Posted on 10/17/2021 7:28:31 AM PDT by Eddie01
A jury on Thursday found a Virginia man, accused of shooting his next-door neighbor, guilty of first-degree murder.
Michael Hetle, a 52-year-old former police officer and NASA executive, shot 24-year-old Javon Prather seven times, a video of which was caught by a Ring doorbell camera, local news outlet WTOP reported.
Hetle and Prather had feuded for years, arguing over mundane things like dog poop and loud music, according to local news outlets. Since 2016, Hetle has called the police to complain about barking dog noises coming from Prather's house, WTOP said.
Before the jury, Hetle's attorney argued that he acted in self-defense. Hetle said he believed Prather was armed and claimed to have been threatened by him multiple times ahead of the shooting.
Prosecutors, however, said it was "not self-defense, that it was murder in the first degree, which is murder with malice and murder with premeditation."
The video, according to local news reports, shows Hetle firing several rounds at Prather in March 2020 while other neighbors watched. Prather's wife was among the onlookers.
Prather had knocked on Hetle's door, and Hetle then fired six times at him while Prather tried to run off his doorstep, according to the Washington Post.
Prather collapsed on Hetle's driveway, and Hetle fired another time before turning to Prather's wife.
"You want it too?" he asked, according to the Post, pointing toward his gun.
[snip]
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
What kind of music? If he was blasting Taylor Swift then I don’t blame the guy although I would have used a grenade launcher.
Michael Bolton…
the neighbor from Hell finally got it.
Obvious Temporary insanity.
cRap perhap
Good point.
What type of music and how big was the dog?
The difference maker between first degree murder and good shoot.
No excuse for murder, but I bet ‘Javon’ was a raving asshole. Sometimes extreme assholishness gets you killed.
“Prosecutors also argued that “racial animus was a contributing factor” in the incident, WTOP reported. Hetle, a white man, had often referred to Prather, who’s of mixed race, using a racial epithet, according to testimony given during the trial.”
The facts seem to call for conviction — it’s not legal to kill your neighbors just because they deserve it — but prosecutors just had to play the race card.
Dog Sh#t and Bad Music? Well that’s enough to send a lot of people over the edge.
Seven shots, one when he was down, then threatening the wife goes beyond self-defense.
Another PR win for NASA. :-)
Remember this one:
https://www.biography.com/news/lisa-nowak-lucy-in-the-sky
“Seven shots, one when he was down, then threatening the wife goes beyond self-defense.”
Exactly.
Six shots and leave the wife out of it, I think he gets off with a warning.
I agree!
There is one from the memory hole!
Nice work.
**dog poop and loud music, **
These can cause problems. We had a neighbor in an apartment complex who allowed her dog to poop in front of our door where the children play.
One day I went out and saw someone (it was not us) had placed the dog poop on the top of her car.
Knowing she would blame us, I removed and discarded it.
She moved not long after.
In another incident, we heard a radio being played late at night, very loudly in a residential area. Neighbors also were complaining about it as it was keeping everyone in the area awake.
The police were called, and we traced the noise to a house THREE BLOCKS AWAY. The cops told them to turn it down.
Some people just don’t realize that the whole world does not depend on THEIR particular RADIO to hear music at night.
Wouldn’t surprise me one bit.
Terrible. Video is tough.
March 2020 - during the original COVID lockdown? And was the victim listed as a COVID casualty? I’m surprised more of this doesn’t happen as the “15 days to flatten the curve” continues.
The Washington Post actually has a pretty fair write-up on this.
Former police officer found guilty of murder in killing of next-door neighbor
Looks like everyone involved were assholes, including the wife. Now one asshole is dead, another widowed, and the third asshole will be spending his life in prison where he will undoubtedly find his neighbors even more unpleasant.
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