California: Man released in death of intruder

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tipoc

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A San Francisco resident 68 year old Amisi Sudi Kachepa, shot and killed a 26 year old man who broke into his apartment at 1:40 am on the morning of May 3.

26 year old Stephen Guillermo was working his way through college and working two jobs when he went out drinking last Friday night. When he got home he got off the on the wrong floor and walked to what he believed was his apartment. Finding that he could not get in he broke his way in. The noise aroused the sleeping Kachepa who fired one shot killing Guillermo inside the entrance way to the home.

Kachepa called 911 and was taken into custody by police at the scene but released Weds. evening following an initial investigation. The d.a. did not believe they had enough facts to charge Kachepa with anything illegal.

The family of the dead student has protested the decision.

California law allows for the use of deadly force in self defense or where the presumption that ones life is in imminent danger. It has done this since the state entered the union and before that under Mexican and Spanish laws.

The police will continue an investigation, particularly as Guillermo's family pushes for it, but unless other information turns up, it's likely Kachepa will not be charged.

http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Man-shot-to-death-after-he-gets-out-on-the-wrong-5451050.php

http://www.ktvu.com/news/news/crime-law/family-sf-man-shot-entering-wrong-apartment-calls-/nfrPx/

http://www.sfexaminer.com/sanfranci...protests-shooters-release/Content?oid=2793187

http://globalnation.inquirer.net/103815/cousin-of-inquirer-net-columnist-shot-dead-in-san-francisco

tipoc
 
Based on just the information provided, I can't imagine it going anywhere. It's gotta be hard to find a reasonable person who wouldn't be in fear for their life if some young guy bashed in their front door at Oh-Dark-Thirty
 
Unfortunate situation. It sounds like the young man was a good man. But, when you get too drunk to know where you are, bad things can and do happen.

The crime is that Kachepa spent 4 days in jail.
 
When he got home he got off the on the wrong floor and walked to what he believed was his apartment.
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How does anyone know that the dead guy "believed" he was in his apartment?

26 year old Stephen Guillermo was working his way through college and working two jobs when he went out drinking last Friday night.
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Working two jobs....and college. I guess he wasn't working, going to school or studying when he went out and got drunk till 1:40 in the morning.

Finding that he could not get in he broke his way in.
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I suppose the reporter who wrote this story interviewed the dead guy who told him that he couldn't find his way into his apartment and therefore "broke in". And, what does "broke in" mean - Jimmy the lock with a screwdriver? If that's the case, what's the guy doing partying all night and carrying a screwdriver on him. No, I'd bet the guy kicked in the door....but, knowing that the violence and loud noise associated with someone kicking in the door wasn't how the author (and by author, I don't mean the OP) of this story wanted to portray things.

If someone kicks in your door in the middle of the night, and proceeds to enter your residence, what the heck are you supposed to do? Give the guy a brehalizer and ask for his student ID??? No one, kicks in a door if they can't get into their house, especially if they have a brother and sister living there too. THEY KNOCK ON THE DOOR. WHY DIDN'T THE DEAD GUY KNOCK ON THE DOOR? Maybe, just maybe because he knew exactly where he was and was breaking into the old man's apartment to rob him.

PS: One more thing, notice how the sister vows to extract vengeance on the old man who was merely defending himself. Sounds like the dead guy and his siblings could be part of a gang as well. That's what the police need to be investigating.

In my youth, I lived in many apartments. I even got falling down drunk on occasion - once I couldn't even make it back to my apartment and passed out in the woods. Never, not once, never ever ever did I 1)kick down any door to get inside of even my own residence; or 2) mistakenly try to enter someone else's residence thinking it was my own. Yes, I smell some very stinky BS on what was reported about this sweet, innocent, hard-working youth.
 
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As the news article states the dead fella lived in the same building, a few floors above and his apartment was in the same spot in relation to the elevator as his own apartment.

No criminal record apparently. None mentioned. No reason to believe he was part of some gang. The information so far just says he broke the door knob off, no more detailed description of the break in provided.

He may have knocked on the door. It doesn't say how much noise he made or how.

At some point he made enough noise to wake up the tenant who came out with a gun in his hand ready to defend himself. He believed he was in danger and shot in self defense.

tipoc
 
He lived in the same building? Sure, we have seen the same thing with people who live in the same apartment complex, on the same street, on different streets of the same neighborhood, etc. However, we don't know that the guy was confused about being in the wrong apartment. Maybe he had it in for Kachepa and got his drunk on and decided he was going to finally kick some butt. We have seen this sort of thing happen as well.

