Posted on 05/27/2012 7:39:12 PM PDT by grundle
Zoey Ripple (the drunk home invader)
Timothy Justice and Doreen Orion (the owners of the home)
The Boulder County District Attorney's Office announced Friday it will file felony trespassing charges against the 21-year-old University of Colorado graduate who was shot after police say she drunkenly wandered into a couple's Boulder home early Wednesday.
Yet defense attorney Colette Cribari said the incident was "out of character" for Ripple, who graduated from CU two weeks ago.
"She didn't enter the house with any intent of committing a crime or harming anyone," Cribari said Friday. "We're thankful she was not killed or more seriously hurt, but we're disappointed they decided to file charges on top of all this."
Prosecutors will file charges of first-degree criminal trespass of a dwelling -- a felony -- next week, according to the DA's Office.
Cribari said Ripple remains hospitalized but would not say where. Boulder Community Hospital officials said Ripple was not a patient there.
Police say Ripple entered the bedroom of a house at 425 College Ave. at 3:30 a.m. Wednesday. The screen door was closed, but unlocked.
The owners of the house, identified by county property records as Timothy Justice and Doreen Orion, were in bed when they heard Ripple come in. In the darkness, they shouted to warn the intruder to leave and that they had a gun, but Ripple continued walking through the bedroom, and Justice fired one shot, police said.
When the homeowners turned on the lights, they saw Ripple on the floor with a gunshot wound to her hip and called 911, police said. They said they did not recognize her as anyone they knew.
The house, which county records show was bought for $1.7 million in 2004 and is listed for sale at $2.75 million, is at the western end of Boulder, where College Avenue dead-ends into the foothills.
Officials said preliminary tests indicate that Ripple's blood alcohol level was above 0.2 at the time of the incident.
District Attorney Stan Garnett said his office typically prosecutes about 12 to 15 cases a year involving drunken trespassing. He said there was a similar case Thursday night, though nobody was hurt.
"We see this pretty frequently," he said.
Garnett said the main goal in prosecuting such cases is to get defendants treatment for their alcohol habits. Although first-degree criminal trespassing can carry a sentence of one to five years in prison, Garnett said in cases like this, prosecutors often opt for treatment or lesser pleas in lieu of prison time.
"We try to help the person get the treatment they need for their drinking," he said.
Colorado court records show that Ripple was previously arrested on suspicion of shoplifting in Broomfield in 2010 and pleaded guilty. The charge was dismissed after a deferred sentence, records show.
Citing the "make my day" law, officials announced Thursday that no charges will be filed against Justice for shooting Ripple.
Justice and Orion are both psychiatrists. They haven't spoken publicly about the shooting.
According to a 1999 online article in Psychiatric News, Orion was stalked for at least a decade by a schizophrenic woman she treated briefly at an Arizona hospital. The article said the woman even followed her to Colorado and moved into the same Boulder neighborhood.
Colorado court records show that a restraining order was issued in 1994, prohibiting a Denver woman, who was then 42, from coming within 50 yards of Orion's office, home or car. The reasons for the restraining order -- or whether it was connected to the stalking case -- were not clear.
If this woman continues to drink until severely polluted (0.2!!!) and keeps wandering into strange homes, getting shot will be the least bad thing that will happen to her!
It “could have been?” It could have been a Tibetan monk. It could have been Mary Queen of Scotts.
At 3:30 AM, if a strange person enters my bedroom, and all members of my household are accounted for, the invader is in mortal danger.
Incidentally, young men don't have the market cornered on sociopathic behavior. Just because she's cute, she's not necessarily harmless.
Only with safe search on.
When the mountain lions learn to turn door knobs we're going to need to do more than lock our doors.
1.) Correcting users errant spelling.
2.) Tut-tuting what you see as juvenile humor.
I'd suggest either finding something worthwhile to say or go elsewhere.
If -- but how did he know if it was a strange person if he shot in the dark at a shadow withoout identifying the person. Gunowners are supposed to be responsible people not scaredy cats.
It “could have been?” It could have been a Tibetan monk. It could have been Mary Queen of Scotts.
