Posted on 06/10/2012 4:26:01 AM PDT by marktwain
DAYTONA BEACH -- Charles Robbins stumbled to his feet as someone pounded on his door.
Outside the Woodland Avenue residence stood 24-year-old Tyler Orshoski, a career criminal who police believe was ready to strike again.
The 82-year-old man grabbed a World War II-era Russian-built Tokerev, walked to the door and fired once.
"I did what I had to do and I would do it again," the Daytona Beach man said.
Minutes later, Orshoski lay dead on Robbins' porch. Robbins was never charged.
The shooting is one of numerous killings in Volusia and Flagler counties from 2005 to 2012 carried out in the name of self-defense and covered under Florida's controversial statute known as "stand your ground, " according to a News-Journal analysis.
State records show justifiable homicides nearly tripled in the five years after stand your ground passed compared to the previous five years. The number of concealed weapons permits almost quadrupled in the same time period.
In Volusia and Flagler, four out of six people who killed their would-be attackers were never charged or convicted.
The 7-year-old law is under intense scrutiny after unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by Sanford neighborhood watch volunteer and concealed weapons permit licensee George Zimmerman. The 28-year-old Zimmerman said the teen attacked him, but Martin's family claims the boy was killed in cold blood.
Zimmerman initially wasn't arrested by Sanford police, only to be charged with second-degree murder by the State Attorney's Office following weeks of nationwide protests.
Since the Feb. 26 killing of Martin, some have lined up against stand your ground, claiming the law discourages restraint and has led to unnecessary deaths. Gun rights advocates and the bill's co-sponsor, though, believe the law deters crime and allows people like Robbins the right to protect themselves from an imminent threat.
"If you empower people to stop violent acts, they can, they will and they did," said state Rep. Dennis Baxley, who co-sponsored the stand your ground statute.
'WE NEEDED TO STAND WITH THEM'
Passed in 2005, the stand your ground statute was meant to clarify how citizens could act in the face of danger. It was driven mostly by fears from hurricane-weary residents, and that fear was reinforced after watching TV coverage of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans, said Baxley, an Ocala Republican.
"People were highly sensitized about that and were worried about protecting themselves and their property," he said.
Until stand your ground was passed, citizens and homeowners were governed by the "castle doctrine," rooted in English common law, which allows someone to protect themselves or their property if backed into a corner.
But the castle doctrine left a lot of gray area, Baxley said.
"Generally, people had a duty to retreat," he said. "But that only gave people seconds to decide whether they wanted to be a victim or not.
"We needed to stand with them and tell them they weren't going to be treated like criminals."
Since the law went into effect, justifiable homicides have risen drastically, according to statistics kept by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
From 2000 to the end of 2005, when stand your ground passed, there were 78 killings that were deemed justified.
In the six years after the law was passed, 228 people were killed by citizens acting in self-defense-- about one justified homicide every 10 days.
Dan Gross, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Brady Campaign, a pro-gun control advocacy group, said stand your ground created a mentality of fear and paranoia -- a deadly combination for someone carrying a weapon.
"It was a recipe for disaster," he said.
LOCAL CASES
An analysis by The Daytona Beach News-Journal of its news archives and police records found that since 2005, lethal force was used and claimed by someone as self-defense in at least 11 cases. There are likely more.
The State Attorney's Office -- or any state agency for that matter -- does not keep track of cases covered under the stand your ground statute.
Matt Phillips, an assistant public defender in Volusia County, said it's likely that well over 100 stand your ground cases have been recorded across the state. A Tampa Bay Times analysis puts the number near 200.
"It was a big change to Florida law when it passed," Phillips said. "It took the castle doctrine onto the street."
Circuit Judge Joseph Will, who has never presided over a stand your ground case but has studied the law, said the statute essentially makes it easier for people to shoot first and ask for forgiveness later.
"I think it's a bad idea in a society where someone is packing heat on every corner to make it easier to shoot each other," he said.
Volusia County's first fatal self-defense case covered by the law came less than a year after it passed. Luis Perez was ambushed outside his aunt's Deltona home by a man, identified by authorities as Roberto Legarreta, 37, armed with a large knife, said sheriff's spokesman Gary Davidson. The 28-year-old Perez tried to start his vehicle, but couldn't and instead opened fire. Legarreta suffered multiple gunshot wounds and died at the scene.
Deputies ruled the shooting was justified and Perez was never charged.
