Duluth murder conviction upheld by appeals court

Tom Olsen, Duluth News Tribune, Minn.
·3 min read

Apr. 20—A three-judge panel on Monday affirmed a Duluth man's conviction and 30-year prison term for fatally shooting a fellow patron outside a downtown bar.

The Minnesota Court of Appeals rejected a series of arguments from Jamal Tyshawn Jackson, who was convicted of shooting 31-year-old Scott Allen Pennington as he stood amid a crowd on the 100 block of West First Street just before 1 a.m. Sept. 1, 2018.

Authorities said Jackson fired the shot at Pennington's face at close range without any apparent provocation, as seen by many witnesses on the crowded Labor Day weekend. Jackson admitted to shooting Pennington, but claimed he did so out of self-defense because he had been receiving threats and was confronted by the victim.

A jury found Jackson guilty of intentional second-degree murder in October 2019, and Judge Theresa Neo later imposed a 367-month sentence.

The appeal centered on two evidentiary issues: the denial of his attempt to introduce evidence that a gun and money were located in a car at the scene and the prosecution's successful bid to introduce evidence that Jackson had previously been involved in a violent encounter with strangers.

Testimony indicated both Jackson and Pennington, who did not know each other, were drinking at Aces on First on the night of the shooting. Both had stepped outside when surveillance video showed Jackson approaching a car and speaking with an occupant, "supposed to clear the air about a burglary," according to court documents.

Jackson then walked toward Pennington and shot him in the face in a brief encounter that was obscured by a tree on the city's public surveillance video system. The defendant testified at trial that Pennington blew smoke in his face, flicked his cigarette toward him and told him to "move the f--- around before I kill you."

Jackson testified that he believed he saw the victim reaching for a gun, causing him to panic and shoot Pennington. He fled the scene, hiding the gun in a park and getting a ride to his mother's house in the Twin Cities.

But none of the many witnesses on scene corroborated Jackson's version of events. Seven eyewitnesses testified that they did not hear Pennington engage in any threat or hostility toward Jackson and none testified that they saw the victim reaching for a weapon.

To further rebut Jackson's self-defense claim, the prosecution called a man who allegedly had been confronted by the defendant in April 2018. According to the testimony, Jackson was intoxicated when he crashed his car in the Lincoln Park neighborhood, becoming aggressive after bystanders attempted to attend to him.

Neo told jurors they could consider that account for the limited purpose of weighing the credibility of Jackson's self-defense claim.

The appeals court stopped short of even considering whether it was error to allow testimony on his prior conduct — known as Spreigl evidence — because it "had no reasonable likelihood of impacting the jury's decision."

"The overwhelming strength of the state's case, including the underwhelming strength of Jackson's self-defense strategy, convince us that the Spreigl evidence could not have reasonably affected the verdict," Judge Kevin Ross wrote in Monday's opinion.

"There being essentially no evidence or rational theory supporting the idea that Jackson shot (Pennington) because Jackson feared imminent danger, we have no doubt that the Spreigl evidence did not prejudice the verdict."

The panel also said the district court was right to prohibit the mention of the firearm and money in the car because Jackson himself admitted that he did not know the items were present. The judges additionally rejected unsubstantiated claims of ineffective assistance of counsel and a racially biased jury.

Jackson, now 28, remains at the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Stillwater, with an anticipated release date of January 2039.

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