So yea, I'd convict him of murder (as they did.) And personally I say it was an easy case. I would not loose a minute sleep convicting this guy.
+1
Same here.
So yea, I'd convict him of murder (as they did.) And personally I say it was an easy case. I would not loose a minute sleep convicting this guy.
The defense made a motion to dismiss the case claiming they had clearly shown all the elements of self-defense. The judge denied the motion and the defense decided not to call ANY witnesses.
A quick highlight of some of the testimony so far:
1. The man who is laughing who rushed Rodriguez is Johnson, a Houston firefighter. He had a blood alcohol level of 0.27 when he was tested. He was injured severely enough that they put him into an induced coma, and the combination of alcohol and coma apparently came with a fair amount of memory loss of the incident.
3. Ken Ellis, one neighbor, testfied there were four shots fired total. Two close together and then two separate shots a little later. He also testified that this was the first time there was a party at this place in three years, so I am not sure where the preexisting hostility that Rodriguez had for Danaher mentioned in other neighbor's testimony came from.
...he brought a gun to ANOTHER persons house to argue with them
The SYG law was designed for those minding their own business and someone comes up and assaults them. It was NOT to go around provoking fights and then 'standing your ground'.
This guy thought those words were his Get Out of Jail Free card rather than ideas or thoughts to be communicated to LE after a deadly encounter.
While it certainly was not for provoking fights (http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/tlodo...l/SB00378I.htm), nothing in the law says or indicates people have to be minding their own business for SYG to apply.
On another note, this is one of the problems with stand your ground laws in general. (The Florida law is even worse.)
If you can't define a law about when I have to retreat, I should be free not to do so.