In the following years, seven more people would be exonerated under the law. They include two local residents who warded off intruders.
Walter Watson, 70, shot and injured 28-year-old Thomas Andrew Lockhart, an intruder who threatened to kill Watson in 2007, according to an incident report from Daytona Beach police.
Officers say Watson was staying in a shed on the property when he heard a noise and he grabbed a .38-caliber revolver and flashlight. Lockhart told Watson to turn off the flashlight or "I'll kill you." Watson shot the intruder in the arm and chest, police said. Lockhart, who survived, was charged with burglary. He pleaded no contest and was later sentenced to two years in prison. Watson was not charged.
In 2009, 34-year-old Ormond Beach resident Dayne Rollins was involved in a shootout with three suspects who broke into Rollins' home looking for money and prescription drugs, according to an incident report.
The three suspects, who were grazed by bullets in the shooting, were charged with home invasion robbery. Rollins wasn't charged in the shooting, though he was arrested for possession of a short-barreled shotgun. Court records show prosecutors declined to pursue the case and it was dropped.
In a more recent case in Flagler County, Paul Miller also claims self-defense, though his case doesn't appear to be as clear cut.
Police say Miller, 65, opened fire March 14 on his Flagler Beach neighbor Dana Mulhall after an argument over Miller's barking dogs, police said. Authorities say Miller shot Mulhall five times, including twice in the back as he fled.
Miller is charged with second-degree murder, though his attorney has declined to say whether stand your ground will be invoked in court.
GUNS, KNIVES AND A 2-BY-4
Of the 11 Volusia and Flagler self defense cases, eight of them involved firearms. Four of the shooters, three with lengthy criminal histories, at the time held a concealed weapons permit, a license that has caught on like a wildfire with Florida residents after stand your ground was passed.
In 1988, there were 32,814 valid concealed weapons permits statewide; 56 of these were in Flagler County and 843 of them were issued in Volusia, according to the Division of Licensing.
Nearly 25 years later, the state has issued close to 1 million concealed weapons permits and about 1 in 19 Volusia County residents -- 26,365 -- were licensed to carry a concealed weapon as of May 31. One in 17 or 5,450 Flagler residents have a concealed weapons permit.
In the five years before stand your ground was passed, a combined 136,944 additional permits were issued statewide. In the five years after the law passed, the number of concealed weapons permits nearly quadrupled -- with a combined 446,521 licenses being issued, according to state records.
Baxley said people are arming themselves because now they know they can put up a fight. According to the Division of Licensing, concealed weapon licensees can carry a firearm in most public areas, except for places like a courtroom, jail, bar or school.
"Criminals don't know which person will defend themselves and which ones won't," Baxley said.
But Gross of the Brady Campaign said Florida's gun laws make it easy for firearms to fall into the wrong hands.
"It's beyond easy to get a gun permit," he said.
Concealed weapons permits, though, cover all types of weapons, not just guns. While lethal force self-defense cases involving firearms garner the most notoriety, there are some local cases that involved other types of weapons including knives and a wooden board.
- In 2010, Vincent Strollo, 52, who was from Daytona Beach at the time, bashed James Houghtaling in the face with a 2-by-4, claiming to police he was defending himself and his girlfriend from the drunken attacker. Strollo was initially charged with aggravated battery, but a judge ruled he was immune from prosecution, according to court records.
- Also in 2010, John David Falwell claimed Matthew Alcott slammed him to the floor of his Daytona Beach motel room, knocking him unconscious. Police said when the 40-year-old Falwell came to, he swung a knife and stabbed Alcott in the back.
A judge threw out Falwell's self-defense claim and he was later convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
- Cindy Gilliland, 42, testified in court she stabbed her boyfriend Bradley Stradtman to death in self-defense after he slapped her in the mouth and pushed her into a kitchen counter during a 2010 domestic dispute. The judge denied Gilliland's claim, and her second-degree murder trial is scheduled for later this summer.
Public Defender Phillips, whose office is representing Gilliland, said Florida's stand your ground law allowed for a legal avenue for law-abiding citizens to protect themselves.
"People are maybe moving to use deadly force more than they used to," he said. "Theoretically, you could say that's what the Legislature wanted."
But law enforcement officials say it also set a dangerous precedent.
'GOOD LAW USED BY CRIMINALS'
From 2009 to 2010, three people involved in Daytona Beach drug deals fatally shot someone, but only one was charged.
