PANAMA CITY — Jurors have found a Callaway man guilty as charged of attempting to rob 20-year-old Ryan Brooks of marijuana before gunning him down in a Panama City Beach parking lot.
Randy Jackson, 24, was found guilty Wednesday of plotting a robbery scheme for about 2 ounces of marijuana that turned into a deadly shootout in July. Brooks, 20, was shot multiple times in a Panama City Beach apartment complex parking lot before police arrived to find him face down on the asphalt.
Jackson initially had been charged with murder, but the charges were amended as his trial approached. Jurors found Jackson guilty of manslaughter, attempted robbery with a firearm and felony possession of a firearm. He could face life in prison during his sentence hearing in February.
--- VIDEO: RYAN BROOKS' MOTHER SPEAKS AFTER THE VERDICT»»
“I think he is a murderer, not just guilty of manslaughter,” Amy McDonald, Brooks’ mother, said following the verdict. “But we have to go with what we got and thank the jury. They saw through the lies.”
Jurors deliberated for about two hours before reaching a verdict. At one point, they asked to review an interrogation video in which Jackson details the events leading up to the shooting. He and 23-year-old Josh Smith had armed themselves with designs on robbing Brooks of the marijuana. However, they didn’t anticipate that Brooks and 26-year-old Joseph Cannizzo also would be aiming to rob them of their cash at gunpoint.
Specifically, the jury wanted to see a moment where Jackson claimed his accomplice, Smith, returned to Jackson in a white Kia to get money and a scale. Then they revised plans and intended to conduct the drug deal as planned.
In the interrogation video, however, Jackson later admits he feared for his life because they showed up empty-handed.
“I saw a flash in their car, and I thought they killed Josh,” he told investigators. “I knew he didn’t have the money on him. I knew he didn’t have the money.”
Jackson’s defense was that he shot in self-defense, and the case hinged on whether Jackson and Smith brought money as a backup plan, according to defense attorney Robert Boyette. Boyette said the moment Smith returned to get the money, the robbery scheme was disengaged and Jackson became a victim of a robbery at that point.
“That’s when it turned back into a regular drug deal,” Boyette said.
However, prosecutors argued Jackson and Smith would not have arranged the robbery if they had the funds. Two of the state’s witnesses during the trial expressed differing opinions on the matter.
Alyssa Watford, 18, arranged the meeting and helped plan the robbery. She told jurors she owed Smith $200. Smith wanted the money from her, so she arranged the robbery to clear her debt.
Smith testified that he and Jackson brought about $590 as a contingency plan if they wanted to back out of the robbery Watford had arranged.
Both had agreed to testify truthfully, according to their plea agreements, or face more harsh punishments for their roles in Brooks’ death.
But investigators neither recovered money from the scene of the shooting nor discovered evidence to refute Smith’s word — other than the interrogation video.
After reviewing the video, jurors returned within 30 minutes with a guilty verdict.
McDonald said she was pleased with their finding, but closure for her son’s death is still a distant proposition.
--- VIDEO: RYAN BROOKS' MOTHER SPEAKS AFTER THE VERDICT»»
“When someone has a normal death, the family can start grieving after the funeral,” McDonald said. “I buried my son months ago, be we couldn’t start grieving until we got through the justice system.”
Many of Brooks’ family members still are suffering in the wake of the shooting, McDonald said. They will be present to express those effects during Jackson’s sentencing Feb. 19.
“If he got 20 years, that would be less years than my son lived,” McDonald said. “I want justice for my son.”