San Antonio: Jury doesn't buy defense attorney's explanation

[seamusTX]

In August 2007 in a San Antonio neighborhood that is on no one's 10-best list, a gunfight broke out in the parking lot of a pool hall. Two brothers were killed.

One Frank Dotson, 29, was charged with capital murder. Prosecutors went to trial with aggravated assault charges.

At the time of the shooting, Dotson was on probation for a drug offense.

Last week a jury found him guilty of one charge of aggravated assault for shooting in the direction of a woman who was fleeing for cover.

At the sentencing hearing, Dotson's attorneys bid for leniency:

“While it may have been reckless to shoot into the parking lot ... he would have been shooting in self defense against two other shooters,” Hoelscher told jurors. “If my client ... had wanted to kill (the woman), he would have done it.”

Dotson's attorney's also argued he shouldn't be blamed for coming from a bad neighborhood where it is common to carry unlicensed guns for defense purposes.

The jury sentenced Dotson to seven years and nine months in prison.

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Another defendant had already been found guilty of the double murder.

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- Jim