A highly-charged Reservoir homicide case ended in a minor conviction. Circuit Judge Steve Ratcliff sentenced Deshawn Douglas to serve ten years in prison after Douglas pleaded guilty to tampering with physical evidence. However, Douglas will probably be released after serving 25% of his sentence.
A Rankin County grand jury indicted Douglas for manslaughter and tampering with evidence in the December 28, 2020 shooting death of Chris "Big Lee" Miln.
Douglas did what many of his fellow Rankin Countians would have done when Christopher Miln violently attacked him on December 28. Shawn and his family had been victimized by Miln’s threats of violence for months. These threats were not only directed at Shawn, but at his 13-year-old baby brother. The publicly available video evidence from December 28 is clear. Shawn walked away from Miln, just like he had done several times before. For reasons known only to Miln, he finally decided to make good on his threats and he violently attacked Shawn, grabbing Shawn from behind, wrapping his arm around Shawn’s neck and wrenching downward in an effort to cut off Shawn’s ability to breath.
Shawn and his family had taken every available step to protect themselves from Miln over the months leading up to Miln’s violent attack on Shawn. In early October, Shawn filed charges against Miln for assault in Justice Court after Miln, brandishing a shovel, threatened to attack Shawn. The case was remanded, and Miln was not prosecuted but he was ordered to have no contact with Shawn. The police had also tried to deal with Miln in the past after being called by Shawn’s mother. Despite Miln’s best efforts, neither Shawn nor his family ever allowed Miln to provoke them into a physical altercation. On December 28, Miln, as he had threatened, violently attacked Shawn.
Kingfish note: It appears this was a case of legitimate self-defense.
37 comments:
I understand that tossing the gun was wrong and the charge is valid, but I also get that he probably was terrified in the aftermath.
I guess he has to pay for that but it really seems like he was just terrorized and defending himself.
Not sure time behind bars will make him a better member of society. I fear quite the opposite. Just sad all around.
Ten years for throwing away a gun after legally defending oneself is ridiculous! Appears the judge resented the fact that the charge had been dropped but for the gun and wanted to make a bold statement. The judge was set to preside over a murder or manslaughter trial and was pissed at withdrawal.
Definitely Self Defense. I'm not sure I would have had the patience Deshawn and his family had to "not" do something. He shouldn't have to serve the 25%. There are a lot of "Miln"s out there constantly looking for a fight.
This was a clear case of self-defense. It is a shame he was convicted of anything. If he was white, he never would have been charged in Rankin County, but since the shooter was black and the victim was white, Rankin County was determined to convict him of something. Damn shame.
HMMMMMMM.... I wonder what the outcome would have been had Miln been black and Deshawn been white?
Exact same facts but on the other side of the river, the headline would have had the word “blessing” worked into it and the commenters would want the defendant’s head on a stake. The double standard on how these matters get discussed is bullshit.
HMMMMMM……Now I wonder why said young scholar would throw said gun away? Let’s put on our thinking caps here. Could it be that maybe said gun was stolen? If stolen, who may have stolen it or what else might have been stolen? Or I’d said gun had been used in another crime? Why would our young scholar refuse to tell where said gun might be? Things that make you go hmmmmm….
I am the second poster, above. I am white. I did not know the race of either person and did not watch a video. My opinion is as stated above. There is no reason for this man to have been convicted of tampering with evidence. On the chance that he did deserve to be convicted of that, a sentence of six months max would be appropriate, and then expunged. I hope he appeals and the verdict and sentence are tossed in the river where they both belong. This decision by the arrogant jurist is a shit-burger awaiting bitter mustard.
"Police were unable to find the murder weapon"
Sounds like the police were being lazy. Search the area with medal detectors.
10:26..why?
I can tell you for FACT that Miln had a long history of being a very troubled person constantly seeking a conflict of violence at least as far back as 1994 when my employer hired him to work with me. He was run off by lunch on his first day. Claimed if he ever caught me he would whip my ass. The dude was a real piece of shit. I figured his day would come, and it finally did. I hate that someone wound up in jail over his demise. I've got other friends in my profession that dealt with him as well back in those days, he never caught them and whipped their ass either.
Rankin County: If you are black, don't even try to defend yourself at all against a white man.
Rankin is LOST!
Instead of looking at the judge, the commenters above should probably be looking at the prosecutor who brought the charge and made the plea deal.
Like some of the above, Douglas assumed that the criminal justice system is racist, and committed an actual crime to cover up a non-crime. He, and the foregoing commenters, are their own worst enemies.
Going forward, I suggest they just accept a traffic ticket, instead of assuming the police are looking for an excuse to kill them. (Lumumba, Rukia, Shabazz, etc. are liars pushing their own agendas for their own gain).
I don't think anyone was blessed in this judgment?
Dude is going to jail for self defense...which is wrong in any county.
