Son shoots at fleeing car after the driver shot his mother ... Should he take a plea?

This case is whacked. I highly suspect that it will turn out that the shooter had a relationship with someone in the family and the relationship ended badly.

It is all over the news out here and the story keeps changing.

Slee

As to the original hypothetical, based on earlier knowledge of the case, I’d say that in the scenario where the son possibly fired at the suspect who was fleeing it wouldn’t be necessary to take a plea. This is materially different than the guy who shot the German foreign exchange student (a man who was essentially lying in wait and several witnesses testified he had pre-meditated staging his garage to entice burglars), or the guy who shot the two burglars in his basement (a guy who admitted on taped interview with police that he “finished off” the female burglar after she was incapacitated by shooting her execution style in the head as she was prone on the ground), namely in the following ways:

  1. Defense would argue the shots were fired in the heat of the moment and in self-defense, and would argue he didn’t shoot at a fleeing car but at a car someone was shooting from (evidence would be too murky to establish this one way or another–good for the defense.)

  2. We had no indication anyone in the car was hit.

  3. The hypothetical about the son being charged with manslaughter or felony murder would be a major stretch, it’s pretty dissimilar from the sort of situations where that can occur.

  4. Both of those cases involve deaths, a perpetrator who was lying in wait and acting in a way you couldn’t successfully call self-defense in any State in the country. The German foreign exchange student was killed in a State with all the big pro-gun laws. Strong gun culture, strong castle doctrine, stand your ground law on the books etc. But you still can’t admit to lying in wait to kill someone and get off on self defense.

FWIW the family has a new story that has a big hole in it as far as I’m concerned. The dad said the media jumped to conclusions by saying his wife and son went out “looking” for the guy who shot his wife. Instead, he says that his wife drove home with his daughter, daughter gets out of the car and the wife gets the son because she is scared and is “going to take the car and hide it somewhere.” The reason being, they don’t want this person to find their house based on seeing the car in the driveway. Okay, I can actually accept all of that, if this had been a random crazed road rage person it is legit you wouldn’t want to leave your car parked in front of your house if you had genuine worry the guy may be out looking for you.

But, the dad’s story also involves him saying they know this kid well and that he has a reputation as a “bad guy” in the neighborhood, but he was unaware he was “bad enough” to be involved in something like this. Okay, so those two things conflict massively, if they knew the guy then it doesn’t make sense that they were trying to hide the car. The guy didn’t need to see their car parked in the driveway to find their house, he was a neighbor and would’ve known where they lived anyway.

Police are searching for a second suspect.

For all those saying the family’s story is bullshit and keeps changing, remember you are only hearing news reports. I’m sure the investigators involved have been reading reports thinking “where the hell did that come from?” For all we know the information given to the police was complete and consistent from the beginning. Every investigation I have been involved it that hit the media has been reported incorrectly.

I’m assuming drugs.

I had the same thought(s) when I saw this whole shitfest of events in the news.

Who the hell goes out armed to look for another driver they had a tiff with? They would be long gone. Then they can’t identify the car or driver they hunted down? The other driver was laying in wait? Bullshit.

↑ ↑ ↑ This and many other subjects. :smiley:

Also love the way the editing they do much of the time that completely changes what a person says. :rolleyes:

New details. 22 shots??? Do they make a expanded clip for a .45? How many clips did that guy use? Maybe three or even four? Geez, who carries that many with them?

http://news.yahoo.com/police-teen-neighbor-suspected-vegas-road-rage-killing-080512466.html

well alrighty then, somebody’s sure takin’ their Moderating gig seriously

CNN is reporting that Meyerses (?) son pointed his gun first, and the suspect decided that would be a good time to open fire. That comes from the suspect’s lawyer.

The lawyer for the suspect says there was no road rage incident, and is poking hole after hole in the entire wild story. Description given to police was of a six foot individual, his client is five feet tall, and so on.

The D.A. is admitting there are “certain nuances” in the case, lol. Oh yeah.