Jury Lets Jackson Off Hook Ex-WSU Student Found Guilty Only Of One Count Of Misdemeanor Riot
A jury found former WSU student Jamie Jackson not guilty Friday of assault in a drunken student riot that injured 23 law enforcement officers last May.
Superior Court Judge Wallis Friel declared a mistrial on one count of third-degree assault because the jury was deadlocked 9-3. On the remaining three assault charges, the jury found him not guilty.
The 23-year-old Jackson was convicted of one count of misdemeanor riot.
“I’m so happy,” Jackson said late Friday, his eyes filling with tears. When asked what advice he had for WSU students involved in last year’s drunken riot, he said: “Go home and go to bed. Grab a friend and be with them the rest of the night.”
Jackson said he plans to attend law school in January.
The nine women and three men deliberated eight hours before returning their verdict at 11:30 p.m. Jackson, his parents and friends paced the halls of the Whitman County Courthouse most of the evening waiting for a ruling.
Earlier in the day, the jury heard the remainder of Jackson’s defense, in which attorney Michael Pettit relied heavily on student testimony.
An end-of-the-year bash turned violent last May after police tried to disperse a large crowd partying around an out-of-control bonfire on the WSU campus. Twenty-three officers were injured in the ensuing melee.
Jackson’s attorneys argued this week that while he was drunk and “not an angel” at the riot, he didn’t assault any officers.
Two officers testified otherwise, identifying Jackson in court.
Pettit centered Jackson’s defense around several issues to convince jurors that he wasn’t the man who threw rocks that injured several officers.
As a last resort, he told jurors if they believed Jackson did assault officers, to consider he was too drunk to really know what he was doing.
On the stand Thursday, Jackson told jurors about a night of heavy boozing that would have hospitalized many people.
Friends testified that Jackson had a “hollow leg” when it came to alcohol, but they thought it was crazy when the popular senior bought all 57 bottles of one brand of wine at the grocery store after polishing off a quart of rum and half a bottle of cinnamon schnapps.
“He was hopelessly drunk; this man couldn’t have intended to tie his own shoes, much less assault anyone,” Pettit said in closing arguments Friday.
Pettit also argued that the Dumpster that Jackson helped push downhill wasn’t intended to hurt anyone because it stopped 30 feet short of the police line.
“That Dumpster was no deadly weapon. It wasn’t a weapon at all, it was an insult. It was an expression that showed disrespect toward the police,” he said.
Excluding Jackson, Pettit called a total of eight students to the witness stand. Several of them were underaged Alpha Gamma Rho residents who pleaded the Fifth Amendment on questions of their own drinking to protect themselves from self-incrimination.
Many of them testified that they watched from the roofs of their Greek houses as Jackson was helped off the street after being pepper-sprayed. He was led in the opposite direction of the area where a trooper said Jackson threw a rock at him.
Former Alpha Gamma Rho resident Skip Colvin said he helped Jackson off the ground and across the street to a fence where Jackson laid his head down, complaining he couldn’t see.
The defense offered a videotape backing up that testimony.
Pettit also argued that embattled, frightened police officers could have made mistakes identifying students during the chaos while wearing gas masks and helmets.
Pettit also centered on discrepancies about what Jackson was wearing that night. Two police officers said he was wearing a white shirt and black shorts. But photos, videotape and all other witnesses said he was wearing a green shirt and khaki shorts.
In the prosecutor’s closing remarks, Whitman County Prosecutor James Kaufman urged jurors to convict Jackson to set an example of personal accountability.
Changed from the Idaho edition