I must not be understanding 10:37's point.
Yea 12:06 don’t be afraid of stuff you see happening in the justice system or policing . What rock are you living under. It happens to all races, everybody is packing their own.
@11:39 AM is the ultimate conspiracy theorist. No facts, just what ifs.
12:04 pm, It is just the opposite across the river. I remember a few years ago a white man was charged with murder when a black man attacked him and the black man was killed.
Grand juries are often led by attorneys on whether to indict or not.
You're talking about Wayne Parish case. RSS dropped the case after video surfaced (first published on this website) showing the attack on Parish.
Is 12:35 the same person as 10:37?
Did this guy have a stroke?
These gibberish comments make no sense?
I cant even tell what they are arguing for or against, based on the nonsense they typed?
This case points out something interesting about the criminal justice system. This kid will now have a felony and go to Mississippi Department of Corrections. I heard someone say on supertalk just today that the fact that black men are likely to be in MDOC custody is not an indication of racism. Cases like this are a reminder that racism does (in some case, but not all) lead to blacks, especially young black men finding themselves with a felony record and prison system. If the races were different, a young white kid would likely not be headed to prison. And it important to remember that racism is not always someone wearing a sheet or burning a cross. If the DA office says I am going to send the kid to prison, who happens to be black, when a white kid would not have served jail time or got a felony, that is racism. If a black kid takes a plea because his honestly believes since I killed a white man I may not get a fair jury pool in this county when a white kid would not have had that concern, that is racism.
It is a shame that so many in a leadership role or journalistic capacity have abused the term racism.
Because as a conservative, this might be the most clear example of actual racism I've seen.
Yet the Lamumbas, Smolletts, Carlos the Clown(s) and Don Lemon types of the world who have absolutely nullified that word, cannot see that they have hurt cases of real racism. All the fake victims and manufactured attacks...and this is a legit case of concern.
Douglas does not appear to deserve this lengthy sentence. BLM and some of the other SJW thieves should be helping real people like this.
To me, it boils down to this: If a judge sentenced this man to that amount of time for defending himself, freaking out and throwing away the gun, that judge is not fit to serve hash at the soup kitchen. I hope to see him working the intersection of Lakeland and 55 at St.D. In his robe. Barefoot.
"If a black kid takes a plea because his honestly believes since I killed a white man I may not get a fair jury pool in this county when a white kid would not have had that concern, that is racism."
If that honest belief is not based on actual facts, it is not racism. It's one person's unreasonable fear. If you want to see real racism in the criminal justice system, look no further than Hinds County, though I'm sure they think they're just balancing the scale.
Could it be a bad judgement/charge and not racism?
The gun/evidence charge should be dismissed in the "interest of justice," or he should have gone to trial vs. taking a plea bargain.
Why did he throw the gun away, and why did he NOT tell the sheriff where he disposed of the gun?
And CJ for the rip.....
@2:15 says: “If the DA office says I am going to send the kid to prison, who happens to be black, when a white kid would not have served jail time or got a felony, that is racism.”
No, 2:15. If the DA office says “I am going to send the kid to prison be cause he is black, when a white kid would not have served jail time or got a felony, that is racism,” THAT is racism.
The word “racism” and “racist” have been so ill-used and misused that people don’t even know what it is anymore.
I am surprised it took CJ this long KF.
He really needs to work on that.
I've figured out what CCJ is and what COJ is, now I get to work on CJ.
How could the gun not be found if thrown from site of shooting with witnesses there? Might the shooter have thrown the pistol because it was stolen? Could a family member have found it and hidden it before the cops arrived?
this case is an example of a huge farce .
anyone talking about the right of self defense , castle docterine, right to bear arms will be cheered and celebrated.
but look at what really happens...............the black guy kills a meth head thug in a case of clear self defense and he gets jailed, placed under a $75000 bond and later indicted for murder.
SOME ONE PLEASE EXPAIN THAT FOR ME.
18 years old and a confrontation witnessed by other males. Assumed they were breaking it up? Maybe not. Was the young man in immediate threat of serious harm by white troubled and angry neighbor. Clear he did not start it and no legal requirement to run away. Rarely learn to the full story. The missing handgun does look bad as a implied guilt, he was gangster carrying. was Justice served, lack information.
OK. 9:53. Douglas wasn't sentenced for the shooting/death. He was sentenced for destroying evidence because he threw the gun away where it couldn't be found, thus preventing a full investigation of the shooting.
to 11;02................9;53 never said he got sentenced, nor mentioned the ''destroying evidence' charge.
maybe you should read the post before shooting off you keyboard
9:09: On further review, I see that when 9:53 said "jailed," he was talking about the initial arrest, rather than the sentence. That's my mistake.
I will point out that Douglas was charged with murder, but he was actually indicted for manslaughter.
-11:02
Post a Comment