By City News Service
Shavaughn McKenzie, 25, was convicted of a misdemeanor on Oct. 24 for trespassing on the Hollywood Hills property of model and reality television personality Kendall Jenner, but jurors acquitted him of a misdemeanor stalking charge.
McKenzie’s attorney, Taylor Shramo, argued during the trial that the man only wanted to talk to Jenner when he approached her on Aug. 14.
“He never had any malicious intent … he certainly never intended to place her in fear,” Shramo told the jury panel during his closing argument. “He thought that they could be friends.”
The maximum sentence for the trespassing conviction is six months. Given double credit for days served under California law, McKenzie has nearly served that amount of time already.
Shramo asked that sentencing be set for Nov. 10, when his client is expected to be sentenced to time-served with no probation.
During his closing argument, the defense attorney said his client was diagnosed in 2012 with “unspecified psychotic disorder” and still suffers from the mental illness, an assertion backed by psychologist Jasmine Tehrani.
Following the verdict, the prosecutor, Deputy City Attorney Alex Perez said he was “disappointed,” adding he believed there was “more than enough evidence to convict him on (stalking).”
In his closing argument, Perez told jurors that McKenzie ventured across the country, figured out the location of Kendall’s residence, staked out the Westwood condominium building where she previously lived and repeatedly approached her even after she took measures to avoid him.
The prosecutor said McKenzie knew from Jenner’s reactions that she was “afraid of him,” yet “still makes contact again and again and again.”
McKenzie was arrested Aug. 14 after approaching Jenner as she waited for the 13-foot-tall gate to her property to close after she drove through.
Jenner identified McKenzie in court as the man who has “been following me for a couple of years” and said she had “never been so scared in my life” after being approached by him in her driveway.
She testified that she initially asked him nicely twice to leave, then screamed at him another six or seven times to do so.
“I was crying, I was screaming, I was freaking out,” Jenner testified. “I didn’t know what his intentions were…I was frightened for sure.”
She said McKenzie had previously approached her car outside the Westwood condominium complex, including one incident in which she swerved out of the way as he ran up toward her and another time when he approached her vehicle as she waited at a red light and then approached her again after she turned right and then made a U-turn to try to elude him.