The most recent case involved Emanuel Rivera, who police say shot and killed Lekeefe Lee, 25, after the two argued about a marijuana sale. Rivera initially told detectives Lee appeared to reach for a gun, but his story changed over time and he was charged with second-degree murder, said Daytona Beach Police Chief Mike Chitwood.
In the other cases, Leonard Murphy and Leavitis Golphin were not charged because they said they shot in self-defense and were concealed weapons permit holders, Chitwood said.
Golphin was having marijuana delivered to his Jean Street apartment so he could later sell it, detectives say. As it was being delivered, Armando Navarro Jr., 24, armed with a 9 mm handgun, shot deliveryman Merton Lindsay before he was gunned down by Golphin, according to an incident report.
A year later, police say Tarrence Gatlin, 18, and Murphy met in an apartment complex parking lot for a drug deal involving prescription pills. However, Gatlin tried to rob Murphy without giving him pills.
Murphy shot Gatlin three times, police said, and the killing was cleared through the scope of stand your ground, Chitwood said.
"We have people committing nefarious activities that are running around under the cover of the law," the chief said.
Chitwood is among a growing number in the law enforcement community who believe the law needs to be amended.
"We have a good law that's being used by criminals," Chitwood said.
Volusia County Sheriff Ben Johnson, a supporter of gun rights, said stand your ground is too broad and would support an amendment to limit the use of it.
"While there's no question that the use of defensive deadly force is absolutely necessary on occasion, there also are other circumstances when confrontations can be resolved without having to take a life," spokesman Davidson wrote on behalf of the sheriff.
Gross said the law sets a dangerous pattern of allowing killers to go free.
"We have people who wouldn't be considered ordinary law-abiding citizens and they're often being exonerated under the law," he said.
Stand your ground drew national criticism after Martin was killed. As thousands rallied across the nation for Zimmerman's arrest, a group of ministers, joined by the Rev. Jesse Jackson, called for stand your ground to be repealed.
"These laws incentivize vigilantism, take-the-law-into-your-own hands, kill or be killed. That's beneath the civility of a great nation," Jackson said, according to multiple media reports.
Before the stand your ground statute was passed, it was left up to a jury and common sense to determine who was defending themselves and who wasn't, Judge Will said.
But now people who invoke the stand your ground statute have the right to a hearing before a judge and can be given immunity based on a "preponderance of evidence," making it easier for someone to prove they acted within the law, Phillips said.
"We had a law that had been used for well over 100 years, it was time-tested and worked for everyone," Will said of the castle doctrine. "Someone decided to fix something that wasn't broken and they fixed it badly."
PUBLIC FAVORS LAW
State Rep. Baxley admits he's disappointed in some of the applications of stand your ground, but that is to be expected with any new law.
"No matter what the law is, there's going to be close calls that will be near the foul line," he said. "It is in or is it out?"
Baxley is one of 17 members appointed by Gov. Rick Scott to the Task Force on Citizen Safety and Protection, which will meet for the first time at 9 a.m. Tuesday in Seminole County. The state representative was quick to point out the committee will not just review the stand your ground law, but all aspects of safety.
"I truly believe the law has saved lives," he said. "I'm not going to change anything that diminishes safety."
But Gross of the Brady Campaign said to save lives stand your ground must go or Florida's legislators need to strengthen the state's gun laws.
"Since stand your ground has passed, Florida has become one of the most dangerous states in the country while the others got safer," he said. "There is a dangerous mentality that has led to unnecessary tragedies."
Though stand your ground has been questioned on a national level, it appears to be well-liked by a majority of Florida's voters, according to a recent poll conducted by Quinnipiac University. About 56 percent support the law and 35 percent oppose it, the poll shows.
Forrest Buckwald, owner of Buck's Gun Rack who also has a concealed weapons license, said he believes stand your ground empowers older people and others to protect themselves.
"I don't think I can stand up in a fistfight anymore," said the 60-year-old store owner. "The only reason I carry a gun is so that if my life is in immediate danger I can defend myself. It's important to have this law to avoid being charged as a criminal."
Deltona Mayor John Masiarczyk has had a concealed weapons permit since the 1990s when some would-be robbers drove up next to him while he was about to make a deposit and demanded his money. The mayor said he carries his weapon as a precaution but tries to avoid situations where his firearm may be needed.
"I'd rather find another way, but I don't want to see them take that right away," he said.
Gross said had stand your ground not been passed, it's likely Trayvon Martin would be alive today.
