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Judge sends Lincoln man to prison for shooting man to death while driving along North 14th Street
- Lori Pilger | Lincoln Journal Star
- Updated Mar 19, 2020
Jesse Wilson is seen here in November 2018 making his first court appearance, by video from jail, on a charge in connection with the killing of Stacy Talbot.
Lori Pilger | Lincoln Journal Star
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Lori Pilger | Lincoln Journal Star
A 33-year-old Lincoln man said he acted instinctively when he turned and shot his backseat passenger, Stacy Talbot, who had attacked him while he was driving 40 mph along North 14th Street in 2018.
"I never meant to hurt nobody. Stacy attacked me," Jesse Wilson said before Lancaster County District Judge John Colborn sentenced him to 58 to 70 years in prison.
It was near the maximum Wilson could get on the manslaughter and gun charges for Talbot's shooting death Oct. 18, 2018.
Wilson, 33, pleaded no contest a year ago, but later sought to withdraw his plea, then dropped the effort late last month.
Wednesday, his attorney, Korey Reiman, said Wilson and the other three people in the car — Talbot, Sherry Thomas and James Howard — were up to no good that day. He said Wilson was intending to steal things to hock in order to feed a drug addiction.
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He said Talbot had other plans.
"And that was a brutal robbery," Reiman said.
He said even the witnesses lined up to testify for the state said that Talbot had started assaulting Wilson, as Wilson drove. Reiman said Talbot was hitting Wilson so hard his head was hitting the steering wheel.
Talbot was more than double Wilson's size, he said.
Stacy Talbot
Courtesy photo
Wilson said he didn't know what else to do.
"I was afraid," he said.
Stacy Talbot
Courtesy photo
Wilson said had they been farther down the road when Talbot attacked him, they could've been in a head-on crash "and a lot of people would've lost their lives that day."
He said he can't bring Talbot back.
"But I just hope that you guys can find it in your hearts to one day not be angry with me no more," Wilson said facing Talbot's family.
Deputy Lancaster County Attorney Eric Miller said "the problem with the whole self-defense claim is that in order to rely on that, it has to be immediately necessary to use force, let alone deadly force."
Talbot was unarmed.
"This never should have happened," Miller said.
He said there was absolutely no evidence that Wilson suffered any injury before turning around and firing at Talbot three times. As he was shot, Talbot called out Wilson's first name as he was trying to fall or jump from the car.
Jesse Wilson
"That's the time when Mr. Wilson lined him up in the sights of the gun and tried to shoot him in the head," Miller said. "At that time there was no threat to him whatsoever. And that showed his intent."
Wilson denied it, saying he never aimed at Talbot.
"I know because I was there," he said.
Just before 8:30 that night, Lincoln police were called to 14th and Judson streets on 911 calls about a man falling or jumping out of a moving car.
They found Talbot, 42, with a gunshot wound to his chest. He died at a Lincoln hospital.
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At Wilson's sentencing Wednesday, the judge said he couldn't ignore the serious nature of the crimes or Wilson's criminal history, which includes numerous crimes of violence.
Wilson will have to serve 29 years, minus the 442 days he's served since his arrest in Clovis, New Mexico, where he fled to after the shooting.
After he was taken out of the courtroom, Thomas pleaded no contest to being an accessory to the crime after the fact. Colborn sentenced her to the three-year maximum. Howard is set to enter a plea later this month.
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Reach the writer at 402-473-7237 or lpilger@journalstar.com.
On Twitter @LJSpilger.
Lori Pilger | Lincoln Journal Star
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Jesse Wilson is seen here in November 2018 making his first court appearance, by video from jail, on a charge in connection with the killing of Stacy Talbot.
- Lori Pilger | Lincoln Journal Star
Jesse Wilson
- Alex Lantz
Stacy Talbot
- Courtesy photo