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Man claims self-defense in fatal shooting of a neighbor

rhinefire said:
This is sad. He probably is a good guy but stupid. I carry all the time and dread the day if I ever have to pull it out much less take a life. I never want to kill anyone from a moral stance but some, if not most people that I have spoke with don't realize what can happen from a legal point of view if you kill someone legally. Some joke about it and that is scary. The greatest fear I had in the military is carryng the memories of war for the rest of my life.
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Well - rest assured; the man in the OP was the aggresor and was not 'defending himself'
 
It sounds like there are several things going on here, we don't know about.
It was a bad idea to go an confront a bunch of drunk guys.
The idea got worse when he showed the gun.
It did look like the indecent occurred on the street(as one of the speakers mentioned)
In Harris County the DA has an over 90 % convection rate, so I think he will be convicted.
 
I predict that things will not turn out well, in court, for this moron. You do NOT plan an armed attack, bring a gun and a video camera to "visit" your neighbor, on their property, provoke them into a confrontation and then execute them - attempting to "justify" it all as self defense. The Texas law is quite clear on this point; I hope that both the state, and common sense, prevail in this case.
 
dolphinocean said:
I am not arguing against you on whether it applies or not on the right to trespass and then shoot someone to claim self-defense. I'm with you on that one.

What I'm saying is that the original "Castle Doctrine" was modified to include version of SYGL. That's the reason that guy repeatedly say he was "standing his ground" before the shooting.

He's not alone on this belief, there are Texas lawyers who will use the modified version to argue likewise:



I think the modified "Castle Doctrine" is a bad law.
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OK, I understand what you are saying, but the modification of the law has nothing to do with stand your ground. Basically, what happened here is that the guy saw all the news reports on the Zimmerman case, and thought he could get away with using stand your ground here in Houston. Problem is, there is no stand your ground in Texas. And the Castle Doctrine applies ONLY to your home, car, or workplace, which are not public property. Worse than that, he tried to apply the non-existent stand your ground on someone ELSE'S property, not his own, or even public, property.

Here is my opinion on the whole thing: The man got pissed that people were playing loud music, and he decided that, instead of letting the police handle the matter, he was going to take the law into his own hands and intimidate them by going onto THEIR property with a weapon. Things got out of hand, and now he is going to have years to think about his stupidity. The idiot's biggest mistake was videotaping the whole thing, because it is his own video, more than anything else, that ended up incriminating him.
 
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danarhea said:
OK, I understand what you are saying, but the modification of the law has nothing to do with stand your ground. Basically, what happened here is that the guy saw all the news reports on the Zimmerman case, and thought he could get away with using stand your ground here in Houston. Problem is, there is no stand your ground in Texas. And the Castle Doctrine applies ONLY to your home, car, or workplace, which are not public property. Worse than that, he tried to apply the non-existent stand your ground on someone ELSE'S property, not his own, or even public, property.

Here is my opinion on the whole thing: The man got pissed that people were playing loud music, and he decided that, instead of letting the police handle the matter, he was going to take the law into his own hands and intimidate them by going onto THEIR property with a weapon. Things got out of hand, and now he is going to have years to think about his stupidity. The idiot's biggest mistake was videotaping the whole thing, because it is his own video, more than anything else, that ended up incriminating him.
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But, this incident happened in May 2010, long before Zimmerman's encountering Trayvon. He certainly couldn't have repeatedly said "I am standing my ground right now" three times in the video, taken in 2010, because of Zimmerman's case.
 
danarhea said:
Here is my opinion on the whole thing: The man got pissed that people were playing loud music, and he decided that, instead of letting the police handle the matter, he was going to take the law into his own hands and intimidate them by going onto THEIR property with a weapon. Things got out of hand, and now he is going to have years to think about his stupidity. The idiot's biggest mistake was videotaping the whole thing, because it is his own video, more than anything else, that ended up incriminating him.
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About the point "by going onto THEIR property", I am not quite sure now from the video. In the video he said he was standing 200 feet from his neighbor. The video also showed the other men drove a truck to him. Just pointing things out to see whether you notice that.

Despite that I do believe this guy was setting up the incident on the video for his self-defense claim based on SYGL when he went looking for confrontation with his gun drawn.
 
Reads like this guy had it all planned out. He wanted it to escalate the way it did so he could kill his neighbor but have an excuse. He didn't plan very well.
 
