John Dodson, Jr., 55, had been on trial this week fighting the murder charge and additional counts of armed robbery, aggravated battery and aggravated assault stemming from the August 31, 2007 beating of Willie Wright, Sr., who died a month and a half later.
Just after 6:30 p.m. Friday night, the jury found Dodson guilty on all but the armed robbery charge. Superior Court Judge Stephen Goss sentenced him to life in prison.
Throughout the trial Dodson’s attorney, Jerry Brimberry, emphasized the prosecution’s lack of any physical evidence linking Dodson to Wright’s beating, including the fact that police never officially found the murder weapon, although they did locate a stick at Dodson’s house that tested negative for blood or fingerprints.
The prosecution built its case around an eyewitness, Shaneka Wheeler, who told police that she saw Dodson beat Wright on the day of the incident.
After taking the stand for nearly two hours worth of testimony Friday morning, Dodson listened as both Brimberry and Assistant District Attorney Matthew Breedon pitched their respective cases one last time to jurors.
Brimberry worked to dismantle the prosecution’s case by pointing to shoddy police work and inaccuracies in Wheeler’s testimony that he said should cast a reasonable doubt in jurors’ minds about the guilt of his client.
Arguing that police investigators fixed their sights on Dodson after Wheeler identified him as a possible suspect rather than casting a wider net and interviewing other neighbors who he said may have seen the real killer, Brimberry urged the jury to let his client go free.
“I don’t want this jury to punish this man for the police not doing their job,” he said, pointing to both the jury and the defendant.
Countering, Breedon himself called the police work on the case “disgraceful,” but asked jury to look at the bigger picture and listen to Wheeler’s testimony.
“I said from the beginning how bad a job they (the APD) did, but as bad as it was in this case, it didn’t really matter...what matters is your determination of what happened.”
“Yes, the APD did a bad job; they were disgraceful, but is that reasonable doubt?” Breedon said.
Breedon asked the jurors to determine why their key witness, Wheeler, would bother lying on the stand to condemn Dodson if she hadn’t witnessed the event as she testified she had, before playing a taped recording of her 911 call to police the day of the incident.
Referring to Wright’s family, many of whom were in the courtroom during much of the trial and closing arguments, Breedon asked the jurors to bring closure and justice to them and Wright by issuing a guilty verdict.
APD Chief James Younger, who himself has a law degree, said Breedon’s comments about the work of his investigative team were likely part of the prosecution’s strategy to get jurors to focus the testimony of their key witness, although he did say that he will review forensics and investigative unit to ensure their effectiveness meets his standards.
“Programs such as CSI provide and unrealistic expectation to jurors in regards to physical evidence,” he said. “I commend our forensics team which includes a state-certified crime scene technician as well as an honors forensics graduate from ASU.”
Younger said he was very pleased with the verdict and felt that it was an appropriate decision.
