OFF THE WIRE
Most of us who regularly carry firearms know (or should know) that we need to be extraordinarily careful about what we say in the immediate aftermath of any defensive use of a firearm, whether or not shots were fired.
The Little Falls case finally went to trial just this past month, and concluded with the jury taking only three hours to find the homeowner defendant guilty of premeditated murder in the death of two teenagers who broke into his Minnesota home on Thanksgiving Day of 2012.
The homeowner had made a whole series of bad decisions before, during, and even after the break-in. One of the most obvious was talking openly to the police, and even more importantly, with no legal representation. Now, given the facts of that particular case, his chances of acquittal on the basis of self-defense were minimal anyway, but he certainly didn’t do himself any favors by spilling his guts to police.
Those over 50 probably remember the case of the notorious New York “Subway Vigilante” Bernard Goetz back in the 1980s. While the New York public, weary of rampant street crime back then, had some sympathy for him, Goetz’s statements made to the four young black males he had just shot certainly didn’t help:
According to his statements to police, Goetz checked the first two men to make sure that they had been “taken care of”—then, seeing that the fourth man was now sitting down and seemed unhurt, said, “You seem to be all right, here’s another,” and fired at him again.
Goetz ultimately ended up being acquitted of the attempted murder charges, and convicted only of a far lesser charge in criminal court. But Goetz also made numerous inflammatory comments during his subsequent civil lawsuit, allegedly saying things like, “I guess I should have made sure they were all dead.” The jurors in that case awarded the now-paralyzed plaintiff $43 million.
More recently, the case in Montana, in which a homeowner shot and killed a young exchange student in his garage, illustrates quite clearly that what we say days—even weeks—before we are involved in an incident can come back to bite us.
According to a KTVQ TV report, “Markus Hendrik Kaarma, 29, made his initial appearance in Missoula County Justice Court on Monday. He is charged with deliberate homicide.”
Now, it was bad enough when it was discovered that Mr. Kaarma and his common-law-wife, Janelle Pflager, had allegedly “baited” their garage by purposely leaving Ms. Pflager’ purse in plain sight, with the garage door open. They even placed a baby monitor and motion detectors in the garage as well.
But a conversation Mr. Kaarma had with his hair stylist further bolstered the prosecutor’s claim that this was an “ambush” rather than self-defense. Mr. Kaarma apparently told Great Clips employee Felene Sherbondy: “I’m just waiting to shoot some f–king kid.”
Kaarma further stated to Ms. Sherbondy that he’s been “waiting up for the past three nights” to (sic) “shoot some kid.” When Ms. Sherbondy asked him to “quit swearing” he ranted that he could “say whatever the f–k” he wanted. “Free Speech” indeed. This guy’s a prosecutor’s dream.
I’ve seen and heard idiots make similar, even racist, comments—not just in public, but online, where they are available for the entire world to see (and save).
Let’s just make sure that none of us makes the same stupid mistakes.