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Milwaukee homicide, former gas station security guard guilty
A Milwaukee County jury on Thursday convicted a former gas station security guard of killing a man who took snacks without paying for them.
MILWAUKEE - A Milwaukee County jury on Thursday convicted a former gas station security guard of killing a man who took snacks without paying for them.
In court
Guilty verdict:
William Pinkin, 58, was found guilty at trial of first-degree intentional homicide and a gun possession felony. The jury deliberated for 20 minutes.
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What they're saying:
Pinkin chose to testify in his own defense while wearing jail-issued clothing on Thursday. He claimed to not remember shooting Isaiah Allen, and he answered "no" when his defense attorney asked if he meant to shoot him.
"I don't remember pulling the trigger. The gunshot woke me up," he said.
Isaiah Allen
At times, Pinkin rambled or did not answer questions posed by both his attorney and the prosecutor in the case. He questioned the authority of the court after he testified – saying he was being railroaded and was in a Jim Crow court, calling the judge "Jane Crow."
"He's indicating he wishes to leave. We will continue without him," said Judge Michelle Havas.
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Pinkin was asked to be removed from the courtroom once he was done on the stand, and he was not present when the verdict was read.
What's next:
Despite a doctor finding Pinkin competent to stand trial, he never withdrew his plea of not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect. With the conviction, the trial will move onto a second portion where a jury will decide whether Pinkin is not guilty because of mental disease or defect. That is expected to happen next month.
Gas station shooting
The backstory:
Police were called to the gas station near Teutonia and Roosevelt on the morning of Aug. 16, 2023. The victim, 29-year-old Isaiah Allen, was pronounced dead at the scene. He had been shot in the head, according to a criminal complaint.
Court filings said Allen grabbed a box of Little Debbie snack cakes and left without paying, and a security guard – later identified as Pinkin – got up from the back of the store, walked toward Allen and pulled out a gun.
Gas station shooting near Teutonia and Roosevelt, Milwaukee
Pinkin then rushed toward Allen, prosecutors said, and got a little more than an arm's length from him before he shot Allen in the back of the head. Allen dropped to the ground, and surveillance video showed Pinkin picking up the snacks and going back inside the store.
According to the complaint, Pinkin was at the scene when police arrived and told responding officers – who were unaware of the surveillance video at the time – that he did not see the shooting. That surveillance video showed Pinkin was "milling around calmly," and at one point smoking a cigarette, after the shooting.
Pinkin turned himself in two days after the shooting.
Previous homicide conviction
Dig deeper:
According to prosecutors, this was not Pinkin's first run-in with the law. He was convicted of first-degree reckless homicide in 1990 and released in 2018, but went back to prison in 2019 and was released again in March 2023.
Pinkin was not allowed to have a gun as a result of that felony conviction, but had one while working as a security guard anyway.
The Source: FOX6 News referenced information from the Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office, Wisconsin Circuit Court and prior coverage of the case.