White Supremacist Pleads Guilty To Slaying Black Man With Sword

James Harris Jackson during his arraignment in Manhattan in 2017.

Today, against the advice of his own attorneys, white supremacist James Harris Jackson pleaded guilty to murder as terrorism and a hate crime, and three counts of criminal possession of a weapon, for the racially-motivated murder of Timothy Caughman on a midtown Manhattan sidewalk in 2017. Jackson's plea in Manhattan Criminal Court ensures that the Baltimore-native will spend life in prison without parole.

On March 20th, 2017, the now 31-year Jackson had taken a bus from Baltimore to New York City with the express purpose of killing black people, ultimately settling on Caughman, 66, and brutally stabbing him in the back and chest with a short Roman sword. It was a practice run for larger acts of terrorism, particularly directed at mixed race couples, he later confessed.

Jackson had nothing to gain by pleading guilty today, though the record suggests that he may have opted out of a full trial in order to spare his family. The prosecution—led by Assistant District Attorney Dafna Yoran—will not have the opportunity to present a trove of evidence that may have shed light on the mindset of a self-described Nazi. The victim's family—elderly cousins who had trekked into the courtroom from day one—seemed noticeably relieved, while acknowledging that nothing will bring Timothy back.

Throughout the hearings, the deceased's first cousins, Iris Peek and Norma Peek, had sat quietly and composed, even as Jackson demonstrated how he held the 26-inch Roman sword, one hand over the other, and plunged it into Caughman's back.

"He thought it was a joke, he really thought it was a joke," Iris Peek said of the killer during the pretrial phase.

Caughman's cousins have been fixtures in the courtroom from day one, often commenting on Jackson's lack of remorse. Indeed, the police interrogation tape following the murder shows Jackson to be chillingly nonchalant as he recounts the details of his crime and reenacts the murder. On the matter of plunging a sword in Caughman's heart, Jackson said he "rolled over and struggled a little bit," adding that it was, "basically a terrorist attack essentially.”

“He didn’t know my cousin…if he wanted to kill a black man, why didn’t he go to Harlem? Why didn’t he go to Bedford Stuyvesant? Why didn’t he go to South Jamaica? …He’s a coward…he’s a coward ‘cuz he stabbed him from the back,” Norma Peek remarked. Indeed Jackson had commented that if he was in a cell with a black man, he was definitely was going to kill him. (Jackson has reportedly been kept isolated, primarily so that he would not get killed while waiting for the trial.).

Timothy Caughman had grown up in the South Jamaica Houses, attended Brooklyn Community College with hopes to become an orthopedic doctor and later turned to the music promotion business. But on the night of his murder, he was collecting bottles and cans to turn in for deposit money. He was mistakenly reported as homeless but was in transitional housing, a point that deeply troubled his cousins.

Jackson, a U.S. Army veteran who had been deployed to Afghanistan in 2010 and 2011, had attended a Baltimore Quaker school in his youth, graduating 2007. But he arrived in Manhattan with specific aspirations to find a mixed-race couple and kill the black man and "grab the girl" and just "hold her there" while the cameras rolled. He had planned to send out a document to The New York Times, a "Declaration of War," which he had prepared on a thumb drive.

Jackson will be sentenced to life in prison in February. Outside the courtroom today, Manhattan DA Cy Vance said, "This was more than a murder case. This was a case of terrorism, just as any Islamic jihadist who has come to New York City and sought to kill New Yorkers in an effort to interrupt and destabilize our way of life."

Longtime Caughman family friend, Portia Clark, accompanied the deceased's family today and spoke to the murderer's intent, which was to intimidate and make a select population feel afraid: "I feel like [Jackson] is sending a message—it's like we have to watch out for our brothers, nephews, uncles, cousins.”