Conviction Upheld In 2012 Murder Of Jenks Senior, Friend

<p>The Oklahoma State Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction and sentence for a man who shot and killed two people in a QuikTrip parking lot in 2012. </p>

Tuesday, March 15th 2016, 4:36 pm

By: News On 6

Conviction Upheld In 2012 Murder Of Jenks Senior, Friend

The Oklahoma State Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction and sentence for a man who shot and killed two people in a QuikTrip parking lot in 2012.

In 2014, a jury convicted Jermaine Jackson, 22, of killing Jenks High School senior Kristjan Hinrik Thorsson and Thorsson's family friend, 37-year-old John White, on September 8, 2012.

It happened in the parking lot of the QuikTrip at 71st and Riverside.

Police said Jackson shot them because he thought White's car had almost run over him as he walked home from a friend's house.

He appealed the conviction and life sentence he received for killing Thorsson, arguing the trial judge gave the jury wrong instructions about the definition of "malice aforethought." He also claimed prosecutors didn't specify that they were accusing him of killing Thorsson while he was intending to kill White, under the legal doctrine known as "transferred intent."

He also claimed in his appeal that he had ineffective counsel because his attorney did not object to the judge's instructions.

In a unanimous decision, the court rejected his appeal. The court said Jackson's argument boils down to saying he should have been specifically charged under the "transferred intent" doctrine but that it didn't matter because he either intended to kill Thorsson or killed Thorsson while intending to kill White.

The murders made headlines in Iceland as well as Tulsa. Thorsson had moved to Oklahoma from Iceland when he was 10 years old with his mother, older brother and younger sister.

He was hoping to attend Oklahoma State University. His grandmother told us Thorsson had gone to QuikTrip that night with White, who was a friend of his mother.