Fairfield attorney accused of killing neighbor

Boston Globe ^ | 8-30-06

[Cagey]

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. --A Fairfield lawyer has been charged with stabbing his neighbor to death after learning the man had molested his 2-year-old daughter, police said.

Fairfield authorities said attorney Jonathon Edington leaped through 58-year-old Barry James' bedroom window Monday and stabbed him nearly a dozen times in the chest. Edington, 29, was arraigned on murder and burglary charges Tuesday in Bridgeport Superior Court. He was held on $1 million bond and is scheduled to return to court on Sept. 12.

[don-o]

Jury Nullification.

Wonder if a high octane lawyer might aviail his defense of this?

[Toby06]

You ain't on the jury. Why does the dad have to present YOU with evidence? You seem to be condemning him without all the facts.

OK, so I don't have them either, but if a reasonably intelligent man, cognizant of the law, feels he's justified, I'd tend to agree with him a lot more than you.

We'd have a lot less of these slime if people took care of it themselves.

[Toby06]

What happened to shoot, shovel, shut-up?

Have you ever tried to dig a hole in Fairfield county? The ground is so rocky, it's murder!

[Jim Noble]

It's not justifiable homicide

I would never vote to convict this guy.

[tcostell]

...it is not the right way to deal with these things at all.

I agree ... the right way to do this would be to cut him into small enough pieces to feed to the gators, and be in a place with lots of witnesses when he disappeared. No body ... no crime.

The person who harms my 6 year old is going to take 6 months to die.

[SC Swamp Fox]

Unless he sat around and planned it they won't convict him for murder.

Plea: Manslaughter.
Sentence: Time served, fine, community service

[Rapscallion]

I still don't understand how someone could think this is justifiable. You cannot take the law into your own hands like that.

Of course it is. And, of course you can.

But you should give the American justice system a chance to work successfully. If it fails....well then, "correcting the error" must be a requirement of society to prevent further molesting of the young by that perp....this is the real reason grand-fathers exist in God's great plan.

[70times7]

I remember an Alfred Hitchcock-esk show where a beaten and raped wife gets out of the hospital to the care of her husband. She rides from the hospital in the car staring at her feet, saying nothing. He is gently babbling on about putting the whole thing behind them. As they pull into a parking garage she finally looks up and gasps as she sees a man walking toward his car; "THAT'S HIM!" she blurts out. He asks if she is certain. She keeps repeating "that's him, that's him!". The husband gets out of the car and approaches the man from behind. He grabbs him by the neck. They struggle into the man's car and then the stranger is dead. The husband looks around, closes the stranger's car door and then gets back into his own car. As they leave the garage and proceed into the street he reassures her that the rapist is dead and will never threaten her again. But now she is no longer looking at her feet; she is gazing vacantly outside of the car. As they pass each man on the street she points and proclaims "THAT"S HIM!"

As far fetched as such a story is, it points out a truth: there is no perfection where humans are involved. I may have done same if it was my daughter, but I sure hope he got the right guy.

[DustyMoment]

I'm reminded of an apochryphal story from the Navy. Two SPs (Shore Patrol) escorted a sailor into the OOD (Officer of the Day's) office. The OOD observed the 3 and asked the senior SP, "What's this?" The enlisted man replied, "We caught a thief, sir." The OOD looked the prisoner over for a moment, then shook his head. "No", he said, "doesn't look like a thief to me." The two SPs took the man outside and 10 minutes later returned with the same prisoner, beaten, bloody and bruised. The OOD observed the 3 and asked the senior SP, "What's this?" The enlisted man replied, "We caught a thief, sir." The OOD looked the prisoner over for a moment, then nodded. "Yep", he said, "it looks like you did."

Sounds like the child molester got what he deserved. The DA needs to let this one go and thank the lawyer for saving other children from suffering the same fate.

[neodad]

I recall that story and it was recorded on video. I don't remember if that video was a security camera or a court room news crew, but it was very clear.

Wasn't it in an airport when they were bringing the guy from out of town?

[Cagey]

but I sure hope he got the right guy.

For everyone involved, I do too.

[djf]

Manslaughter, time served.

[csvset]

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

[cb]

Say....weren't those really strict "gun" laws supposed to stop this kinda thing???? Well, I have heard places where they want to ban sharp pointed kitchen knives, too. Then axes, shovels, sling blades? Lawn mower blades? We really can't be allowed around any sharp objects.......

[Cagey]

You may be right. I can recall the video clearly but not the location.

[joe fonebone]

I wish I was on the jury for this one. Not guilty, no matter what the prosecution says. A jury can right a wrong, or override a bad law.

[Oberon]

You cannot take the law into your own hands like that.

Looks like he did just that.

[olderwiser]

"...although it is not the right way to deal with these things at all."

And what is the right right way? To have this molester of an infant be sent to prison or a psych ward for a few years, then let out? Because that's our current "justice" system.

No. If jury nullification was good enough for OJ, I say this lawyer deserve to have 12 jurors who send an emphatic message that Americans have had it with the revolving door that exists for REAL DEPRAVED CRIMINALS--which this lawyer is not.

[Tom D.]

The guy has to include some sort of insanity defense. The fact that his daughter was molested (let us assume for the purpose of argument here that she was) is probably not legal justification for killing the guy. If the fact that the deceased molested the girl is not legal justification the trial judge will not allow the jury to hear any evidence about it. On the other hand, if this guy puts up some insanity defense his side can tell the jury about the thing that made him insane.

I have some real doubts about whether anyone is ever "temporarily insane", but I believe that it is a part of criminal law for this type of situation. Here the guy got just what he had coming to him, society cannot stand an explicit law that says we get to kill folks who have it coming, but temporary insanity lets that concept in through the back door.

[Cagey]

Say....weren't those really strict "gun" laws supposed to stop this kinda thing????

It's interesting you bring that up because I was thinking that if he had used a gun it may have made the Prosecutor's case easier. They so often paint people who use guns for anything as evil right out of the batter's box. Everyone uses kitchen knives so they are not quite as evil as the infamously deadly gun.