Joe Palazzolo, The Examiner
2007-03-13 07:00:00.0
Current rank: Not ranked

Howard County -

Thelma Watts sat in the back row, eight feet behind the mother of the man who killed her oldest son, waiting for her turn.

“Mike Jackson took from me my best friend and oldest son,” Watts, reading through tears from a prepared statement, told the judge.

“We grieve with you and we grieve for you, but nobody walks away from this — this impacts both our families,” said Jackson’s mother, Stephanie Baker, minutes later. “I, like you, Ms. Watts, wish things were different and we could all go back, but here we are.”

Michael Dean Jackson Jr., 28, of Columbia, received the maximum sentence — 10 years in prison — in the shooting death of Anthony James Owens-Smith, 20, of Savage.

“This is a case where six shots were fired, and it was totally unwarranted in this court’s point of view,” Howard Circuit Court Judge Dennis Sweeney said on Monday.

Jackson was convicted of voluntary manslaughter after a jury acquitted him in January of first- and second-degree murder charges in the June 23 death of Owens-Smith, whom Jackson shot six times with a 9mm semiautomatic handgun.

Sweeney called Owens-Smith’s death “a needless and horrible tragedy” and implied that the acumen of Jackson’s defense attorney, Patrick O’Guinn — more than the facts — had swayed the jury to acquit Jackson of the more serious charges.

Prosecutors said the fatal incident stemmed from a fight earlier that evening in the Kings Contrivance Village Center and involved at least one of the teens who participated in a deadly brawl at Mount Hebron last month.

Just before his sentencing, Jackson, wearing a black suit and a blue shirt, circled to face his family and friends, as well as Owen-Smith’s, who were separated in some cases by a few inches.

“I’m sorry this ever happened,” Jackson said, addressing Watts in the back row. “I’m just sorry. I’m so sorry. I take full responsibility.”

Then he turned to his mother.

“I never wanted to get you all involved in this. I’m sorry, mom.”

jpalazzolo@batimoreexaminer.com