The point is, you can speculate wildly about why the guy was at an apartment not his own. It really doesn't matter why from the perspective of Kachepa who was in fear for his life from an intruder who was violently breaking into his abode.

WHY DIDN'T THE DEAD GUY KNOCK ON THE DOOR?
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Who says he didn't?

The shootee's family is undoubtedly terribly upset by their loss, but their calls for justice and such are just irrational and unreasonable given the law and why Kachepa was rightfully released.

I liked the comment here that his "fatal mistake" was getting off on the wrong floor. Families will often create alternative interpretations of what went wrong. Obviously, getting off on the wrong floor wasn't his fatal mistake. His fatal mistake was breaking into an apartment not his own, making the tenant believe he was a violent intruder, and hence defending himself against said intruder. The guy wasn't just on the wrong floor. He was in the wrong apartment. It is a significant difference.
http://nocera.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/05/07/the-gun-report-may-7-2014/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

The crime is that Kachepa spent 4 days in jail.
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Not really. It is unfortunate, but that is something that can happen as a result of a self defense shooting. We all know it. It took some time for the DA to work out the details and to be certain there was no reason to charge Kachepa. Just because it was a good shoot doesn't mean there won't be due diligence and due process for the investigation.
 
This is tragic, and my heart goes out to everyone involved in this incident. A young man is dead who didn't deserve to die, and it's horrible for his family. It's probably not much fun for Mr. Kachepa, either, who will have to live with the fact that he killed a fellow human being.

This is a somewhat interesting case, given that the "drunk in the wrong apartment" scenario is something we've talked about quite a bit. That said -- folks need to base discussion on the reported facts of the case, which don't seem to be in dispute, and not on speculation that Mr. Guillermo was in some way up to no good:
...maybe because he knew exactly where he was and was breaking into the old man's apartment to rob him.

PS: One more thing, notice how the sister vows to extract vengeance on the old man who was merely defending himself. Sounds like the dead guy and his siblings could be part of a gang as well. That's what the police need to be investigating.
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If this thread is to stay open, there will be no more pointless invention of this kind. Stick to the facts as reported.
 
On March 25th of 2012 a similar incident with a different outcome occurred in Foster City, Ca.

At a little before 4:30 am on a Sunday a 24 year old man who was quite drunk entered a home and was shot 3 times by the son of the homeowner who was visiting his family at the time. The shooter was in his 40s.

The 24 year old was out partying with his friends and passed out in the back seat of the car on the ride home. He woke up in the vehicle and broke into a home he believed was his friends.

The son of the owners of the home heard the noise of the break in, called 911 and escorted his family into a bedroom. When he saw the younger man inside he fired and hit him three times.

The police took no one into custody. The man who was shot was in a coma but lived. An investigation was begun. No charges were filed.

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/loca...ibly-Drunk-Entered-Wrong-House-144287625.html

http://archives.smdailyjournal.com/article_preview.php?id=232577

http://blog.sfgate.com/crime/2012/03/26/man-enters-wrong-foster-city-house-gets-shot/

http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_20685041/no-charges-foster-city-intruder-shooting-da-says

It's more common than some may think that drunk folks try to get into a home that is not their own.

tipoc
 
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It's more common than some may think that drunk folks try to get into a home that is not their own.
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It doesn't even have to look similar. One of my idiot sailors went out drinking one night and tried to find his way back to the ship. Our ship was a frigate (very small ship for you non-Navy types). Security patrol picked up my guy trying to climb the gangplank of the USS Forrestal (aircraft carrier - huge difference).
 
It's more common than some may think that drunk folks try to get into a home that is not their own.
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People that drunk do a lot of stupid things and often have to suffer the consequences for it. Drunk or sober, there are consequences for your actions.
 
Right Dale, that one even went to court for full due process and no doubt, considerable cost to the homeowner. He was found not guilty, but the judge's instructions noted were probably very critical to the jurors reaching the right verdict...

