How NOT to defend yourself at home / castle doctrine

Jmoser

Jmoser

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Some of you may recall this from when it happened - pretty inexcusable plus a very lame rationale / defense.

' A man was convicted of second-degree murder Tuesday for fatally shooting a young woman when the SUV she was riding in mistakenly drove into his rural driveway in upstate New York.

After deliberating for less than an hour, a jury found Kevin Monahan, 66, guilty for shooting 20-year-old Kaylin Gillis on a Saturday night last April after she and her friends pulled into his long, curving driveway near the Vermont border while they were trying to find another house. Monahan was also convicted of reckless endangerment and tampering with physical evidence.

Monahan and his attorney maintained the shooting was an accident involving a defective gun.
Monahan himself took the stand in his own defense, saying he believed the house he shared with his wife was "under siege" by intruders when he saw the vehicles approach. He said he first fired a warning shot to scare the group away.

He said he then tripped over nails sticking up from the porch, lost his balance and the shotgun struck the deck. That, he said, accidentally caused his gun to fire at the Ford Explorer carrying Gillis.

"I didn't mean to shoot the second shot," Monahan testified last week. "The gun went off." '
 
Well it IS NY.
Nothing close to stand your ground or castle doctrine.
Up there you DO have a duty to retreat, and if completely backed into a corner they will still prosecute you for using deadly force
 
He’d have been convicted even if it was in Texas an the driver was smuggling a van full of illegals. What an idiot.
 
NC Boy Scout said:
Well it IS NY.
Nothing close to stand your ground or castle doctrine.
Up there you DO have a duty to retreat, and if completely backed into a corner they will still prosecute you for using deadly force
Click to expand...

I think you’d be hard pressed to avoid a trial and jail time for this one, no matter what state you lived in
 
Tripped over nails sticking up from the porch. So, failure to properly maintain a dwelling, resulting in a death.
 
East of Here said:
And thus, he did not believe that the threat was immediate such that deadly force was necessary.

Remember boys and girls:

Warning Shot = Admission of Guilt
Click to expand...
Not to mention, where's that bullet going to end up?


I got into a heated debate with a CCW student (not mine) about warning shots and wounding shots. He stated that he didn't really want to kill anyone. I suggested he find other means of self protection. That guns were lethal weapons and that using one was considered application of deadly force whether he meant to wound or not. He resorted to personal verbal attacks. I walked away since it was my friend's class that I happened to catch on break. My friend rolled his eyes with a "gee thanks" look as he closed the door.
 
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JBoyette said:
Nothing in this guy's story lines up with NC law; the biggest takeaway is the idiot never proved any kind of intent, with immediate death or great bodily harm.

I teach that you need three things for a legal self defense

Ability
Opportunity
Jeopardy
Click to expand...
Yeah I'm side-eyeing anyone that thinks he should have not been charged/convicted.
 
The North Carolina Court of Appeals just upheld a murder conviction this week in the case of State v. Willoughby where the person tried to claim defense of habitation, but the trial court would not allow it and refused to instruct the jury on that defense. The facts were similar to this, where the guy went out and shot his son's ex-girlfriend in his front yard for no other reason than she was being annoying and banging on the window - so upholding the verdict itself was not that shocking. But what was important was that the Court of Appeals expressly reiterated the point that if you fire a warning shot, you forfeit your ability to claim castle doctrine. You'll also note that they recognized that in North Carolina, "it is unlawful to use a warning shot as a means of self defense instead of shooting to kill..."
Yes, you read that right:
IMG_20240124_212428.jpg
 
So basically, when it comes to warning shots, just remember that meme.

Ain't nobody got time for dat!
 
What about two shotgun blast off the balcony. Wait, I don't have a balcony.
 
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Crazy. He did what exactly Uncle Joe told him to do.

He bought a shotgun. He went out on the deck and fired two blasts!

edit: damm!t georgel. had my window open too long. totally ruined my own timing. doh!
 
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