank.
38:32Can I come in there?
38:33It could have been hilarious.
38:34Well,
38:35it didn't have to be done.
38:36They could have been
38:37right out the window
38:40and go forward.
38:41That's what they thought
38:41they were getting into.
38:43And then the question is,
38:44is that self-defense?
38:46Is it defense of another?
38:48You can defend yourself
38:49and you can defend your family.
39:03I was definitely scared.
39:05I had to sit there
39:06and like repeatedly ask my lawyer,
39:09like, do you think I'm going to jail?
39:11And he sat there
39:12and told me like the truth,
39:13like, just be prepared.
39:15Like, don't give your hopes up.
39:16Don't put all of it into,
39:19oh, you're going home for sure.
39:20Just make sure that you
39:22ready for a bad outcome
39:24and a good outcome.
39:25And it's this time
39:36that you replay everything
39:38in your head.
39:39If you could just get
39:40one more chance
39:41to say one more thing
39:43that could make a difference,
39:44but you can't.
39:45I didn't dare to predict
39:58what was going to happen.
40:00It could have just as easily
40:01went one way as the other.
40:02And so when it got to me,
40:14you know, I'm nervous.
40:16I'm almost shaking in the chair
40:17because I don't know
40:18what's going to happen.
40:21We, the jury,
40:22being duly impaneled and sworn,
40:24do find the defendant,
40:26Deshawn Stafford,
40:27not guilty of the offense
40:29of involuntary manslaughter.
40:30When the verdict came down,
40:34it was a big moment
40:35because we won
40:38on the major charges.
40:41I was happy.
40:41Like, I'm like, I'm going home.
40:43Like, I should be going home
40:44for sure.
40:46We, the jury,
40:47being duly impaneled
40:48and sworn,
40:49do find the defendant,
40:50Deshawn Stafford,
40:51guilty of the offense
40:52of assault.
40:57I was still relieved
40:58that it wasn't, like,
40:59as many years
41:00as was supposed
41:02to come at first,
41:03but I was still, like,
41:04kind of down
41:05and depressed
41:05at the same time
41:06because I wish
41:07I was, like,
41:08going home
41:09to see my son.
41:10It feels like everybody
41:30going to look at you
41:31like an animal now
41:32because you got a felony.
41:34I feel like my life
41:35is probably going to be
41:36flipped upside down
41:37because I'm going to be
41:38in prison.
41:48It's hard on me
41:50and Sean
41:50because, you know,
41:52you're trying to put
41:52puzzle pieces back
41:54that were never supposed
41:55to be broken.
41:56It's just going back
41:58to our old life
41:59that's going to be challenging.
42:01I wish I could have
42:12took everything back.
42:14I wish I could have
42:15took the punch back.
42:18I still wish he was alive
42:19because we all
42:21were still young
42:22and everybody
42:24wanted to grow old
42:24one day
42:25and everybody
42:26wanted to be able
42:27to experience life
42:28and he didn't
42:29get to experience that.
42:30I wish I could have
42:31been able to experience it
42:32and I wish I could have
42:33been able to experience it.
42:34I wish I could have
42:35been able to experience it.
42:36I wish I could have
42:37been able to experience it.
42:38I wish I could have
42:39been able to experience it.
42:40I wish I could have
42:41been able to experience it.
42:42I wish I could have
42:43been able to experience it.
42:44I wish I could have
42:45been able to experience it.
42:46I wish I could have
42:47been able to experience it.
42:48I wish I could have
42:49been able to experience it.
42:50I wish I could have
42:51been able to experience it.
42:52I wish I could have
42:53been able to experience it.