Gypsey Tea Room Case- Guilty Verdict

[signoftimes]

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.

[Phil Helmuth]

I hope he gets at least 30 years. He beat this man as the poor guys daughters were watching.

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Man gets 19 years for Deep Ellum fight

12:40 PM CDT on Wednesday, April 6, 2005


By MATT STILES / The Dallas Morning News



The man convicted in the Deep Ellum nightclub assault that left a Lakewood man partially paralyzed should spend 19 years in prison, jurors decided this morning.

The panel, which found Jesse Chaddock guilty Monday of engaging in organized criminal activity related to the assault of David Cunniff, deliberated about eight hours before delivering the sentence.

Mr. Chaddock, 28, would be eligible for parole in roughly 9 years, authorities said.

“I think justice was served,” said Mr. Cunniff, who overcame a broken neck to regain some use of his hands and legs thanks to months of rehabilitation.

Prosecutor Toby Shook - who wanted a life sentence - successfully convinced the panel during the week-long trial that Mr. Chaddock had ties to a skinhead gang called Confederate Hammerskins. Those alleged ties contributed to what prosecutors said was a brutal attack in July after a Old 97s concert at Gypsy Tea Room.

“They obviously thought it was an organized gang,” he said after the verdict, acknowledging some disappointment with the length of the sentence. “Some cut him a break because it wasn’t a planned attack.”

Mr. Chaddock testified that he punched Mr. Cunniff to defend a friend, and that he believe the broken neck resulted from the two men’s fall to the club’s concrete floor.

His defense attorney, Phillip Hayes, said his client was “shell shocked.”

“It’s a pretty steep sentence for an accidental injury in a bar fight,” he said.

But he said jurors might simple have believes the prosecution’s theory that Mr. Chaddock’s gang lifestyle and history of violent behavior factored in the incident.

“If the evidence showed them that, then it was a fair verdict,” he said.