A Pulaski County man accused of attempted murder of two federal agents, assault with a deadly weapon and two firearms counts was found guilty Friday of use of a deadly weapon to assault a federal law enforcement officer and one count of using, brandishing and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence.
Jackie Davidson, 51, of Woodson, was acquitted of one count each of attempted murder of a law enforcement officer as well as a second count of using, brandishing and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence in connection with the attempted murder count.
The verdicts were reached after seven hours of deliberations over two days following two days of trial testimony in which prosecutors said Davidson had deliberately tried to kill two federal agents conducting surveillance in connection with a drug trafficking investigation. Defense attorneys argued that Davidson believed his life was in danger from two armed men he had confronted two days earlier on the narrow, one-lane road that dead ends at his home.
Davidson faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison on the assault count and 10 years on the firearm count with the sentences to run consecutively according to federal statute.
According to Davidson's testimony on Thursday, on Nov. 16, 2021, he was sitting in a chair hunting alongside a stretch of woods near his home on a one-lane private road just off Woodson Lateral Road in far south Pulaski County when a dark colored SUV with tinted windows drove past him toward his home and the home of a cousin, Leon Davidson. He said he got up and followed the SUV on foot a short distance when it turned around and began driving back toward him, forcing him to jump out of the way and take cover behind a tree.
Davidson testified that as the SUV passed him, he stepped back into the road and fired one shot from a shotgun, which then jammed. After pulling a .38-caliber revolver from the pocket of his coveralls, he said, he fired "three or four" warning shots in the air as the SUV fled from the area.
Two days earlier, Davidson said, he had had a near-violent confrontation on his property with two men in a similar dark-colored SUV with tinted windows. He said the men left after he brandished a pistol. Davidson testified that he was trying to discourage drug trafficking activity on the property.
On Nov. 16, 2021, the occupants of the SUV that drove onto Davidson's property were ATF Agent James O'Connor and DEA Task Force officer Johnny Sowell. Both men testified that they were on the property that day checking license plate numbers on vehicles to confirm the presence of a truck belonging to a drug suspect believed to be living on property owned by Leon Davidson.
Both agents testified on Wednesday that they saw a man holding a long gun step out of the woods into the center of the road and that Sowell, the driver of the SUV, slowed "to a crawl" and moved to the right to go around the man who shouted at them to stop. Sowell testified that he feared if he stopped, the two agents would be identified as law enforcement which would have compromised the investigation. Sowell said his vest emblazoned with DEA in large lettering was on the back seat of the SUV and would have been clearly visible had he rolled down his window.
Both agents recalled watching the man through their rear-view mirrors and seeing him manipulate the shotgun. Sowell testified that he saw the man take aim and a moment after telling O'Connor he didn't believe the man would shoot he heard a gun shot and the sound of projectiles hitting the rear of the SUV.
Assistant U.S. attorneys Stephanie Mazzanti and John Ray White argued that Davidson had intentionally targeted the two agents and had fired with the intention of killing the men.
Davidson's attorneys, Molly Sullivan and Cheryl Barnard with the Federal Public Defenders Office in Little Rock, argued that Davidson had no way of knowing who was in the SUV and that his only thought was that the men he confronted two days earlier had come back.
Just before 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, after final instructions, U.S. District Judge Lee Rudofsky turned the case over to the jury of eight men and four women to begin deliberations.
At 8 p.m., the jury sent the judge a note saying it had reached a decision on two counts but had deadlocked on the other two counts and asked if it could submit its verdicts "as is" or if it would have to continue to deliberate on the remaining two counts.
After discussing the matter with attorneys for both sides, Rudofsky elected to have the jury deliberate for another hour and, if no verdict was reached by 9 p.m., to send them home for the night.
"I think it's a little early for an Allen charge," he said.
According to the Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute, an Allen charge refers to jury instructions given to a hung jury urging them to agree on a verdict. It is named for a Supreme Court ruling in Allen v. United States (1896) allowing for such instructions in federal court. There is some controversy surrounding Allen charges -- also referred to as "dynamiting the jury" -- as being coercive and many state courts forbid such instructions.
At 9 p.m., after the jury had been in deliberations for just over 4½ hours, Rudofsky sent them home with instructions to resume at noon Friday.
At 12:45 p.m. on Friday, 45 minutes into deliberations, Rudofsky summoned the attorneys and the defendant back into the courtroom.
"We have a note," he began without preamble. "It says, 'We continue to be at an impasse with no change in position on two counts' ... I think at this point an Allen charge is appropriate."
Sullivan asked Rudofsky to include language saying a hung jury would be an acceptable outcome provided the impasse could not be broken, which the judge rejected.
"I know that having a hung jury is an acceptable outcome," he told Sullivan. "I'm not going to include that. The way I understand the comments in the model instruction is in this circuit, while I can do that in this circuit, the defendant doesn't have a right to it and I'm not going to do it."
With that, Rudofsky called the jurors back into the courtroom and read the Allen charge.
"As stated in my previous instructions it is your duty to consult with one another and to deliberate with a view to reaching agreement if you can do so without violence to your individual judgement," he began. "You must not surrender your honest convictions as to the weight or effect of the evidence solely because of the opinions of other jurors or for the mere purpose of returning a verdict."
Upon conclusion of the instructions, Rudofsky sent the jurors back to resume deliberations. Ninety minutes later, at 2:30 p.m., the judge was informed that the jury had reached verdicts on all four counts and he summoned the attorneys to return to the courtroom. During the time it took for the attorneys to reassemble in the courtroom, a mix of attorneys from the U.S. attorney's office -- including U.S. Attorney Jonathan Ross -- and the Federal Public Defenders Office, as well as federal agents from the U.S. Marshals Service and other agencies began entering the courtroom until the gallery was nearly full.
As the jury filed in, an expectant hush fell over the courtroom broken only by an occasional cough or a squeaking bench.
"On the charge of forcibly assaulting, opposing, impeding, intimidating or interfering with a federal officer," Rudofsky read, "we the jury unanimously find the defendant, Jackie Davidson, guilty ... On the charge of carrying or using a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence ... we the jury unanimously find the defendant ... guilty."
Just before the first two verdicts were announced, Davidson dropped his head onto his chest and, as Rudofsky read the verdicts, he covered his face with one hand, shaking his head back and forth every few seconds.
As Rudofsky read the acquittal of the attempted murder count and accompanying use of a firearm count, Davidson remained with his head in his hand until he stood up as the jury was released.
After completion of a pre-sentencing report by the U.S. Probation Office in Little Rock, a process that typically takes between 60 and 90 days, a sentencing hearing will be set for Davidson.