Posted on 03/21/2006 3:03:05 PM PST by xzins
Police: Man Killed Teen for Walking on Lawn By LISA CORNWELL ASSOCIATED PRESS
BATAVIA, Ohio (AP) -
0321dv-lawn-shooting A man who neighbors say was devoted to his meticulously kept lawn was charged with murder in the shooting of a 15-year-old boy who apparently walked across his yard.
Charles Martin called 911 on Sunday afternoon, saying calmly: "I just killed a kid."
Police, who released the call's contents, said Martin also told the dispatcher: "I've been harassed by him and his parents for five years. Today just blew it up."
Larry Mugrage, whose family lived next door, was shot in the chest with a shotgun. The high school freshman was pronounced dead at a hospital.
Martin, 66, allegedly told police he had several times had problems with neighbors walking on his lawn. He remained jailed without bond Monday. His jailers said no attorney was listed for him.
Neighbors said Martin lived alone quietly, often sitting in front of his one-story home with its neat lawn, well-trimmed shrubbery and flag pole with U.S. and Navy flags flying.
Joanne Ritchie, 46, said Mugrage was known as "a good kid," but she always also considered Martin to be friendly.
Union Township is near Batavia, about 20 miles east of Cincinnati.
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Associated Press Writer Dan Sewell in Cincinnati contributed to this report.
Someone called Iraq chaos.
Ohio's been more than a political battleground lately. It's like an on-going mini-riot.
Mom and dad always said to stay off the grass.
already posted
The guy is a loon. It would be interesting to find out what he considered "harrassment" if he considered crossing his lawn a fatal offense.
UNION TOWNSHIP - Fifteen-year-old Larry Mugrage was on his way home to get a video game when he was shot dead, said a neighbor whose teenage stepsons and brother were regular playmates of the victim.
"He was just walking home," Alicia Holt said.
The afternoon shooting followed a confrontation four hours earlier between the teen and another neighbor, 66-year-old Charles Martin, after Mugrage had stepped on the lawn of Martin's Hawthorne Drive home, Holt said.
"He came out cussing at Larry," said Holt, 24, who lives several houses away from Martin's and Mugrage's homes on the same side of the street. "They just had words."
Union Township police have charged Martin with murder. Police said Martin fired two rounds from a .410-gauge shotgun at the teen. An autopsy will determine if more than one blast struck the victim.
Martin called 911 Sunday to report the shooting.
"I just killed a kid," he calmly told the 911 operator.
Martin said the victim, his parents and other youths had been harassing him for five years.
"I shot him with a (word deleted) .410 shotgun twice," Martin said. "He's laying in the yard."
Investigators plan to present the case to a grand jury Wednesday, Lt. Scott Gaviglia said.
Martin was arraigned Monday afternoon in Clermont County Municipal Court. Judge James A. Shriver ordered him held without bond pending a Thursday hearing.
Martin, handcuffed and dressed in an orange jail uniform, did not speak during the hearing. He remains in the Clermont County Jail.
Assistant Clermont County Prosecutor Mark Tekulve had requested that Martin be held without bond, calling the shooting "essentially a premeditated act" that was both "cruel" and "cowardly."
"We understand the young man was in the street when the shooting occurred," Tekulve said.
Assistant Public Defender Lauri Viney told the judge that Martin was a retired employee of the Ford Motor Co., where he had worked for 30 years, and that he had no criminal record.
Residents of Hawthorne Drive said Martin lived alone, and they would often see him walking in the neighborhood.
John Abegglen, assistant superintendent of the West Clermont School District, said the Clermont County Crisis Response Team spent the day at Glen Este High School, where Mugrage was a freshman in the School of American Studies.
Ten counselors were on hand to assist students and staff who expressed a need to talk about Mugrage's death. Three of the counselors were assigned to attend all of Mugrage's classes in case they were needed during conversations in the classroom. Abegglen expects the crisis team to be at school for a few more days.
"He was a very good student," Abegglen said of Mugrage. "He loved to play soccer. He was well-liked by his schoolmates."
In a letter sent home Monday with students, Glen Este Principal Dennis Ashworth outlined crisis resources available to the district's students and gave parents advice on how to help their children deal with the traumatic event.
"The West Clermont community experienced a great loss yesterday with the sudden death of one of our ninth-grade students, Larry Mugrage," Ashworth's letter said. "This news has saddened our community. Larry will be greatly missed."
Sunday, Holt's 13-year-old brother, who also lives in the neighborhood, was walking with Mugrage when Martin first confronted them about walking in his yard. The boys told Alicia Holt about the incident, she said.
Mugrage, who spent the four hours between the confrontation and shooting at her house, "was a good kid," Holt said. "He played soccer. He was good in school. All the kids - even the little ones (in the neighborhood) - loved him. He was best friends with my 14-year-old (step)son. They sat on the (school) bus together."
Mugrage's family declined to speak to reporters Monday.
Holt said she was aware of one other incident when Martin had complained about kids walking across his lawn.
He spoke to her husband, saying he would appreciate it if he'd keep the kids from running through his yard, she recalled.
Martin's lawn is void of ornamentation except for a pole flying American and U.S. Navy flags.
"This is a quiet street," Holt said. "Nothing ever happens here."
Sounds like a scene at the beginning of a Stephen King novel.
This guy sounds like some of the lawn-Nazis in my neighborhood.
Ping.
Funny my very thoughts.
Kinda like his new novel cell.
There's one in every neighborhood.
This is the same kind of nutcase that I used to live near in Pennsylvania.
literally the neighbor there went after another neighbor with a shotgun because the 2nd neighbor was cutting the 6 foot high weeds along the fenceline.
Okay, now I'm not surprised. Glad we got out when we could honey. (directed to Blastus!)
I hope this nut gets the death penalty. Geez, I love my lawn SO much, I'll kill for it, then go to prison for the rest of my life...makes sense to me. Jeez.
Wow... just WOW!
It's good that this guy will be taken from society.
At the same time... people shouldn't mess with freaks.. if the kid had already had problems with this guy in the past, he should have steered clear from him. Use some common sense! Don't mess with freaks!
I read Cell the first weekend it was out...it has a perfect horror movie ending....
maybe he'll be portrayed by Walkeen Phoenix in a movie called "Walked the Lawn"
Clearly the only solution is to make grass illegal.
Good fences make good neighbors.
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