jury convicted a Swedish hip-hop artist of second-degree murder Monday
in a road-rage killing whose suddenness and cross-cultural cast earned
comparison to the movie “Crash.”
The panel in Superior Court rejected a claim by
He faces 15 years to life in prison when he is sentenced next month.
The eruption of violence between strangers in a
Osnes, 55, a jazz pianist known to friends as a
stickler for the rights of walkers, was walking through an intersection
on his way home from an evening of cabaret music when an SUV driven by
Jassy, en route from a dance club with his girlfriend, edged into the
crosswalk.
Other motorists — including Australian tourists, an off-duty
police patrolman and a mother picking her children up from a club —
told authorities Osnes shouted and struck the vehicle’s hood.
What happened next was the subject of the two-week trial before Judge
A half dozen witnesses testified Jassy got out of the vehicle and
attacked Osnes, punching him in head, kicking him in the face and
ultimately running over his mortally wounded body.
Recalling the kick — which rendered Osnes immediately unconscious and caused lethal fractures to his skull — witness
But taking the stand in his own defense, Jassy
insisted Osnes threw the first punch. He said the older man, whose
blood-alcohol level was above the legal limit for driving, seemed
“crazy” and put him in fear for his life and the safety of his
girlfriend and rented vehicle.
“I think both me and him share a responsibility for
what happens,” he allowed under cross-examination, but, he said, “it
wasn’t like I was driving around with a manual ‘What If Someone Attacks
Your Car Tonight.'”
The panel of six men and six women acquitted Jassy
of first-degree murder as well as an assault charge that stemmed from
running over Osnes and a vehicle code violation for leaving the scene
of a fatal accident. Four jurors interviewed after the verdict said
they had reasonable doubt as to whether Jassy intentionally hit Osnes.
Jassy testified that he rushed from the scene
because he believed he was under attack from another bystander and was
unaware that he drove over Osnes’ body as he fled.
“We couldn’t come to that conclusion — that he saw where the body was,” said a female juror who declined to give her name.
The jurors said that while Jassy’s decision to get
out of his car might have been reasonable, none of the panel believed
Osnes ever fought back and all saw the kick as crossing the line into
murder.
“I think his intentions changed as the incident took
place … we believed the end result was more than what was necessary,”
said a male juror who did not want to give his name.
In the run-up to the trial, Jassy repeatedly tried
to work out a deal to plead guilty to manslaughter, but prosecutors
declined the offer.
“”The attack in this case was brutal. It was unprovoked,” said Deputy District Attorney
Jassy’s lawyer,
described his client as “a little shocked” by the verdict and said he
was mulling an appeal. He also said Jassy “on every level wishes that
he could change what happened that night.”
“He’s not the kind of guy who is only sorry he got arrested … he has genuinely grieved for this man,” Rose said.
But Osnes’ friend
“He was the gentlest man you’d ever want to meet. He didn’t have a violent bone in his body,” Acosta said.
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