Michael Dunn (Jordan Davis Murder) | Mental Health & Personality

hello this is dr grande today's question asks if i can analyze the mental health and personality factors that may be at work in the michael dunn case michael dunn was convicted of murdering jordan davis and convicted of attempted murder of three of jordan's friends there was a documentary made about this crime named three and a half minutes ten bullets just reminder i'm not diagnosing anybody in this video only speculating about what could be happening in a situation like this if you enjoyed this video please like it subscribe to my channel and consider supporting me on patreon i'll put the link to patreon in the description for this video i'm going to combine the background and the timeline because we don't really have much of a background on michael dunn then i'll move to the trial then i'll talk about the mental health and personality factors so michael dunn was 45 years old at the time of the shooting he was six foot four and 280 pounds he had been divorced twice he had one dui arrest and he had one arrest for flying into restricted airspace at the kennedy space center so fairly unusual rest not really an extensive criminal history he was a software engineer he worked for his parents in a strip mall in vero beach florida just three weeks before the shooting he sold his plane his parents would pay for his legal fees now we move to november 23 2012 the day after thanksgiving also referred to as black friday we are in jacksonville florida four black teenage boys pulled into a gate petroleum gas station around 7 30 pm one of them was a 17 year old by the name of jordan davis one of the teenagers went into the gas station to buy cigarettes while the others stayed in the vehicle it was a red dodge durango the music was playing in an extremely high volume jordan davis was sitting in the rear passenger side seat michael dunn was driving his black volkswagen jetta with his fiancee rhonda raur in the passenger seat they had just come from a son's wedding where they had both consumed alcohol michael had three or four moderately sized rum and cokes they left early to get back to their hotel because they had a new puppy there and they didn't want the puppy to be alone that long michael pulled into the parking space on the passenger side of the dodge durango as he was pulling into the spot he made a pejorative comment about the loud music rhonda testified that he said i hate that thug music during the trial he said he used another pejorative term but either way he made some type of statement about the music as ronda went to the gas station to buy alcohol michael rolled down the window and asked the teenager in the passenger seat named thompson to turn the music down which thompson did he actually turned it off altogether but then jordan davis took his seatbelt off and reached into the front of the vehicle where the radio was and turned the volume back up later we see testimony suggesting that thompson actually turned the music back up at jordan's request so there are different stories there but either way the music volume was once again at a high level some type of verbal argument ensued between jordan davis and michael dunn that may have involved a substantial quantity of expletives michael dunn claimed that jordan said several threatening statements that increased in severity as jordan attempted to open the rear passenger door of the dodge durango at some point michael said you aren't going to talk to me like that this was heard by another man at the gas station now michael framed this a little differently he claimed that he said are you talking about me when he heard threatening language he said he was trying to confirm that he was the target of the threats apparently michael had just finished reading a book titled travis bickle inspired de-escalation strategies where he learned a number of other ill-advised statements to make in pressure situations like i got some bad ideas in my head and hey i'm not square you're the one that's square michael would later claim that jordan was in the possession of what appeared to be a shotgun or some type of item that looked like the barrel of a gun or maybe like a stick so he had a lot of difficulty recognizing what he allegedly saw michael was in the possession of a taurus pt99 af nine millimeter semi-automatic pistol it's almost identical to the beretta 92 which taurus was allowed to do because the patent had expired on that beretta model the beretta 92 is the pistol that bruce willis used in the movie die hard both pistols the beretta and the taurus have appeared in many different movies a common magazine size for this taurus is 15 rounds it appears as though michael had two 15 round magazines for that weapon one was in the weapon and another was in the glove box the weapon was in a holster in the glove compartment michael removed the weapon from the holster and rack the slide which means that he did not have a round in the chamber so he had to pull the slide back then release it to strip off a round from the magazine and chamber it the reason i think this is important is because it's one more thing that he had to do in order to fire the weapon one more opportunity to contemplate his actions also this demonstrates a lack of comfort with that particular weapon the taurus pt99 can be easily stored safely with the safety on and the hammer down even with the round in the chamber so it appears as though michael really didn't understand weapons very well another important characteristic of this tourist model is it can fire both double action and single action but unless michael had the decocking safety on when he operated the action the hammer would have been back after