Former WWE star David Otunga gives his legal opinion on potential charges against Raja Jackson
At a recent Knokx Pro Wrestling event, there was an incident involving Raja Jackson, the son of MMA fighter Rampage Jackson, and independent wrestler Syko Stu. Prior to the show, there was a confrontation between the two men and during Stu’s match, Raja got into the ring and attacked him.
In a video published to his YouTube channel, former WWE star David Otunga gave his legal opinion on potential charges against Raja as a lawyer with a Harvard degree…
“I don’t think attempted murder is likely. That’s what a lot of people were saying. However, a lot of people are not licensed lawyers and professional wrestlers. I think that would be incredibly hard to prove—that he had the intent to kill. Thank God Syko Stu did not die. Otherwise, there could have been a manslaughter charge potentially, but thank God he did not die. Again, thoughts and prayers to Syko Stu.
I think more likely is battery. This is clearly a battery with serious bodily harm, which could be a felony. But another thing that’s interesting is I actually think this is aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Let’s not forget Raja is an MMA fighter, and if you’re an MMA fighter, that requires you to have a license just like a boxer, where your hands and feet are considered deadly weapons. The moment that Syko Stu was knocked unconscious and Raja was just raining down blows upon him—that’s assault with a deadly weapon, hands down.
Now, on to the civil liabilities. There’s a litany of them. There are so many torts here, not just personally for Raja, but it gets into the promotion and anybody involved. There also could be some criminal culpability for an accessory. I don’t know about a conspiracy, maybe an accessory though, for the people who encouraged him.
All in all, this was awful, and I expect there’s going to be plenty of court cases coming down on this. There certainly should be criminal cases, and I fully expect there to be civil cases as well.”