On Thursday, former Palm Beach Gardens police officer
Though on duty, Raja was wearing plain clothes and driving an unmarked car. He claimed he identified himself as a police officer and feared for his life after Jones pulled a gun on him. However, the Sun Sentinel reported that an audio recording of Jones’ call for a tow truck contradicted that claim. The recording was played repeatedly in court. Instead,
prosecutors said Raja approached Jones aggressively without identifying himself, causing the musician to believe he was being robbed and pull his legally-owned firearm in self-defense, according to The Miami Herald.
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After deliberating for four hours, an all-white jury found Raja, who is Indian-American, guilty and he was escorted from the courtroom in handcuffs. The verdict made him the first officer convicted for shooting someone while on duty in Florida in 30 years. He faces a sentence between 25 years and life.
After waiting more than three years for a verdict, Jones’ family said they are grateful for justice at a press conference held after the trial. “We just say thank you all so much from the bottom of our hearts. God is good,” one relative said in a recording of the conference by WPTV News. The family, which is highly spiritual, also praised God and sang gospel songs.
“What was the difference in this case? I honestly believe it was the tape … We’ll never know exactly what (the jurors) based their verdict on but I think it’s safe to say the family believes it was because of what we heard on that tape,” Jones family attorney Benjamin Crump said, according to The Sun Sentinel.
