I would love a claymore! I'm big enough to wield one in an effective (yet picturesque) manner.
Posted on 03/21/2006 1:38:11 AM PST by beaversmom
BATAVIA, Ohio -- A man who neighbours say was devoted to his meticulously kept lawn is charged with murder in the shooting of a 15-year-old boy who apparently walked across his yard.
Charles Martin, 66, of Union Township, near this city about 30 kilometres east of Cincinnati, shot next-door neighbour Larry Mugrage in the chest with a shotgun about 3:30 p.m. Sunday, police said. The youth was pronounced dead at hospital.
Martin was being held without bond yesterday in Clermont County Jail. Police said he told them he had several disputes about neighbours walking on his lawn. But Union Township police Lieut. Scott Gaviglia said Martin had no criminal history and last called police in 2003.
Martin called 911 on Sunday, saying in a calm voice: "I just killed a kid."
He also tells the dispatcher: "It's been going on for five years ... I've been harassed by him and his parents for five years. Today just blew it up."
STUNS NEIGHBOURHOOD
The deadly shooting stunned those in the neighbourhood and students at Glen Este High School, where Martin was a freshman, and grief counsellors were on hand yesterday.
"I think there's a great deal of shock, for two reasons: because of the age of the victim and just how this occurred, killed over some grass," Gaviglia said.
Neighbours said Martin lived alone quietly, often sitting out in front of his one-storey home with its neat lawn, well-trimmed shrubbery and flag pole with U.S. and navy flags flying.
In his fenced backyard, he had several birdhouses and a shed painted like a small red barn with white trim.
Welcome to FR. Glad you signed up today to post to a year old thread.
Let me tell you another point of view. I live not too far from a resort community that caters to these well-off "self-segregators". They enforce a lot of this segregation by making families with children so miserable that they sell out and leave. All the Deed Restrictions are enforced very quickly and heavily against a mom and kids. Lake-living is for retired couples and all their illegal alien maids and gardeners.
I have also worked with several children's groups who visit nursing homes. (The next stop on the Elder Express)--
The old folks call and beg to the little children--Won't you talk to me? Won't you show me your picture? Come close and give me a hug?...
The end of life is full of ironies.
Already starting here in Minnesota.
The Minnesota Dems are trying to pass a law that requires businesses to open the bathrooms that are not generally open to the public, to those with irritable bowel syndrome.
I've read that anal sex is one cause of irritable bowel syndrome, so once again the Dems are trying to force new gay rights down our throats.
If you're an owner or manager of a business, the gays will have superior rights to your previously private bathroom.
Not sure how Batavia handles it, but very few developments here in Houston allow you to fence your front yard.
??? I think you have me confused with someone else. I'm from Atlanta, not Batavia
I don’t know all the circumstances but if harrassed and violated there comes a time when you need to be able to protect yourself and your property. Private property is private property.
Nah, the story happened in Batavia.
OK. How did you know my personal preference for property fences was concertina wire?
Is there any new info ?
A trial or such?
Or do you just like seeing gun violence in the headlines?
BATAVIA - Charles Gerald Martin was sentenced May 23 to 18 years to life in prison for the shooting death of his 15-year-old neighbor, Larry Mugrage Jr., who walked on his grass.
The sentence was three years for using a gun to commit the murder and 15 years to life for killing Mugrage. The sentences will run concurrently and Martin will be eligible for parole.
"I see no sincere remorse here at all," said Clermont County Common Pleas Judge William Walker after handing out the sentence. "In my opinion you should never be released from prison."
Walker made the sentence after listening to courtroom remarks by Mugrage's father, mother and sister.
"On Feb. 24, 1991, the Good Lord blessed my life with a beautiful baby boy," said Larry Mugrage Sr. "On March 9, 2006, my heart was ripped out by a callous, heinous murder."
Martin, 67, was convicted April 26.
"He stepped in my yard," said Martin before his sentence was read. "Yeah, he stepped in it, he stepped 40 feet into it."
"I wish it wouldn't have happened, but it did," he said. "And now I'm going to live with it."
Walker said he would personally place a letter in Martin's file at whatever prison he was sent to asking that Martin never be granted parole.
Defense attorney R. Scott Croswell said he would make an appeal.
"Judge Walker is a fair man and followed the law," he said. "I don't question what he did."
The Mugrage family spoke about the sentence and their son in the courtroom after the sentencing.
"I never have to look at that man again," said Anita Mugrage, Larry's mother. "He should never be allowed out."
I thought everyone liked concertina wire! I can’t get enough of it, myself.
Who can? But how do you feel about claymores?
LOL! I had something else in mind - more in keeping with perimeter security, but that will do.
Why do I get the mental image of a flock of vultures descending onto a carcass?
I was thinkng the same thing.
I don't know about Islamic rugweavers, except that they allegedly put the shredded documents from the Embassy in Tehran back together.
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