MAN GIVEN LIFE SENTENCE IN DRUG POSSESSION CASE

Jurors spent a little more than an hour Wednesday deliberating Michael
Dewayne Kimmel's fate after convicting him of possessing approximately
$8,000 worth of crack cocaine in a drug-free zone in 2005.

Kimmel's vicious verbal outbursts earlier in the day assured he was almost
encircled by law enforcement officers when he heard jurors' decision that
he should spend the rest of his life in prison.

Although the drug charge could cause the 23-year-old Fort Worth native to
be eligible for Social Security before he is eligible for parole, it is not
the most serious charge he faces.

Kimmel also faces a murder charge in relation to the July 13, 2005 death of
Gerry White at an apartment house across the street from Piner Middle
School in Sherman.

While jurors weren't considering the murder charge in the case prosecuted
this week, they did hear some testimony about the incident.

Previously published reports show that Mr. White died from a gunshot wound
to the chest. Police reports said on the day he died, Mr. White had been
involved in an argument and fight with other people outside the apartment
house. Police reports state Kimmel heard the commotion, brought a 12-gauge
shotgun out to confront Mr. White; then shot Mr. White who fell to the
ground. Kimmel fled the area and was eventually arrested in Fort Worth.

While police investigated the shooting, they entered Kimmel's room in the
apartment house across from Piner Middle School. Inside the apartment, they
found a bag that contained approximately $8,000 worth of crack cocaine.

Police, however, worked the homicide investigation without focusing, for a
number of months, on the drug charge. Tuesday, jurors decided the evidence
presented by Bobbie Peterson Cate, a contract prosecutor for Grayson
County, was enough for them to convict Kimmel of possession of a controlled
substance in a drug free zone.

The jurors started Wednesday hearing about Kimmel's previous interactions
with the law. To that end, Cate introduced into evidence a stack of Texas
Youth Commission records as a large as an American Collegiate Dictionary,
as she prepared to question Kimmel's probation officer. The move seemed to
cause Kimmel some concern because the young man grabbed his neck tie and
held it up above his head as though he were being hanged.

When Judge Rayburn Nall Jr. noticed Kimmel's actions, he tried to clear the
courtroom. However, Kimmel started discussing the matter as the jurors
walked out.

"Shut up," Nall snapped from the bench. With the jurors out of the room,
Nall cautioned the young man to keep quiet and stop making the gestures or
the case would go on without him.

"Go ahead, my life is over. I am hung. I am as good as dead. I am as good
as dead. Don't nobody give a (explicative deleted) about me. Come on, give
me the needle. Tell that deputy to pull out his gun and shoot me. Give her
(Cate) what she wants," Kimmel gushed in a voice loud enough that jurors
would have had a hard time not hearing.

Nall tried to explain that he wanted to let Kimmel stay in the courtroom to
help his attorney, but ended up having to take a 15 minute break to allow
Kimmel to calm down. When he returned to the courtroom, Kimmel promised he
would keep his mouth shut.

In the end, the probation officer's testimony turned out to be less than
devastating for Kimmel. The probation officer said Kimmel served his
probation without incident and was cleared.

Cate used the testimony as an opportunity to tell jurors that Kimmel is
capable of doing what he is told, when he wants to do so for his own purposes.

The rest of the afternoon Cate presented jurors with testimony from Grayson
County deputies and jailers who testified to problems they have had with
Kimmel in the nearly two years he has been in their custody.

The complaints ranged from cursing and threatening officers to attacking
other inmates. Jailers testified that the situation reached the point where
Kimmel is not allowed to leave his cell without his hands and feet
shackled. And he still managed to attack a mentally challenged inmate.

Cate's final witness, a psychologist, testified that Kimmel himself doesn't
suffer from any type of brain damage or defect. In fact, he said, Kimmel is
of at least average intelligence. He said Kimmel does however, suffer from
a personality disorder that keeps him from exercising self control when
reacting to what appeared to be an unlimited supply of deep-rooted anger.

The doctor said Kimmel often reacts to people as though they want to hurt
him before he even gives them a chance to show him what they want from him.
His inability to get along with others, the doctor said, isn't likely to go
away without years of "structured environment."

Cate suggested a lifetime spent in prison would give Kimmel the structure
he needed while protecting the rest of the world from him.

Garland Cardwell spent the day trying to remind jurors that the charge for
which they convicted Kimmel had nothing to do with his problems with the
jail staff, his previous activities with a Fort Worth street gang or the
murder charge.

He urged them to consider only the drug charge when they considered what he
should pay for that charge.

The conviction and enhancement of possessing the drugs in a drug free zone
leave Kimmel facing the possibility of two life sentences that have to be
served back to back should he be convicted of the murder charge.