Jury Returns Unanimous Verdict On Westlake Murder Trial

The jury deliberated until 5pm yesterday and returned an unanimous verdict in the Derrick Small case yesterday.

Small was found guilty of the 1st degree murder of Jalen Handy in January 2018.

Charles Robinson, lead prosecutor, told KPLC:

The defendant was lying. He claimed self defense in the courtroom, and a completely different version of self defense than he had claimed on the scene...It was a last ditch effort to try and to save himself and the jury saw that. Jalen Handy did not deserve to die. He was unarmed and running in the other direction. He was over 60 feet from the defendant when he was gunned down.

Small shot Handy twice after he allegedly stole marijuana from him.  He claimed Handy pooked him with a hard object and he thought he was going to die.

Small will be sentenced on March 1st.