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Supreme Court affirms Omaha man's sentence for fatal shooting outside Westroads Mall in 2021

From the What you missed last week in notable Omaha crimes and court cases series

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The Nebraska Supreme Court on Friday upheld an Omaha man's convictions and life sentence for shooting two people, one fatally, in an attempted drug robbery in the Westroads Mall parking lot in 2021.

Last year, a Douglas County jury found J’Maun Haynie guilty of the first-degree murder of 18-year-old Franco Vasquez and second-degree assault for the shooting of Vasquez’s girlfriend, Haley Grim, on Sept. 12, 2021.

Prosecutors charged him under the "felony murder" theory, saying he either killed Vasquez with deliberate or premeditated malice or while trying to perpetrate a robbery, so the jury didn't have to find that he was the shooter.

J'Maun Haynie

Courtesy photo

Haynie, who was 19 at the time and 22 now, admitted he was in the car but denied being the shooter.

Douglas County District Court Judge James Masteller sentenced him to life in prison on the murder charge, plus 40 to 70 years on assault and gun charges.

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In an automatic appeal, Haynie sought a new trial, alleging the district court judge erred by not granting a mistrial after an "outburst" by the mother of one of the victims and a spectator wearing a T-shirt memorializing him.

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On Friday, the state's high court rejected the argument, saying there was no evidence any juror observed the outburst, in which the victim's mother allegedly threatened to shoot a member of Haynie's family in the face as she left the courtroom, or saw the T-shirt of a spectator in the front row.

Both incidents happened the same morning of the first day of a multiday trial, and the court stopped both practices upon becoming aware of them, Justice Jeffrey Funke wrote in the opinion.

Prosecutors say Haynie and Izayah Mapp got into the back of a Volkswagen Jetta in the mall parking lot on the pretense of wanting to buy 1½ pounds of marijuana for $3,600.

But when Vasquez showed them the marijuana, Haynie and Mapp both pulled out guns. It ended in gunfire, with the car crashed into a pole and Vasquez and Grim both shot.

Vasquez died at the scene. Grim survived.

Haynie was arrested in November 2021. Mapp was arrested the following June on the same charges. Earlier this month, he pleaded no contest to first-degree assault and robbery and is set for sentencing in November.

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Reach the writer at 402-473-7237 or lpilger@journalstar.com.

On Twitter @LJSpilger

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What you missed last week in notable Omaha crimes and court cases

Lori Pilger

Lori Pilger | Lincoln Journal Star

Courts reporter

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J'Maun Haynie

J'Maun Haynie