[tlb]

Not the run of the mill homeowner kills burglar story. He went outside after them when 911 had told him to stay put. No life was threatened when he acted, but on the positive side that town has two fewer burglars. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Moral, don't take a television set to a gunfight.

[supercat]

“There are four kinds of Homicide: felonious, excusable, justifiable, and praiseworthy.” — Ambrose Gwinett Bierce

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

Over seven minutes didn’t give the police time enough to get there?

Pasadena police used to be faster and meaner.

[beaversmom]

Oh well, the hazards of home invasion in the U.S. I will say this—Mr. Horn has got some big, brass ones. I wouldn’t want to mess with him.

[FreedomCalls]

He went outside after them when 911 had told him to stay put. No life was threatened when he acted

It doesn't matter that his life was not threatened. In Texas you are fully justified in the use of deadly force to protect your property from theft in the night and you can also use deadly force to protect someone else's proptery from theft in the night.

From the Texas Penal Code concerning the use of deadly force to protect property:

§ 9.42. DEADLY FORCE TO PROTECT PROPERTY. A person is justified in using deadly force against another to protect land or tangible, movable property:

(1) if he would be justified in using force against the other under Section 9.41; and

(2) when and to the degree he reasonably believes the deadly force is immediately necessary:

(A) to prevent the other's imminent commission of arson, burglary, robbery, aggravated robbery, theft during the nighttime, or criminal mischief during the nighttime; or

(B) to prevent the other who is fleeing immediately after committing burglary, robbery, aggravated robbery, or theft during the nighttime from escaping with the property; and

(3) he reasonably believes that:

(A) the land or property cannot be protected or recovered by any other means; or

(B) the use of force other than deadly force to protect or recover the land or property would expose the actor or another to a substantial risk of death or serious bodily injury.

§ 9.43. PROTECTION OF THIRD PERSON'S PROPERTY. A person is justified in using force or deadly force against another to protect land or tangible, movable property of a third person if, under the circumstances as he reasonably believes them to be, the actor would be justified under Section 9.41 or 9.42 in using force or deadly force to protect his own land or property and:

(1) the actor reasonably believes the unlawful interference constitutes attempted or consummated theft of or criminal mischief to the tangible, movable property

[chuckles]

I’m about as second amendment as you can get, but this could be bad because it was daylight and the cop told him not to go outside. You can do almost anything you want if it’s dark in Texas. The homeowner wants to say the guy came in his yard so he had to do it, but the cop will say he shouldn’t have confronted him in the first place. I would acquit if I was on the jury, but I can’t be on all of them. These days, he could be in big trouble.( even in Texas)

[RhoTheta]

Ping

[SWAMPSNIPER]

Well, he told them not to move!

[668 - Neighbor of the Beast]

He did the wrong thing: discussing the shooting with the 911 operator beforehand. Almost certainly every syllable admissible in court. Laws don’t count like they used to, it will be up to a prosecutor, a judge, and a jury. He’ll be made to suffer.
Right thing would have been to clam up. (And go hunting.)

[WL-law]

“It will be interesting to see how this plays out.”

I think you can safely assume that its not going to turn out well for Mr, Horn.

He did NOT have the rights of a homeowner in this case — it wasn’t his home.

You can argue that he DOES have the right to make a citizen’s arrest, based on general common law principles, but he has to stay carefully within the authority that the police have, otherwise he would be liable for false imprisonment and, here, for much worse.

[P8riot]

Looks to me like he was desperately trying to get the cops to come out, at least to prevent him from shooting the guys, otherwise he'd have called them after the fact.

It's kinda like the story of the guy that calls the cops to report someone is burglarizing his workshop, and 15 minutes later (cops still not there) call and tells them "nevermind, just come pick up the bodies." They are there within a minute after that.

[SwinneySwitch]

Police have not found the families of the dead men, who both are in their 30s. One had identification indicating he was from Puerto Rico, the other had documentation indicating he may have been from Puerto Rico, Colombia or the Dominican Republic, Capt. Corbett said.

Documented illegals?

[Lancey Howard]

Okay, finally listened to the audio. Joe Horn sounded more irate that burglars were getting away than anything else. He sounded nervous to me, but not scared. So he went out and killed the scum. Fine by me. The guy’s a good neighbor.

[kcvl]

In portraying Joe Horn as a victim of circumstances, lawyer and longtime friend Tom Lambright called the 61-year-old computer consultant “a good family man” who has been devastated by the Wednesday afternoon burglary and shooting.

Killed in the incident in the 7400 block of Timberline were Miguel Antonio DeJesus, 38, and Diego Ortiz, 30, both of Houston.

Each had a minor previous brush with the law. Records show DeJesus was charged with failure to identify himself to a police officer in July 2004. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 20 days in jail. Ortiz was charged with possession of marijuana in July 2005, but it was later dismissed.

[Arrowhead1952]

I looked for this yesterday but missed it. Someone had posted the link on the Texas message board.