It was the zaniest sentencing hearing several attorneys had seen.
In Douglas County District Judge Peter Bataillon’s courtroom last week, Princeston Scott sat convicted of shooting his stepdad three times.
Now, a young man shooting his stepdad three times is strange, but that wasn’t the zany part of this case.
Nor was it that the wounded stepdad sat just seven chairs away from his ex-wife, who has a protection order that prohibits him from being within 100 feet of her. Nor that the ex-wife wagged a finger in her ex-husband’s face.
Nor that the judge thrice declared Scott a “knucklehead” — and then got into a debate with Scott’s mother over whether her son truly was one.
No, the zany part of the sentencing was this: After Bataillon described the sordid family feud, one man stood up, took the blame and apologized for his actions.
The victim.
Stepdad Antonio D. White, with three bullet wounds, strode to the front of the courtroom, turned to his stepson and apologized — for provoking the shooting.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Matthew Kahler, Scott’s attorney.
“Not in my lifetime,” said prosecutor Tom McKenney, who has practiced law for more than 30 years.
Indeed, courtroom observers could go a few lifetimes before witnessing a fact set like the one Bataillon described:
That May afternoon, the Whites were preparing to celebrate their daughter’s high school graduation.
About 3 p.m., Antonio White came over and confronted his ex-wife, Patricia A. White, about his belief that she was dating a mutual friend.
He left in a huff.
Princeston Scott, 24, concerned that his stepfather might come back, got a .32-caliber pistol from his mother, Patricia White.
The stepdad returned in his pickup.
As he pulled up, Patricia White went to her car outside the home near 43rd and Spaulding Streets. Her son and daughter headed for a separate car.
The daughter “flips her dad the bird or gives him the thumbs up,” Bataillon recounted. “So (Antonio) White goes up to Mr. Scott’s vehicle to confront her as to why she flipped him the bird.”
In turn, Scott got out of the driver’s seat, gun in hand.
Patricia White wasn’t near the fray. Nevertheless, the judge said, Scott was intent on “trying to be Randolph Scott,” the hero actor of many Westerns.
He circled around the car and confronted his stepdad. Now on the passenger side, Antonio White took a step toward him.
Scott shot his stepdad three times — in the leg, arm and upper chest.
Scott then handed the gun to his mother and drove off.
“Interestingly enough, after Mr. Scott shoots Mr. White, supposedly in self-defense, he drives off,” Bataillon said. “Maybe to go get a doctor.”
Paramedics took Antonio White, 45, to the hospital, but he had healed enough 10 days after the shooting to vouch for his stepson at a bail review hearing.
Then came the sentencing last week. White walked to the defense table and stood next to the man who shot him.
“First of all, I’d like to apologize to Princeston,” Antonio White told the judge. “On the day that this incident happened, I believe it was all my fault.
“If I wouldn’t have went to my ex-wife’s home, this wouldn’t have happened. Our kids saw us argue and fuss. For that kid to be in the position he’s in now, it’s my fault.”
The judge wasn’t so sure. Bataillon noted that Scott instantly escalated matters by inserting a gun into the feud.
“I do care how Mr. White feels about all this,” the judge said. “But someone shot someone three times. For what? The court doesn’t know why, other than Mr. Scott is a knucklehead.”
At that, Scott’s mother rose to defend her son. On her way to the front of the courtroom, she filed past her ex-husband, wagging a finger in his face.
“My son is not a knucklehead,” she told the judge. “He was trying to protect me.”
Bataillon asked if her ex had gotten physical with her. No, she said. But she said he has followed her, thrown things and hurled insults at her.
Bataillon: “That day, did he threaten to injure you?”
Patricia White: “I don’t think he did.”
Bataillon: “Ma’am, has he ever brought a gun before?”
Patricia White: “No he hasn’t ... But we were all scared. Nobody was there to see how upset Antonio was ... I didn’t know how to handle a gun. (My son) didn’t know how to handle a gun.”
Bataillon: “Then why’d you give him a gun?”
Patricia White: “It was a crazy mistake.”
On that, Bataillon said, everyone could agree. In effect, Bataillon said, Scott “brought a gun” to a wordfight.
Scott, who pleaded no contest to first-degree assault, faced up to 50 years in prison. The judge sentenced him to three to seven years.
“The court understands that obviously this matter got way out of hand,” he said. “And I have to disagree with Mrs. White. Her son is a knucklehead.
“Just because people argue all their life doesn’t mean that’s going to rise to the level of violence. All the sudden we bring a gun into the whole thing. Good lord, you just don’t go doing those things. It’s lucky Mr. White isn’t dead.”
Contact the writer:
402-444-1275, todd.cooper@owh.com
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