Enola said:
Reads like this guy had it all planned out. He wanted it to escalate the way it did so he could kill his neighbor but have an excuse. He didn't plan very well.
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That was what I thought based on his action before the shooting. The prosecutor even had a witness who could testify to his state of mind on that but the judge refused to allow it:

Meanwhile, prosecutors attempted to bring in other testimony Friday that Rodriguez was a neighborhood bully who was known for flashing his gun.

"I’ll tell you basically how you can kill someone and be above the law," assistant district attorney Kelli Johnson told the judge Rodriguez allegedly said to someone as she attempted to get him to allow the evidence into trial. "You need to say that you are in fear of your life, pull the trigger and you can justify it."

The judge denied her request.

Neighbor: Ex-firefighter accused in teacher's death seemed agitated before shooting | khou.com Houston
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Funny part is this tell tail sign of set-up for bloodsheds on the stand your ground principle:

“Look, I will defend myself, sir. … It’s about to get out of hand, sir. Please help me. Please help me, sir. My life is in danger now,” Rodriguez can be heard saying on the recording, which was played for jurors this week. The images are mostly dark or in shadow.

“I’m standing my ground here. Now these people are going to go try and kill me.”


Rodriguez, 47, eventually tells the dispatcher, “Look I’m not losing to these people anymore.” A loud cackling laugh is then heard before someone appears to reach for the camera and a gun goes off. That’s when the video abruptly ends.

Neighbor: Ex-firefighter accused in teacher's death seemed agitated before shooting | khou.com Houston
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If there was a time bomb in front of him that was about to get out of hand like he said, would he just stood there and told the dispatcher his life is in danger now, "please come and help me"? Or would he take immediate action to flee from the scene?
 
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UPDATE: A jury just convicted him of murder. He decided that he was going to be the law, and now the law is going to own him for most of, if not the rest of, his life. He wanted justice enough to take the law into his own hands and murder his neighbor, so now he got justice, and he is going where he belongs. Let this be a lesson to other would be vigilantes. End of story.
 
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danarhea said:
UPDATE: A jury just convicted him of murder. He decided that he was going to be the law, and now the law is going to own him for most of, if not the rest of, his life. He wanted justice enough to take the law into his own hands and murder his neighbor, so now he got justice, and he is going where he belongs. Let this be a lesson to other would be vigilantes. End of story.
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Here's the link to the news of the jury verdict:

Jury finds retired firefighter guilty in ‘stand your ground’ murder trial | khou.com Houston
 
dolphinocean said:
Man Claims Self Defense in Fatal Shooting of Neighbor | ABC News Blogs - Yahoo!



Sounds like this guy is setting up a case of self-defense based on fearing for his life and "stand your ground". He took a gun to his neigbor's driveway with his camera while telling the police dispatcher on his cell phone that he is fearing for his life and standing his ground before the shooting.

Did he shoot and kill his neighbor, an elementary school teacher, and wounded two others in self-defense? What do you think?
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I think he walked over to his neighbor's house with a gun.
 
Now, if you want to compare this to Zimmerman's case, go ahead. Do you think the prosecutor's closing argument in this case is a good one for the prosecutor in Zimmerman case to use?
 
dolphinocean said:
Man Claims Self Defense in Fatal Shooting of Neighbor | ABC News Blogs - Yahoo!



Sounds like this guy is setting up a case of self-defense based on fearing for his life and "stand your ground". He took a gun to his neigbor's driveway with his camera while telling the police dispatcher on his cell phone that he is fearing for his life and standing his ground before the shooting.

Did he shoot and kill his neighbor, an elementary school teacher, and wounded two others in self-defense? What do you think?
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Another case of why open carry should not be legal. This man had no business walking over there with a gun: that put's everybody else into "stand your ground" mode and it puts the man with the gun into a "premeditated" state; intent on doing harm . . . He's guilty of murder in my view.
 
jet57 said:
Another case of why open carry should not be legal. This man had no business walking over there with a gun: that put's everybody else into "stand your ground" mode and it puts the man with the gun into a "premeditated" state; intent on doing harm . . . He's guilty of murder in my view.
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Open Carry does not apply to private property.
 
danarhea said:
OK, I understand what you are saying, but the modification of the law has nothing to do with stand your ground. Basically, what happened here is that the guy saw all the news reports on the Zimmerman case, and thought he could get away with using stand your ground here in Houston.
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bwahahaha. you sell him a time machine or something?
 
Aberration said:
Open Carry does not apply to private property.
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The news story said that the shooter was on his neighbors property (or the sidewalk) at the time, so an argument against open carry can apply.
 
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