Man who killed teen to protect lawn kills self

Examiner.com ^ | August 10, 2009 | David Willoughby

[End Times Sentinel]

LEBANON, Ohio (Map, News) – A man from Clermont County’s Union Township, who admitted to shooting and killing a teenager with a shotgun who refused to heed his warnings to stay off his lawn, has committed suicide in an Ohio prison. The 15-year-old victim, Larry Mugrage Jr. was shot by 69-year-old Charles Martin in March 2006. He was indicted for Aggravated Murder, but the jury in the Clermont County Common Pleas Court found him guilty on a lesser charge of murder. He had originally pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, but jurors rejected that argument.

Martin, who received a 15-year to life sentence, plus a 3-year gun specification, killed himself at the Lebanon Correctional Institution just outside of Lebanon, Ohio. The sentence, essentially resulted in a life sentence for Martin, because his first parole hearing would have occurred when Martin was 85-years-old.

Prison officials are not saying exactly how Martin died. Martin was known in his Union Township neighborhood for having a very well-kept lawn, of which he was proud and apparently protective. Martin apologized for the shooting, but said the teenager provoked him.

In 2008, according to the Ohio Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, 6 inmates committed suicide in Ohio jails. That number has remained fairly steady over the last 3-years. Ohio housed 50,371 prisoners last year. The most common method of suicide in Ohio prisons is by hanging.

[End Times Sentinel]

THIS is the lawn he killed the kid over?

I mean, c'mon, that's not really that great a lawn. Sure, it's late march, but there's a lot of thatch and dead spots all over the place.

Plus, what's with that one tree in the middle of the yard? Is that supposed to be some kind of specimen tree? Looks like a Red Maple, what kind of winter interest does that provide?

Maybe Martin should have considered the possibility that kids walked across his lawn because it really wasn't anything special.

If he'd done a better job, mixing in more cool season grass, deep watering, dethatching, aerating, sifting in some compost, it'd look so much better, and then the kids would realize how important it was and not walk across it.

I'm just sayin' is all.

[jessduntno]

“He was indicted for Aggravated Murder, but the jury in the Clermont County Common Pleas Court found him guilty on a lesser charge of murder.”

I don’t get the plea bargain...he must have been REALLY aggravated...

[Republic of Texas]

Most teenagers could use a good ass whipping but very few need killing.

[Graybeard58]

He hasn't been available to tend the lawn in more than 3 years. Plenty of time for a lawn to go down hill.

On another lawn note: A couple of years ago a local guy got some kind of award for his pretty lawn. I was watching a tv interview and he was asked how often he mowed. He says, "every day".

[ClearCase_guy]

Should have waited and taken out a census worker instead. [kidding! I’m kidding! I would never advocate that!]

[BertWheeler]

That is a cute house!

Not condoning killing a punk kid over that...

[eddie willers]

He had originally pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, but jurors rejected that argument.

I guess the prosecution can now concede that point.

[freedomlover]

On another lawn note: A couple of years ago a local guy got some kind of award for his pretty lawn. I was watching a tv interview and he was asked how often he mowed. He says, “every day”.

---

What’s wrong with that?

;)

[Boiling Pots]

O C D

[raybbr]

[Albion Wilde]

Our neighborhood has all kinds of covenants preventing owners from fencing the majority of their property -- maybe his is like that. Here, where the houses cost a little above average, young people walk all over others' lawns, make their dogs poop on others' lawns, let their kids play on others' lawns, and don't think a thing of others' property rights -- and it is always the ones who don't take care of their own lawns and live in the small houses who let their poop-spewers out on the people who pay more for a larger property, pay more to insure it and take more care of it.

For an older person living alone in the house as this man did, the constant presence of teenage thugs and their pugnacious parents defending the kid instead of teaching the kid to stay off someone else's property was a daily reminder that there is no such thing as private property any more in this country. Everything the older man was raised to believe in, all the taxes and work he rendered all his life, were then thrown in his face. Maybe he even served in the military and faced his death for this country, only to be mocked by young punks.

He shouldn't have killed the kid; but the kid had been taught to treat a neighbor and an elder with undisguised contempt. I hope the kid's parents have figured some of that out; but I doubt it.

[wardaddy]

can’t nor should you be able to kill kids for being in your yard aginst your wishes unless they aim to harm you or your’s...except maybe in Texas I think

otherwise I’d a been kilt over and over for rolling and grassing as a boy

but that might have been a good thing to some I reckon

FR is a hard room when it comes to killing stupid or errant

[trisham]

This is just a sad story all around. What a tragedy.

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

The sentence, essentially resulted in a life sentence for Martin, because his first parole hearing would have occurred when Martin was 85-years-old.

---

Well, it really is a life sentence now!

[kcvl]

I was watching a tv interview and he was asked how often he mowed. He says, "every day".

You should live next door to our neighbor. He spent ten hours mowing, weed eating, edging, blowing and VACUUMING the flower bed yesterday! He cut all his trees because he didn't want ANY (& I mean ANY) leaves on his yard.

He has OCD (Obsessive-compulsive disorder), btw. He takes his wheels off all his cars when he washes them so he can clean UNDER the car. He has had six new cars since he moved next door less than two years ago.

He thew away all of his childs stuffed toys because he was tired of the clutter on her bed. He cleans out his wife & child's clothing drawer and closets. It doesn't matter what THEY want to keep, he decides!

Every rug in their house has the fringe perfectly 'combed'. He has the kitchen cabinets labeled and all the screws in the light switches on the walls all point in the same direction.

I would 'KILL HIM' if I had to live with him.

Oh, and I forgot that he put weed killer on the cracks IN THE STREET. I could write a book!

[ican'tbelieveit]

Now that guy was just trying to protect the little girl.

Great animated movie, btw.

[texmexis best]

I’ll bet he owned a lawn vacuum. This lawn shtick has gotten out of hand.

[stuartcr]

Sounds like he’s his own enemy.