Jeffery Jackson, who claims he killed a gay man in self-defense because the man attacked him after he “rebuffed his sexual advances,” will get a new trial.

Jackson was convicted by a jury of first-degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment by the Miami-Dade County Circuit Court, but the appeals court vacated the conviction and remanded for a new trial based on the lower court’s erroneous evidentiary rulings.

The State’s theory was that Jackson had killed the victim, Anthony Brown, in the course of Jackson’s attempt to rob Brown in his home. Jackson, however, contended that he had not gone to Brown’s home to rob him, but rather to buy cocaine from Brown. During the course of the transaction, Jackson testified, Brown made sexual advances toward him; when Jackson attempted to leave, Brown came at him with a knife. Jackson claimed that he then obtained a knife from the kitchen and killed Brown during a struggle. Jackson also testified that, following this struggle, he looked for the keys to let himself out of the house and, in the process, helped himself to the money and cocaine he found in Brown’s bedroom.

Read the details of the lower court’s evidentiary rulings in “Murderer of Gay Man Gets New Trial” on page 231 of the December edition of the Lesbian/Gay Law Notes.