racking the slide which means that the trigger pull would be consistent for every shot all of them would be single action so back to the narrative at this point michael fires the weapon at the vehicle striking jordan several times the driver of the durango put in reverse backed out of the space as michael continued to fire michael partially stepped out of his vehicle and continued firing at the durango as it drove away he fired ten rounds altogether the durango was driven to another area in that same plaza and then they drove back to the gas station jordan davis died as a result of being shot by michael dunn as the durango was speeding away ronda came back out and kind of hesitated michael urged her to get in the vehicle which she did he drove away from the scene and back to his hotel later he would claim that he was worried about another car that would come up and people would get out and start threatening him or shooting at him so apparently he thought this was a really dangerous gas station under that extreme threat he didn't call the police he drove back to his hotel which seems like an unusual move to make if you're really feeling that people are going to come out of nowhere and start threatening you not long after this they ordered pizza according to ronda's testimony that we hear later on michael never mentioned anything about jordan davis having a weapon or anything like a weapon not on the way to the hotel not in the hotel and not on the trip back to where they lived michael was arrested in satellite beach florida at 10 30 a.m the next day after somebody identified his vehicle from his license plate michael was charged with first-degree murder three counts of attempted first-degree murder and firing into a vehicle now moving to the trial at michael's first trial we learned that there was no video of the shooting kind of surprising considering it was a gas station they usually have cameras in many places certain facts were not in dispute at the trial michael killed jordan davis he fired at the durango as it was being driven away he left the scene he never called the police no weapon was found in the dodge durango or anywhere the vehicle was driven to after the shooting there was no dispute that there was loud music coming from the dodge durango michael asked them to turn the volume down and some type of argument took place between jordan davis and michael dunn the argument for the prosecution was straightforward michael became angry at that argument drew his weapon and fired 10 shots killing jordan davis the teenagers did not have a weapon he never saw a weapon and even though he may have been somewhat provoked by jordan saying things to him it did not even come close to the standard of perceiving oneself to be an imminent danger the argument for the defense required a little bit more imagination jordan threatened verbally to kill michael jordan threatened him physically by unlatching the door although he really couldn't open the door too much because michael's volkswagen jetta was close to the durango michael believed he saw something that a reasonable person would have believed was a weapon michael continued to fire at the vehicle even though it was driving away because he thought he could be receiving blind fire from the vehicle meaning one or more of the occupants would simply point weapons without looking and they would fire when the first trial was over michael was convicted of three counts of attempted second-degree murder and of firing into a vehicle a mistrial was declared on the most serious charge murder in the first degree michael was later retried for that murder charge and convicted he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the first degree murder and 90 years for the other four felonies now moving to the mental health and personality factors as far as i know there has been no information released regarding mental health factors in this case it wasn't brought up at the trial the defense wasn't based on anything to do with mental health some people have mentioned the idea of alcohol use like perhaps that was a problem drinking at a wedding really isn't that unusual i think a more significant indicator would be that prior arrest for dui but that could have been an isolated incident as far as the victims i'm not aware of any mental health issues there either now looking at personality let's take a look at the potential personality profile for michael dunn i like to conceptualize personality using the five factor model i remember the big five traits through the acronym ocean openness to experience conscientiousness extroversion agreeableness and neuroticism so with openness to experience his level seems low he appears to have fairly inflexible thinking as far as conscientiousness he might be in the mid-range there's not a lot of information about this he did have a couple of rest prior to the murder that may indicate that the conscientiousness is a bit lower but that's not a lot to go on extraversion could be at mid-range we do see some sensation seeking and assertiveness which could point to a higher level agreeableness i think would be on the lower side he did confront teenagers and he did shoot jordan davis with neuroticism again there's not a lot of information it may be mid-range we see some emotional reactivity but at the same time we see someone who was able to commit murder and then go to a hotel and order pizza like nothing happened so he was extremely calm given the circumstances especially given the claim that he was frightened for his life the construct of narcissism has been brought up as well his behavior could align with a sense of entitlement like he believed he had the right to kill jordan michael tried to act like he