Prosecutor calls man’s death a ‘senseless killing’

The murder of Jamar Gammage two years ago in Delray Beach was “a very senseless killing,” Assistant State Attorney Takisha Richardson told a Palm Beach County jury on Wednesday.

The prosecutor said the accused, Dion Graham, now 31, and Gammage, 26, were friends since childhood before their relationship ended in a hail of gunfire on Aug. 22, 2015.

The shooting outside the Community Market, in the 1100 block of West Atlantic Avenue, was recorded on store surveillance video. Richardson said there is no audio on the recording, but witnesses will testify about an argument the two men had over a woman, just before the shooting.

Evelyn Ziegler, Graham’s court-appointed attorney, said she will give her opening statement at the start of the defense case later in the trial. But outside the jury’s presence, she indicated her client shot Gammage because he feared for his life. Barbara Gammage, victim’s mother

Anticipating that position, the prosecutor told the jury Gammage was killed without any provocation.

Graham and Gammage were at the same house party next to the market before the 2 a.m. shooting. The video shows Gammage and Graham’s brother arguing in a parking lot, and Gammage attempting to hug the other man and getting rebuffed, Richardson said.

That’s when Graham exited a car and rushed toward Gammage, firing four shots before getting back into the car and driving off with other men, the prosecutor told the jury.

“Everything’s captured on video,” she said.

The men left Gammage, a father of three young daughters, to die on the street, said Richardson, with Chief Assistant State Attorney Adrienne Ellis.

The footage and several witnesses helped police identify Graham as a suspect within 12 hours of the shooting. He was arrested five days later in Lake Worth.

Barbara Gammage, the victim’s mother, asked the State Attorney’s Office to pursue the death penalty, but Graham will at most face a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole, if he is convicted.

“I want justice to be served,” Gammage told the Sun Sentinel on Wednesday. “I feel like it was a senseless death. He had no reason why he killed my son.”

Jamar Gammage once dreamed of playing professional baseball, but knee problems hampered the former Atlantic High student’s ability to continue on the diamond, his mom said.

The trial before Circuit Judge Laura Johnson is expected to conclude early next week.

mjfreeman@sunsentinel .com, 561-243-6642 or Twitter @marcjfreeman