Not difficult to understand the sentiments- though personal vengeance with firearms generally doesn't end well.
After hours of meetings with family members and questioning, Jamar Pinkney Sr. testified today on his own behalf that he lost control and started beating his 15-year-old son after he said he heard the teen admit to having sex with a 3-year-old half-sister.
"I was horrified about the information he gave me about raping my daughter," Pinkney Sr. testified.
When asked by Assistant Prosecutor Christine Kowal whether he understood he has been the only witness in the three-day trial in Wayne County Circuit Court to say he heard his son, Jamal Pinkney Jr., admit to sex instead of only rubbing against the girl, Pinkney Sr. said: "I can't speak for anybody else, why they didn't tell the truth. That's what I did. Tell the truth."
Pinkney Sr., 37, is accused of first-degree premeditated murder in the Nov. 16 beating and stripping of his son, who was then marched at gunpoint to a nearby vacant lot in Highland Park and shot in the head.
Jamal Pinkney Jr. and the toddler had different mothers but shared Pinkney Sr. as a father.
In November, Jamar Jr.'s aunt, Yolanda Cherry, said the boy's mother took the girl to a doctor to be examined, and that there were no indications of sexual abuse.
Today, wearing a dark suit, blue shirt and tie, Pinkney Sr., a Detroit postal worker, answered questions on the stand with measure and without emotions.
"I admit to shooting my son, yes," he said.
Pinkney Sr. also testified today that he didn't believe it when told his teen son had inappropriate sexual contact with the 3-year-old.
"I couldn't believe my son could do something like that to his sister," Pinkney Sr. said.
According to testimony, the toddler had "acted out" while watching television with her aunt. When told to stop, Pinkney Sr. said he was told the toddler explained: "Jamar (Jr.) did this to me."
The autopsy on Jamal Pinkney Jr. determined he was killed by a single bullet, fired at his face from point-blank range. The bullet entered below the youth's left eye and lodged between his brain and skull at the back of his head.
<snip>
He takes responsibility for it. He feels tremendous remorse, but it's as if he became someone else," O'Meara said. "It doesn't make sense to him. He has no clue as to why he did that."
Lazette Cherry, Jamar Pinkney Jr.'s mother, told the court about how the teen said, "No, Daddy. Please, Daddy." But she said Pinkney Sr. berated and cursed his son.
She said she then watched him shoot and kill the boy.
<snip>
Pinkney faces up to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
More:
http://detnews.com/article/20100331/METRO01/3310385/Father-on-the-stand---I-admit-to-shooting-my-son-