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Christopher Eugene Jackson
On way to prison, a killer taunts his victim's family
A belligerent and sometimes smirking Christopher Jackson was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday, but not before he insulted the prosecutor and the family of the man he shot to death during a Pontiac carjacking last summer.
"What the (expletive) you looking at," he said to Assistant Prosecutor John Skrzynski as Jackson stood shackled and surrounded by sheriff's deputies. Then, as he was led from the courtroom to begin a life behind bars, he said to the family of David Bingham, the man he murdered, "I'll be bouncing back."
Jackson, 18, and his accomplice, Cordero Landrum, robbed Bingham at gunpoint at a Pontiac gas station on July 5 and took his truck. As
Bingham, 38, made a 911 call on a borrowed cell phone, Jackson returned and shot him four times.
A jury last month convicted him of first-degree murder, which carries a sentence of mandatory life in prison. Landrum, 19, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in December and was sentenced to 18 years and nine months to 50 years in prison on Feb. 2.
During Wednesday's sentencing, several of Bingham's family members recounted their memories of him, and the pain and grief they say Jackson's actions caused them.
Jessica Bingham, 11, David Bingham's daughter, carried a picture of her father to court and showed it to the judge while a victim's advocate with the prosecutor's office read her statement. Her brother Nicholas Bingham, 14, sat in the back, with a picture of his father on a button he wore on his shirt.
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uot;We were not done needing Daddy," Jessica said in her statement as Jackson turned and looked away. She was a "Daddy's girl" she told the judge, spoiled by a father who cooked for h
er and would watch SpongeBob SquarePants with her. "We were not done making memories."
Bingham's mother, Vernie Bingham, 57, told Jackson he had destroyed her family. "Do you understand what you took from our family," she cried. "Do you have a heart or soul? You are a cold-blooded murderer and I hope every morning and every night you see David Bingham's face."
The Binghams and Jackson's family had been cordial throughout the trial, but there was tension Wednesday, and deputies kept the two families separate, escorting the Jacksons to the elevator immediately after the sentencing.
Outside the courtroom, Bingham's brother Terry Bingham said he felt sorry for Jackson's father, Eugene Jackson, who attended every day of trial and crie
d when his son was convicted of murder.
"I think he tried as best he could," he said of the father. As for the son, he said: "But the streets had taken him over."
'You are a really bad per
son'
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Note: Unable to capture and post pictures from this link:
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article...60528/1005/NEWS
Also notice thumbnails of grieving family members on left side of page.
