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This guy's actually been beating people up for years. He stabbed a black security guard 6 years ago. That Security guard is now a Dallas County Sheriff and testified against him in this case.

Deep Ellum case ends in guilty verdict

05:08 PM CDT on Monday, April 4, 2005


From Staff Reports



A Dallas jury late Monday afternoon found a man who prosecutors said was part of a skinhead group guilty of engaging in organized criminal activity when he severely beat a Lakewood contractor last year.

Jessie Chaddock, 28, was found guilty after the jury deliberated 2 hours and 45 minutes.

He apologized during the punishment phase of the trial to David Cunniff, who was left partially paralyzed after the attack which followed a July concert at Gypsy Tea Room.

“I’m extremely sorry, Mr. Cunniff. I never meant you to get hurt like that,“ he said in a wavering voice.

During the trial, the defense had argued that Mr. Chaddock was acting in self-defense during a simple “bar fight.” But prosecutors successfully persuaded a jury that the assault fit a pattern in which a skinhead group - in which Mr. Chaddock was once a member - collectively engaged in aggressive behavior and fights.

Whether Mr. Chaddock and his friends with him that night are still members of the Confederate Hammerskins group, which Mr. Tarrant helped found in the 1980s, has been a key point of disagreement in the trial.

After the verdict late Monday afternoon, the trial immediately went into the punishment phase, where Mr. Chaddock’s mother and girlfriend took the stand to ask for leniency. He faces five to 99 years in prison when sentenced.

Mr. Cunniff was a quadriplegic for several months after the attack. With physical therapy, he has regained limited use of his feet and hands. He testified Wednesday that he didn't remember much of the incident.