The NYT:

Echoes of Florida Case in a Milwaukee Trial
By Steven Yaccino, New York Times, July 17/18, 2013

MILWAUKEE — Less than 48 hours after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the death of Trayvon Martin ignited passions and protests throughout the nation, a jury was selected here for a trial with some striking similarities. The defendant, a white man, shot and killed an unarmed black teenager, in an effort, prosecutors say, to take the law into his own hands.

The defendant, John Spooner, 76, did not dispute that he shot Darius Simmons, 13, in May 2012, believing the teenager broke into his house and stole his shotguns two days earlier. Mr. Spooner was found guilty of first-degree intentional homicide on Wednesday, moving the trial into its second phase, where defense lawyers will try to prove that he should not be held responsible because of the state of his mental health. [....]

From the beginning, the shooting resonated among the city’s black residents, leading to claims of racial profiling and calls for Mr. Spooner to face hate crime charges.

During the trial, Mark S. Williams, the lead county prosecutor, laid out a narrative of the shooting that was essentially undisputed by the defense. Mr. Spooner’s house had been burglarized two days before and, though he strongly suspected Darius of stealing four shotguns, the police said they did not find enough evidence to continue their investigation.

Mr. Spooner then confronted Darius around 10 a.m. as the youth was retrieving a garbage can in front of his house and demanded the return of the guns, which the teenager denied knowing anything about. Mr. Spooner lifted a .32-caliber pistol and fired a shot into the chest of Darius, who fled down the street before collapsing near a playground. None of Mr. Spooner’s guns were found in the teenager’s home. [....]