AARON DAVIS: Jury finds Davis NOT GUILTY! (article)
John Erland
* From : nes...@community.net (03 Nov 95 10:34)
* Subj : AARON DAVIS: Jury finds Davis NOT GUILTY! (article)
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Vacaville Reporter, Vacaville, CA 11-3-95
Jury finds Davis not guilty
By Robin Miller
Staff Writer
A tearful Solano County jury delivered a not-guilty verdict in
the murder trial of Aaron Davis on Thursday Afternoon, and reaction was
swift and passionate.
News of the acquittal had barely left the lips of the courtroom
clerk when shooting victim Michael "Sonny" Schairer's family and friends
screamed out in stunned anger and disbelief.
"Lets see how many other people die!" shouted Schairer's mother,
Patricia. "My son is dead!"
"Murderer!" shouted Schairer's sister.
Davis, a 24-year-old Vacaville man, was cleared of all charges
stemming from the July 19th shooting. After more than three months in
jail and seven days of trial, he was set free and whisked away to an
unknown location.
His north Vacaville neighborhood had focused on the outcome of
the verdict as tensions over the controversial case continued. Police
sent officers to guard Davis' home following the verdict out of fear of
reprisals - not only for Schairer's killing but also for an earlier
killing Davis committed in May.
In that incident, Vacaville teen Jesse Brown was stabbed to death
at North Orchard Park. Investigators ruled Davis had acted in
self-defense after Brown and a friend attacked him and his girlfriend.
Brown's family and friends were in court Thursday - as were
several extra bailiffs.
Judge Mile Nail had admonished the packed courtroom of viewers
that he would "not tolerate outbursts of emotion or disruptions." So the
profanity-laced outcry at the verdict prompted sheriff's deputies to
remove the large group of Schairer's supporters from the courtroom.
"I'll ... kill you," one vowed.
As he had done throughout the trial, Davis sat quietly and didn't
look back at the family.
Sitting behind him in the audience was Schairer's father, quite
and stone-faced.
Davis than Nail in a soft voice after being told he would be free
within hours. A Sheriff's Department spokesman said Davis had left the
jail with a private security guard paid for by his family, which were not
present at the reading of the verdict.
The outburst that greeted the verdict was obvio0usly more than
many in the seven-woman, five-man jury could stand. It had take the
group just six hours to reach its decision, and several began to sob
before leaving the courthouse without comment to attorneys or the press.
"Some cases...do not affect you and others, like this, are very
emotional," Nail told the jury before dismissing them. "I was a
prosecutor for 25 years and have been a judge for three, and I feel the
same emotions you're feeling today."
He told the jury he felt their verdict was "reasonable under the
circumstances."
Prosecutor Greg Spiritosanto declined to comment, saying it was
"too early" and he needed time to contemplate the jury's decision.
Defense attorney William Beeman, who had argued from the outset
that Davis acted in self-defense, praised the verdict and urged the
community to now "stop the cycle of violence" that began in May with
Brown's death in North Orchard Park and was followed by the July shooting
of Schairer.
Evidence during Davis's trial showed that Schairer, a friend of
Brown's had followed Davis and his girlfriend through town to Davis'
Hawthorne Court home on the night of the shooting.
Davis, who had received death threats as a result of the park
stabbing, testified that he was in fear of his life when Schairer
approached him shouting, "Are you Aaron Davis?" Thinking the man had a
gun, Davis said he shot and killed Schairer.
"Revenge is like a snake, it will turn around and bite you," he
said. "There is an old Chinese proverb that says when a man goes seeking
revenge he should dig two graves."
He called Schairer's death a "real tragedy that shouldn't have
happened" and blamed it, in part, on police officers who handled the
Brown killing.
"If the public had been informed of the true facts in the killing
of Jesse Brown, and the attack on Aaron and Julie (DeBaun) in the park,
then the parents and relatives of the deceased... would have seen it
differently," Beeman said. He added that he encourages everyone now to
"cease the cycle of anger and revenge" and added that Schairer and Brown
would tell them the same.
"He's got a license to kill now," Said Michael Schairer Sr.
"There will be more bodies in the Vacaville-Elmira Cemetary,"
said Patricia Schairer, referring to the fact that Schairer and Brown are
buried beside each other at the graveyard. "Mark my words, Aaron Davis
will kill again."
[end]
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