RIVERHEAD, N.Y. (1010 WINS)  -- A black man who invoked lynch mobs in explaining why he killed a white teenager was convicted of second-degree manslaughter as a jury rejected defense lawyers' arguments that his actions were justified.

Jurors reached a verdict Saturday after four days of deliberations and an emotional three-week trial that flared around questions of race and recklessness.

The defendant, John White, raised the nation's history of racist violence in describing why he brandished a gun at a group of angry white teenagers who came to his house on Aug. 9, 2006. White ultimately shot 17-year-old Daniel Cicciaro in what he said was an accident, but a prosecutor said was the result of poor judgment.

1010 WINS AUDIO: Sonia Rincon Reports

Saying White planned to appeal, defense attorney Fred Brewington called the verdict "disappointing for African-Americans" in the area.

"You have to survive in Suffolk County, where people can roll up on your house at 11:30 at night, threaten you, threaten your family, curse at you, call you a nigger, and you've got to take it," he said.

But the slain teen's mother, Joanne Cicciaro, said the case "was never about race. It was about individuals and individuals' actions."

White, 54, remains free on bail until sentencing, when he is to face a prison term of five to 15 years. White also was convicted of a weapons possession misdemeanor that carries a penalty of two to seven years in prison, which would likely run concurrently with the other sentence.

The verdict came after a marathon 12-hour deliberation session during which jurors said they were deadlocked, as they briefly had the day before. The judge told them around 8:15 p.m. Saturday to keep deliberating, and notice of the verdict came about 45 minutes later. Jurors declined to comment.

Outside the courtroom, the Cicciaro family's supporters chanted "Dan-O! Dan-O!" and honked their horns as they drove away. Several supporters had the teenager's nickname, "Dano Jr.," tattooed on their bodies.

"My son is finally vindicated," Joanne Cicciaro said. "The truth prevailed."

The shooting happened outside White's home in Miller Place, a predominantly white community on eastern Long Island. His 19-year-old son, Aaron, had awoken him around 11 p.m. to tell him he had been feuding with other teenagers after being asked to leave a party, and several of the teenagers were headed to the Whites' house for a confrontation.

John White — who testified that the Ku Klux Klan had torched his grandfather's business in Alabama in the 1920s, and he feared a similar attack was about to happen — first grabbed a shotgun, then opted for a pistol he had hidden in the garage.

He and his son, who picked up the shotgun, went down the driveway to confront the teens in the street.

"He wanted to stop these people who said they were coming to kill his son," Brewington said in closing arguments.

He contended the gun fired accidentally when Cicciaro lunged for it.

Suffolk County Assistant District Attorney James Chalifoux said White should simply have locked the door and called police, rather than going outside to confront the teenagers with a gun. They were unarmed.

Chalifoux also sought to downplay the racial element, telling jurors the Brooklyn-raised White never said anything about a lynch mob until the case went to trial. The prosecutor noted that the Klan attack on White's grandfather occurred 30 years before White was born.

He quoted White on the night he was arrested as telling police: "I did what I had to do. You might as well put the cuffs on now. This is the end of me."

After the verdict was read, Dan Cicciaro Sr. defended his son.

"Maybe now they'll stop slinging my son's name and stop accusing him of all this racism," he said.

The shooting happened shortly after Aaron White was asked to leave a beer bash at a friend's home. He did, and Cicciaro and his friends subsequently called the teenager on his cell phone to continue the dispute as they headed to his house.

Some of the teenagers continued to hurl racial epithets once at the home, and the younger White conceded that he responded with profanity-laced responses of his own.

Cicciaro, who had a blood-alcohol reading above the legal limit for driving, was just 3 inches from the pistol when he was shot in the face, a medical examiner testified.

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