Omaha Man Murdered ... and No Murder Charges???

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
A year ago. This passed August horrible murder Mercel Jama
an uber driver involving several teens, and the news came yesterday.
I commented on it briefly toward the end of the show.
Seems like we got plea deals instead of murder charges.

(00:20):
And I wondered about that and chatted with Douglas County
Attorney Don Klein after the show, and he's agreed to
come on this morning. Don. Welcome back. Good to have
you on.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Good morning.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
Would seem to be a lot of people are angered
and upset when they read these headlines because obviously somebody
murdered somebody else, and yet there's no murder charge. What
can you tell us about this case?

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Sure, I think it's important that people know all the
details here. First of all, there was six people that
were involved in the incidents that took place on August
thirteenth to twenty twenty four, ranging from eleven year old
to a seventeen year old, and we were able to
charge the four that were over thirteen years of age

(01:08):
in adult court. We had to fight because they all
filed motions to transfer their case to juvenile court. A
couple of day hearings. We won those be able to
maintain jurisdiction. Some of them even appealed at to the
Supreme Court. The court affirmed Judge Dur's decision. I met
with the family mister Jahna's widow and his five children,

(01:31):
four daughters and a son. We discussed the possibilities of
what we wanted to get out of this. None of
these individuals that we have charged in an adult court
was the shooter that killed mister Jahma. The thirteen year
old is the one who shocked him. So they were
all charged as an aid or and a better theory

(01:53):
that they were there and they got in the car
after mister John was shot and left and they all
participated in these robberies that occurred at one hundred and
twenty and dodged. So the family said, look, we want
the shooter, but the other ones, if you can figure
something out that would be you think you think would
be a just resolution. I talked to him about the

(02:17):
four charges that we have which carry up to two
hundred years and a mandatory minimum ten years which there's
no good time on. Those are the use charges. They
said that they thought that was a fine disposition of
this case. So and under Miller versus Alabama, which came
out a few years ago, even if you convicted jun

(02:38):
I a first dream murder, you can't give them life.
They get to get a term of years. So this
judge has the parameters of from a mandatory minimum ten
that they'll have to they'll have to give them up
to two hundred years to sentence them on this whole scenario.
And they thought. The family thought that was fine, good good,

(03:01):
and there'd be no appeals. These young people are looking
at some serious, serious time and they were very pleased
with that.

Speaker 1 (03:09):
So do you think do you think that we decided
to do that sentencing coming up a couple of months
or so, do you think Judge Durr will go from
maximum or close to it?

Speaker 2 (03:20):
Yeah? Well, I mean, we're going to certainly argue that
these obviously the cents to show be run consecutively and
that there should be a sentence commensurer with what the
the what happened here? And the two robbery charges. One
is the robbery of mister Mursa and Marsal Jama, I mean,
and the other one is one of the fellows that

(03:42):
that was at the store at the at the one
hundred and twentieth and DoD So the judge is very
well aware of all the circumstances here. Some of this
is on video the robbery at the one hundred and
twentieth and Dodge, so you know, you know, the judge
is well aware, and I feel that the judge will
making a prop sentence here.

Speaker 1 (04:01):
How do we know that the thirteen year old isn't
one who did the shooting that he confess.

Speaker 2 (04:06):
Well, there's we have evidence. That case is still pending,
so I can't really talk that much about it, but
it's very frustrating to me that, you know, he's only
a year younger than one of the people the fourteen
year old that we were convicted here, and godspitches for

(04:29):
the thirteen year old are going to be somewhat minimal,
quite frankly. I mean, we've had this is the third
thirteen year old that we've had charge of first degree
murder and juvenile court, and people are well aware of
what happened to the other two thirteen year olds. They
did about eight months I think in the Carney Youth

(04:49):
Detention Center out there and then they were released.

Speaker 1 (04:52):
This would have to be changed in the legislature. The
thirteen year old has to be tried as a juvenile, right,
and so that would take a legislator a change in
the statute for him to be tried. What do you
think the chances are of that.

Speaker 2 (05:06):
Well, we've tried. I mean we were down there last
year in the legislature. We did get the at least
we could detain people as young as eleven now because
before that we couldn't even do that. But you know,
it's going to take a legislative change and we'll see
what we can do. I've been fighting that battle for

(05:28):
a while and we get it done.

Speaker 1 (05:30):
Meanwhile, you got to be concerned too. I think about
the message to other eleven year olds and younger who
might think it's a fine idea to go out with
a firearm and maybe shoot somebody. He had to be
let go right because of his age?

Speaker 2 (05:45):
Well right right, They said he couldn't be competent because
he's only eleven. So, I mean that's the trouble too,
And we've argued that that. Hey, listen, people that are
involved in this kind of business are savvy enough to know, well,
let's get have begun to the thirteen year old or
the eleven year old or the twelve year old. Nothing's
going to really happen to them. They're not going to

(06:06):
say any real consequences here, So that's the difficulty.

Speaker 1 (06:10):
Appreciate the time that that explains things a lot better
than the headline I saw, and I appreciate you.

Speaker 2 (06:16):
Coming right right, you bet Gary All.

Speaker 1 (06:19):
Thank you. Don Klin, Douglas County Attorney here