Jury seated in north Florida retrial of loud music shooting

By Susan Cooper Eastman JACKSONVILLE Fla. (Reuters) - A jury was seated on Wednesday in the north Florida retrial of a middle-aged white man charged with killing an unarmed black teenager during a dispute over loud rap music. On Thursday afternoon the jury will begin hearing the same first-degree murder charge against Michael Dunn that left another jury deadlocked in February. Dunn, 47, a software engineer, fired 10 rounds at an SUV carrying four black teens listening to music in a Jacksonville gas station parking lot in November 2012, killing 17-year-old Jordan Davis. The trial drew comparisons to the case of George Zimmerman, who was acquitted of murder in Florida last year in the shooting of Trayvon Martin, another unarmed, black 17-year-old. In February, a jury convicted Dunn on three lesser counts of attempted murder for firing at the three teens who survived in the vehicle, which was parked next to Dunn’s. His sentencing on those charges was postponed until after his retrial on the outstanding charge. The defense sought a change of venue for the retrial due to publicity surrounding the case. Circuit Judge Russell Healey ruled this month he would attempt to seat an impartial jury before ruling on the defense request. Dunn claimed at his original trial that he acted in self-defense and started shooting in a state of panic after he thought he saw the barrel of a gun in the back window as Davis started to get out of the car. Prosecutors said Davis used foul language when confronting Dunn but that no guns were found in Davis' vehicle and that he died in a defensive position. In the first trial Dunn's attorney said the teens had time to discard any weapon before police arrived. Mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines in Florida for crimes committed with a gun mean that Dunn faces at least 60 years in jail. (Editing by David Adams and James Dalgleish)