Judge Michael Erwin offered the jury little guidance on the most vital question it had to consider: just what constituted a "reasonable" belief that deadly force was necessary. "The jury found it was reasonable for Rodney to protect his family against a stranger who showed no regard for Rodney's home, his family, his verbal warning and his gun," said Mr. Peairs' lawyer, Lewis Unglesby of Baton Rouge.
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http://www.nytimes.com/1993/05/26/u...erates-across-nation.html?src=pm&pagewanted=2
 
My understanding as a layman relative to the law is that these cases are decided by what the homeowner (or, in this case, apartment dweller) reasonably believes. Relatives can yell all they want, but there simply is no way that a person in their own home could determine that the intruder was drunk, lost, and lived in a corresponding apartment on a different floor. People make the choice to take in enough alcohol or other drug to impair their judgement, and there are consequences to poor judgement. Tragic for the deceased, his family, and the resident who defended himself, but he was released precisely because his defense of himself was reasonable given the information that was available to him at the time.

We had a local incident a few months ago that was similar - an elderly homeowner and a drunk pounding on his door late at night. It was a little more tenuous in that the homeowner opened the door to the drunk while armed. The drunk lunged in the door and the homeowner shot the drunk with fatal results. He, too, was released, and the drunk's relatives howled about the injustice. Revenge is not justice, however; a lot of people like to forget that.
 
No one, kicks in a door if they can't get into their house, especially if they have a brother and sister living there too. THEY KNOCK ON THE DOOR. WHY DIDN'T THE DEAD GUY KNOCK ON THE DOOR?
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You may not have but I sure did. When I was 21 I lived in an apartment with two of my friends. As soon as we were home from work we were drinking. The front door was broken in more than once because two of us were passed out drunk when the third got home, drunk and without his key.

Sometimes drunks kick in doors. Why did the dead guy in this story kick in that door? Doesn't mater now does it?
 
there was a case in westchester,NY some years ago where a man who had been profoundly abused by his parents was drunk and broke into his estranged parents house.he, in a fit of drunkin rage stabbed to death two people in bed in his parents bedroom.

accept that his parents had moved many years earlier and he in reality killed the family that had the misfortune of buying there house.

he was sentenced to 16 to 50 years for manslaughter

if a drunk person confuses there house with yours you never know what could happen
 
Both the cases I reported on above were clear cut cases. In other instances where drunks were pounding on doors, etc. the resident has shot through a door at folks they do not see and have not identified (failure to identify the target, Rule 3 ain't it? "Identify your target and what's behind it".). These instances are not so clear cut. Jail time often results.

tipoc
 
if youre going to get drunk, you have to have the forethought to prevent your stupid actions from ruining your life... like designated drivers, knowing where you actually live.......

in essence, play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
 
Both the cases I reported on above were clear cut cases.
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Funny how they are clear cut cases in retrospect. It is easy to determine it is a clear cut case once the person is cleared, huh? There have been similar claimed "clear cut" cases where the investigation turned up information that the "clear cut" claims were lies to cover up murder.

In other instances where drunks were pounding on doors, etc. the resident has shot through a door at folks they do not see and have not identified (failure to identify the target, Rule 3 ain't it? "Identify your target and what's behind it".). These instances are not so clear cut. Jail time often results.

tipoc
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Rule 3 ain't a law. It isn't even universally accepted. Funny how jail time occurred in the above clear cut case. Hmmm.

I recall a band member of the New Bohemians breaking into a home, the couple on the phone with 911, the male homeowner shooting a warning shot through the door and killing the band member, breaking rule 3 completely, and getting no billed in the process. The band member was flipping out on Chantix (purportedly) and a night of partying and thought he was at his girlfriend's home (which was nearby).
http://www.today.com/id/20585173/ns...ians-keyboard-player-shot-death/#.U27uEE4o6M8

Albrecht's family forgave the homeowner for the shooting, noting that he did what he had to do to protect his home from an intruder. I can't find copies of the 911 call now, but I recall listening to it and it was pretty scary.
 
Public intoxication is a crime

People are arrested because they pose a hazard to others and themselves when they are not in control of their physical actions or emotions.
While a tragedy that this young man died, the burden is on him for his decision to render himself so senseless that he committed a criminal act out of befuddlement.
 
Some people should not own firearms, and some people shouldn't get drunk.

Hindsight, experiential transference, and hack journalists are always pretty certain to garner an emotional level of certainty as to behavior, motive, actions taken, etc., etc., that is guaranteed to be a set of completely unknown and completely irrelevant factors at the moment the drunk kicked in the door of a 68-year old man's house in the middle of the night.
 
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