A juror in the trial of Theodore Wafer, the man who shot and killed Renisha McBride, said that "no one believed" that Wafer had shot the teenager in self-defense despite what his lawyers claimed. Wafer killed McBride after she arrived on his porch following a car accident. Wafer fired his shotgun through a locked screen door with McBride standing less than 3 feet away. “I was not going to cower,” Wafer told jurors during the trial. “I didn’t want to be a victim in my own house.”
According to the Detroit Free Press, the juror, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that Wafer's previous claim to police that he accidentally shot McBride "hurt him big time."
From Deadline Detroit:
During the trial, Wafer testified that he heard banging, was scared, opened the door and fired his shotgun out of fear of harm.
But the Freep writes that when police arrive, Wafer said he didn’t know the gun was loaded.
“I didn’t know there was a round in there,” he told police.
The juror told the Freep that the jury didn't think Wafer was a "bad buy," but "what he did was wrong."
The Freep writes that the juror said some jurors had their minds made up when deliberations started; others needed time, and some cried during the process, the juror said. They decided early on that he was guilty, but hadn't initially determined if he was guilty of second-degree murder or involuntary manslaughter.
Earlier this month, a jury convicted Wafer of second-degree murder and manslaughter. He will be sentenced on Sept. 3, and faces a possible lifetime in prison.
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