While DeMario Ware’s attorney told jurors in Monday’s closing argument that the defendant never meant to kill Atlanta boxer Vernon Forrest, the prosecution’s state placed the blame back on Ware.
“You did it,” Fulton County assistant district attorney Peter Johnson said to Ware. “You are responsible ... for the murder of Vernon Forrest.”
Ware’s attorney, Michael Mann, painted a picture of the defendant as willing bandit who never envisioned his armed robbery on the night of July 25 ending with someone’s death.
When Forrest chased Ware that night after the robbery, Ware ducked into a nearby apartment building for cover, watching his victim-turned-attacker run past.
“If it was his intention [to kill Vernon], why didn’t he step out of the doorway and shoot Vernon?” Mann said, referring to video footage from an apartment building security camera showing Forrest run past a hidden Ware.
“There has to be some connection between the murder and the armed robbery. There’s no plausible connection. They didn’t go there with any murderous plan.”
But Johnson insisted that Mann’s depiction of Ware as a terrified youth was misplaced following the boldness of the robbery.
“Mr. Mann told you DeMario Ware was a scared little boy,” Johnson said to the jury. “When he points a .9 mm at someone and demands what they have, and is running down the street shooting at the person chasing him, that’s not a child. Those are the actions of a grown man.”
A Fulton County Superior Court jury listened to the lawyers’ verbal sparring Monday afternoon in the closing act of the six-day trial charging Ware with, among other things, murder, felony murder and armed robbery in connection with the shooting death of the Atlanta boxing star.
On July 25, 2009 night, Ware held up the boxer at a Whitehall Street convenience store, taking Forrest’s championship ring and Rolex watch.
Forrest went for his own handgun and chased Ware, firing only once – there was only one bullet loaded in the prize fighter’s weapon – and losing the armed bandit in a nearby apartment building.
But while returning to his car, Forrest encountered Charman Sinkfield, where police say the two argued and boxer turned to walk away. Sinkfield shot Forrest several times in the back, killing him.
The Augusta-native Forrest won two 2002 decisions over Shane Mosley, the previously unbeaten 147-pound champ. Forrest was 41-3 with 29 KOs in his career.
Sinkfield, spirited the robbery take away from Ware along with a third defendant, alleged getaway driver Jquante Crews, was charged with murder and aggravated assault, among other things.
Crews and Sinkfield are both awaiting trials.
Johnson rebuked the defense claim that Ware was an unwitting accessory, at best, to the cold-blooded murder that Sinkfield is accused of committing.
“Vernon Forrest was killed so that DeMario Ware could get away,” Johnson told the jury. “Vernon Forrest was killed so that DeMario Ware could take his watch and ring.”
But Mann continued to put distance between Sinkfield and Ware, citing the requirement to find Ware guilty of felony murder called for the prosecution to prove that Forrest was killed during the commission of Ware’s robbery.
Johnson was not swayed, however, pointing to the meeting Crews and Sinkfield had at Ware’s home, shortly after the robbery.
“That’s when the felony was coming to an end, when they’re talking about what to do with the watch and ring and the murder weapon,” Johnson said.
He also challenged Mann’s assessment that Ware was but one among a group of “knuckleheads” who could not have planned this caper to end as it did, or that Ware was honestly trying to help police when he surrendered to authorities.
Instead, the prosecutor painted Ware as calculating, first changing the name on his cell phone account then canceling it outright, laying low, and cleaning and stashing the alleged getaway vehicle at his grandmother’s home in East Point, miles from his own home.
“If DeMario Ware hadn’t been seen in the video on the TV news, he wouldn’t have turned himself in,” Johnson said.
As he spoke to the jury, Johnson pointed out that Forrest ballistic evidence showed Forrest had been shot seven times in the back, and showed a projection of the crime scene, and Forrest’s body lying in a pool of blood.
The graphic image caused one of Forrest’s family members to lunge from her bench seat and quickly exit the courtroom.
The defense attorney reminded the jury of testimony last week from Atlanta Police Department’s lead homicide investigator, Det. Brett Zimbrick.
“I asked Det. Zimbrick, is there anything that indicates that Demario Ware knew what Charman was going to do?” Mann told the jury. “He said, no.”
Johnson closed with a charge to the jurors to do what they felt was the right thing.
“The state’s not asking you to judge DeMario Ware,” he said. “The state’s asking you to determine Ware’s actions on the night of July 25.
“DeMario Ware had a choice about what to do that night. Vernon Forrest will never have a choice because he is dead.”
With the end of the closing statements, Superior Court Judge Alford J. Dempsey Jr., took the time to give the jury their charges, then released them for the day to return on Tuesday morning for deliberations.
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