Former WWE Superstar and Harvard-educated lawyer David Otunga took to his YouTube channel to explain why Raja Jackson wasn’t charged with attempted murder after his assault on Syko Stu.

It took law enforcement 26 days to arrest Jackson, and the Kick streamer was ultimately charged with “battery causing serious bodily injury.” Jackson could face up to four years in prison if convicted.

Otunga predicted in an earlier video that Jackson would not be charged with attempted murder, which led to backlash from some vengeful wrestling fans. Despite the extreme nature of the assault, Otunga later explained why prosecutors could not meet the burden of proof on an attempted murder charge.

Here’s what Otunga had to say on the case’s latest developments.

Arrested After 26 Days

“After 26 days Raja Jackson has finally been arrested. Wow… 26 days? My question is what took law enforcement so long to finally arrest Raja? I can only imagine they were caught up over the wrestling definitions — trying to figure out what’s a work versus what’s a shoot, what was planned, what wasn’t, what went too far. Did Raja actually have permission? Did he not? Did he intentionally go too far? All of those things.”

No Attempted Murder Charge

“Raja has finally been arrested, but the question is on what charge was Raja Jackson arrested? Now, if I were to take a look at the prevailing theory from my YouTube legal community… and I mean those in my comments… by far and away the prevailing theory is attempted murder. Now, I know this attack is heinous and it’s terrible to look at, and you might think right off that it’s attempted murder. However, it’s not.

So to those in my YouTube legal community and my comments… I don’t want to say I told you so, even though it would warranted to some of you who were not very polite to me. Either way, the charge was not attempted murder. Raja Jackson has been charged with battery causing serious bodily injury — a felony.”

Why Battery Is the Charge

“Attempted murder is a lot harder to prove than you might think, in this situation, and I’ll tell you why. According to the California Penal Code §§ 664/187(a) in order to convict someone of attempted murder in California, the prosecution must prove two key elements.

First, a specific intent to kill. This has to be specific. This can’t be just to cause bodily harm or to beat somebody up. There has to be specific intent to end the person’s life. Secondly, a direct but ineffective act towards killing. Now, we have this satisfied right off with the video of the beat down, so I’m going to go ahead and check off number two.

Now, let’s focus back on number one. What kind of evidence could be used to prove specific intent? I’ll tell you right off the strongest evidence would be Raja‘s own statements (prior to the attack). None of these statements specifically mentioned anything about killing or ending Syko Stu‘s life, they just talked about beating him up really badly, effing him up, and I think the most important statement there that goes against specific intent is when Raja says, ‘I ain’t gonna to hurt him too bad.’ That’s powerful.

While Raja‘s statements are quite incriminating and they show premeditation, they don’t show specific intent to kill. There was nothing that was said that was specifically related to killing or ending Syko Stu‘s life, so without that, the burden for attempted murder just cannot be met. Technically, prosecutors can charge Raja with attempted murder, however it’s highly unlikely that they’ll reach their burden and secure a conviction, and they want a conviction here.”

[shopify type=”product” id=”8938040721632″ blogid=”1236″]

Watch Otunga’s full video explaining the situation below.

[carbongallery id=”6841d456c746e122fd84006a”]