was the victim in that incident arrogance is a possibility as well based on the fact that he left the scene of the crime with the police interrogation we see that he ignored the miranda warning and talked to the police a catastrophic mistake for his defense it's like he thought he understood the law but he did not the police also missed an opportunity during the interrogation they should have taken advantage of his tendency to self-incriminate instead they talk too much as well right so they played it kind of aggressively and there was no need to in that situation they could have got a lot more information by appearing to sympathize with him even more and staying with that for a longer period of time he would have become more comfortable through the course of the interrogation and started to reveal more information so both sides actually made a mistake there another possible indicator of arrogance would be the content of some of his letters he wrote when he was incarcerated in those he indicated how he believed people like the judge and others were foolish and he knew everything something else that stands out with michael is his unrealistic level of optimism which could also be referred to as denial in those letters he wrote when he was incarcerated we see him exhibiting an incredible level of confidence about prevailing in his case even though there was really no reason to be confident based on the evidence so what really happened in this case was this actually murder there was certainly an argument between jordan davis and michael dunn the kind of argument that occurs on a regular basis for many people not one that necessitated the use of deadly force jordan did not have a weapon and michael did which as far as i'm concerned means that michael had a responsibility to de-escalate or retreat from a heated or hostile situation even if that was not required by law so not required by law but required by common sense we also know that michael killed jordan and endangered the other occupants in the vehicle and really everybody in that area that was reckless to fire ten rounds even if he believed jordan was some type of threat he left the scene when he knew he should not have that doesn't look good and he made no mention of seeing a gun to his fiancee but he did mention it to the police during the interrogation now at the trial there was this argument that the three teenagers that survived colluded after the incident we see testimony where one of them said they did get together a few days after the shooting but they did not talk about the shooting which really doesn't seem believable it seems highly likely they would have discussed the shooting and it would make sense that they would have worked out their stories even though of course that would have been a conspiracy even if the testimony of the three teenage victims was to be discarded because they may have colluded the evidence still points to michael dunn being guilty i think michael dunn's best hope for beating the charges was the story about the firearm because the teenagers did leave the scene now because they were being shot at leaving the scene was reasonable but it still muddies the waters as far as what items were in the vehicle at the time of the shooting one of them could have easily taken the weapon or anything else from the vehicle and thrown it in the trash the trash could have been picked up before the police searched the area or somebody else could have simply picked up an item and walked away the problem for michael is he didn't introduce that story immediately he didn't tell his fiancee although of course he claimed he did mention it to her when they were driving to the hotel another problem here from michael is he kept going back to this idea that the shotgun could have actually been a stick as if a shotgun and a stick are comparable weapons like if he was ready to go hunting it would not matter to him if he took a shotgun or if he took a stick they do the same thing right that was his opinion if he was going to lie anyway it would have made sense to stay with the lie that would have helped him also if his knowledge of firearms was so poor that he could not tell the difference between a shotgun and a stick he should not have been carrying a gun in the first place i think the most likely explanation for what happened in this case is that michael dunn became angry with jordan and decided to shoot him he didn't think it through and he didn't plan out his story he wasn't planning to shoot jordan when he went to that gas station so he had not thought of ways to make his defense after he was arrested michael felt as though jordan was being disrespectful to him and as far as michael was concerned that was justification enough for homicide given the circumstances i think he was guilty of second-degree murder premeditation can be established in a short period of time so i can see the argument for first-degree murder but i view this more as an angry reaction in the moment and not something that would rise to the level of premeditated either way considering his age he was going to prison for the rest of his life right he had a lot of felonies there this is such an unusual case somebody with no substantial criminal history who simply decides to shoot somebody at a gas station this was a tragedy for everyone involved so those are my thoughts on the michael dunn case please put any opinions and thoughts in the comments section they always generate an interesting dialogue as always i hope you found my analysis of this topic to be interesting thanks for watching

Channel: Dr. Todd Grande

Views: 125,602

Keywords:

Id: aP3wp3g3WUc

Length: 16min 10sec (970 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 29 2020