Man found guilty of murder in killing of retired St. Louis police Capt. David Dorn

Daniel Chaitin

Misty Severi

July 20, 09:03 PM July 20, 11:09 PM

A jury found a man guilty of murder in the fatal shooting of David Dorn, a former St. Louis police captain who was killed during the 2020 summer riots.

Stephen Cannon, 26, was convicted of first-degree murder, robbery, burglary, and three counts of armed criminal action on Wednesday.

"I'm very thankful to the jurors who saw the truth and all the evidence," Dorn's wife, Ann, said outside the courthouse, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. She added, "There's never going to be full closure, but it brings us peace."

Dorn, who retired from the St. Louis police department in 2007 after 38 years, was shot and killed at the age of 77 while confronting looters who broke into a friend's business during the unrest that followed the killing of George Floyd, a black man, by a white police officer in Minneapolis. Multiple people have been charged in connection to the deadly looting incident.

The trial for Cannon lasted three days. Cannon himself did not testify.

Prosecutors said Cannon shot at Dorn 10 times when he confronted the looters. Cannon's defense team made the case that prosecutors lacked physical evidence to link their client to the shooting. In addition, Cannon's lawyer, Brian Horneyer, argued that the prosecution's main witness, Mark Jackson, “lies as easily as he breathes." Jackson's lawyer said he expects his client's second-degree murder charge in connection to Dorn's killing to be dropped as part of an agreement to testify, according to another report.

"While nothing can bring Capt. Dorn back to his loved ones, Mr. Cannon has been held accountable for the crimes committed in the City of St. Louis, and justice has been served," Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner said in a statement.

Dorn, whose death made national headlines, was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor Citizen Honors Award last year.

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Ann Dorn said her heart went out to Cannon's family.

"I lost David, and now they're losing a brother and a son," she said. "I feel sorry for them, and my heart goes out to them as well because they lost, too."

Sentencing for Cannon is scheduled for Sept. 13. He faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole after the prosecution decided not to pursue the death penalty. Horneyer said his client plans to appeal and will seek a retrial if it is denied at the time of sentencing, according to the G3 Box News.