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JS Online
February 10, 2014
A man convicted of murdering University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee film student Nathan Potter was wrestled to the ground, pepper-sprayed and taken under guard from a courtroom Friday after he was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole.
Seandell Jackson spat a string of obscenities at Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Rebecca Dallet as three deputies and Milwaukee police Detective James Hutchinson dragged Jackson to the floor of her courtroom.
Moments before, Jackson’s attorney, Patrick Earle, had asked Dallet to weigh into her sentence the 19-year-old Jackson’s youth and, as Earle put it, his “lack of impulse control.”
As authorities struggled to subdue Jackson, members of his family stood in the back of the courtroom and taunted Potter’s family.
“I hate you!” a woman yelled toward the Potters. “I hate you all!”
“God’s the judge,” another woman yelled toward Potter’s mother and father, who held each other and wept.
“God’s the judge.”
In February, a jury convicted Jackson, 19, of being party to a crime of first-degree intentional homicide and attempted robbery in the shooting death of 21-year-old Potter.
Assistant District Attorney Mark Williams showed Dallet videos of Jackson’s reaction when the jury delivered its verdict.
In the videos, Jackson turns to Potter’s family, mouths an obscenity and smirks. The video also shows Jackson being led from the courtroom a few minutes after the verdict is announced. As he reaches the courtroom door, he turns toward Potter’s family and laughs.
“Is there such a thing as pure evil?” Nathan Potter’s father, John Potter, asked Dallet.
“There is the tape.”
Jackson shot Potter in the chest in July as Potter walked to his Riverwest apartment in the 2500 block of N. Dousman St.
Jackson and an accomplice, Derek J. Thomas, were attempting to rob Potter. Potter had no money.
Dallet, her voice raspy from the fumes of the pepper spray, also sentenced Jackson to five years in prison for attempted robbery. In addition, she sentenced Jackson to five years in prison for an unrelated non-fatal shooting that occurred the same day that Potter was killed.
No one was seriously injured in the courtroom melee, though Hutchinson, the chief detective in Jackson’s case, was hit in the eyes by the pepper spray.
Jackson was sentenced in the morning. Hutchinson was back in Dallet’s court for Thomas’ sentencing in the afternoon.
So was Sarah Potter, Nathan Potter’s 13-year-old sister. She told her mother and father that she had been afraid someone was trying to kill them during the morning fracas.
Gulping back tears, Sarah told Dallet that she and her 11-year-old brother, David – who has autism – cannot understand why anyone would even hurt her older brother, whom she called “a loving and caring man.”
“We can’t sleep knowing he’s gone,” she said, sitting at the defense table beside her father.
John Potter said later that David wants him to keep all the lights on in their home all the time.
“He asked me to remove all the windows,” John Potter said.
Thomas, 20, pleaded guilty in March to felony murder.
Williams told Dallet that Thomas played a limited role in the murder.
“Mr. Jackson was the shooter,” Williams said. “Mr. Thomas was a follower.”
While Williams asked Dallet to sentence Thomas to 12 years in prison, Nathan Potter’s mother, Denise Potter, said he deserved to the maximum penalty for felony murder, which is 35 years.
“ ’Help me!’ (were) the last words he ever said,” Denise Potter said.
“Derek did nothing,” she said. “They ran away.”
Dallet followed Williams’ recommendation, adding eight years of extended supervision.
