
Sgt. Vincinte Jackson is shielded from cameras as he's led into court Thursday, Dec. 13, 2012 for closing arguments in his court-martial at Fort Carson, Colo. Jackson is charged with premeditated murder in the death of Spc. Spc. Brandy Fonteneaux
Sgt. Vincinte Jackson said he doesn't know why he killed Spc. Brandy Fonteneaux, 28, of Houston. She was found dead Jan. 8 in her barracks room, stabbed 74 times. A military panel sentenced Jackson to life in prison with the possibility of parole, though prosecutors couldn't immediately say how many years he would serve before becoming eligible.
"I will be forever haunted by what happened," Jackson said. " ... It's only fair that I continue to have nightmares about what I've done."
His testimony came at the end of an emotional sentencing hearing that included statements from the families of Jackson and Fonteneaux.
The same panel of eight soldiers who convicted Jackson decided his sentence. The potential sentence for unpremeditated murder ranged from no punishment to life in prison without parole.
The panel -- the equivalent of a jury in a civilian trial -- convicted Jackson earlier Thursday after 2 1/2 hours of deliberations. It acquitted Jackson of premeditated murder, which carries a sentence of up to life in prison without parole.
Prosecutors asked for life without parole, while Jackson's defense attorneys asked for 28 years.
Comment: It probably isn't an accident that this video was released 'early'. What we find most interesting about the video is the conflation of the Mayan-calendar-end-of-days 'prophecy' with catastrophes brought on by cometary bombardment. The Western New Age promoters of the Mayan schtik largely avoid the issue of cyclic catatophism, preferring instead to promote John Major Jenkins' theories about the planet's alignment with galactic center on that date and a subsequent sudden mass enlightenment/spiritual ascension, along the same lines as the Christian fundie 'Rapture'.
So they aren't using the Mayan schtik to pooh-pooh the dominant New Age meme; instead, they're using it to ridicule the very real historical threat of cyclic catastrophes brought on by close encounters with large cometary bodies and their progenitors. Given the incredible increase in the rate of reported fireball sightings in 2011 and again in 2012, it seems that they 'doth protesteth too much' by using the New Age '12.21.2012' phenomenon as a strawman to downplay the fact that Something Wicked This Way Comes.