So would you have shot the Tibetan monk???
Let's say that he turned the light on and saw that it was an unarmed little drunk coed, would you still say that he is justified in shooting her?
The problem now is that the couple have to declare there was a shooting in the house and it will be harder for them to get it sold.
Stupid girl is lucky she only got hit in the hip and that she's still alive....
In the dark, I can figure out if it is a family member. Anyone else in my bedroom at 3AM gets shot. Getting up and turning on the lights would give the INTRUDER a chance to shoot me.
As I read it, the couple lives alone. Someone was in their bedroom at 3AM and didn’t stop when warned. That was one more warning than I would give. My bedroom is 13 x 12 - I don’t have a lot of room to fall back and ask for a drivers license...
This looks like a couple old enough to be empty nesters so only the two of them in the house.
Besides, they called out to the intruder and yelled that they had a gun. I figure they wouldn't have shot if she had responded to them.
I know if I'm scared, warned the intruder and the only answer I got was the continued approaching footsteps, I'd shoot.
If the intruder had been a 6'3" muscular, male, habitual criminal, we'd be saying how stupid the homeowners were for playing 20 questions before protecting themselves.
I agree with you. Always check your target, always. If that means investing in a taclight for a rail on a pistol, fine. Just ensure you know for sure who/what you’re shooting. You don’t get to take it back.
That said it's still one of the first rules of firearms handling to positively identify your target before firing. Ironically if a cop had shot someone in similar circumstances he would most likely be working a desk and internal affairs would be giving him an anal probe over the whole thing.
There was stupidity to go around here. How does a 21 yr old recent grad mistake a very unique $2.75 million home for whatever cracker box she most likely lives in? Why would a pair of empty nesters in an urban area like Boulder leave their doors unlocked? Boulder is about a 40 minute drive from the furthest reaches of the Denver metro area and Boulder itself long ago ceased to be bucolic little university town.
Positively identifying your target does NOT mean getting a name & home address. It means knowing what you are shooting, and hitting it. In this case, an INTRUDER.
If a cop shot someone in his bedroom at 3 AM, no one would do squat to the cop. In most states, it is perfectly legal to shoot a stranger in your bedroom in the middle of the night. Odds are, they aren’t there on a home buyer’s inspection...
You don’t have to wait until someone slices your face or rapes your wife before shooting them. Someone is your yard is a different matter...but in your bedroom?
My account is restricted and each of my replies has to be reviewed before it’s posted. I don’t want to waste replies.
He knew that the only other person authorized to be in the house was in bed with him. Turning on the lights may have been useful for identifying the intruder, but would also illuminate THEM to a potentially-armed intruder. In their situation, I would see no need to give away an advantage to an intruder.
My doors are always locked, an alarm is always on, I am a very light sleeper and have great night vision. Someone who is in my house without an invitation is facing very serious issues. I prefer my first round to be Number 4 buck with 41 pellets, as I am looking for many first round hits, prior to my follow up shot of 00 Buck with 15 pellets going down range to finish the job. The police can show up later for body identification - not my problem. Light is not the friend of the defender.
I don't know about you, but my bedroom is illuminated enough at night (between my clock and a night-light I have so I don't bang into furniture getting to the bathroom) that I can make out the shape of an intruder well enough to accurately aim, even if not illuminated enough to see who it is.
In the darkness, they shouted to warn the intruder to leave and that they had a gun, but Ripple continued walking through the bedroom, and Justice fired one shot, police said.
Upon being challenged, this was the opportunity for an intruder to freeze and declare peaceful intentions. She apparently did not. Her loss.
She should be glad that she was not given an offer she could not refuse.
She was a pretty young woman, in a house, in the middle of the night, and nobody in the world knew she was there, and nobody in the world would know what happened to her if she disappeared that night.
You got that right.
“..that I can make out the shape of an intruder well enough to accurately aim, even if not illuminated enough to see who it is.”
Frankly I can’t recall a bedroom of mine that WASN’T illuminated enough to allow me to spot the size of anyone moving around in there.
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