"If Zimmerman didn't get out of his truck; if he didn't have a gun; it would have never happened," he said.
Charles Robbins said he has no regrets about the fatal shot he delivered earlier this year -- law or not. He believes had he used restraint, he may be dead today.
"I'm glad I did it, and I would do it again," he said. "What would you do if someone tried breaking into your house?"
There is some BS in the article. For instance, it cites CHL holders with “extensive criminal records”. WTF?
I have been informed and entertained by these two books:
The books are HILARIOUS and will teach you how real cops think and act. They are some of the funniest books that I ever read.
One of the most interesting bits in the first book is that if you defend yourself in Dallas, the DA will try to put you away. In Houston, no problemo.
The author cautions you to NEVER SIGN A STATEMENT PREPARED BY THE POLICE. If you are forced to defend yourself, GET AN ATTORNEY FIRST BEFORE MAKING A STATEMENT.
No, there's a very good reason for the law that's never mentioned by MSM reports. SYG at least the Florida version, confers immunity from civil liability for justifiable use of deadly force.
That's a major club in the hands of the anti-gun crowd. Even if you were 100% justified in using deadly force to defend yourself, they got to destroy you, financially, for daring to do so.
Further, the Florida supreme court has held that using a firearm to defend your home is a voluntary act, therefore your legal expenses were not covered by homeowners insurance, as in other states.
So both anti-gunners and ambulance chasers, no strangers to public relations campaigns, both despise SYG, because it took away the blade they used to bleed you dry for defending yourself.
And BRAVO to that !!
Lees criminals in the jails and more in the grave. No downside to that.
If Zimmerman didn’t have a gun that night he would have been the victim of an unsolved murder.
If Zimmerman didn’t have a gun that night he would have been the victim of an unsolved murder.
Official statistics from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement show that from the years 2004 to 2007, the rate of violent crime in Florida was steady at about 705 such crimes per 100,00 people per year. That rate then declined every year after the Stand Your Ground went into effect in late 2007, to a rate of 519.3 violent crimes per hundred thousand people in 2011, the most recent year for which such statistics are available.
Of course, national trends also showed a decline in violent crime in the same period -- but Florida experienced a sharper decline. The most recent FBI statistics show that from 2007 to 2009, the rate of violent crime nationally declined from 472 to 429.4 such crimes per hundred thousand people -- a drop of just under 10 per cent.
In comparison, in the same period, Florida's rate of violent crime for the same period declined from 705.5 to 604.9 per one hundred thousand people -- a drop of 14.25 per cent. After the Stand Your Ground law was enacted, Florida's previously stable rate of violent crime thus not only declined, but did so about 30 per cent more than the national rate declined.
Even as we look to crime rates for statistical comparisons, we should not lose sight that the decline in violent crime in Florida that we may fairly attribute in part to the Stand Your Ground law has had a wide benefit for the public: fewer victims of violent crime.
Overall, when raw crime numbers are totaled up, after the Stand Your Ground went into effect, Florida's citizens experienced about 87,500 fewer violent crimes from 2008 to 2011. Even if seventy per cent of that effect may be seen as a reflection of national trends, it still makes Stand Your Ground a remarkably successful anti-crime law, preventing over twenty five thousand violent crimes.
The cost? A few dozen more justifiable homicides, mostly of aggressive career criminals confronted by armed crime victims. Between innocent crime victims and criminals killed during commission of a crime, my sympathies are with the innocent victims.
The raw data that I relied on for this analysis can be viewed at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and FBI websites.
~~~~ snip~~~~ Approximately 52.2% of all homicides are committed by 1.2% of the population.
This is a National Epidemic
You are hereby awarded this 1st Place Trophy for using Mathematical Logic in breaking down the real and factual data on the Crime Epidemic that we the people deal with daily.
Yet knowing the same data pansy ass politicians tremble at the thought of even whispering them in their sleep -- all because it will cost them a few lousy votes from the relatives of these dregs of society.
Congratulations on your award :-)
Yea, I read that about Switzerland - same thing - if you have guns (which are kind of required there), they have to be unreachable for personable defence - and inspectable at will.
We’re still on the offense here regarding gun control - we may hear lip service about tightening the laws...but even President Obama signed a bill that now allows legal concealed-carry owners to bring their guns into national parks (provided that the state is ok with concealed-carry). Before that, it was “no guns in parks”.
I just hope we stay on the offensive - the liberals pray every day for another mass murder of kids, so that they can get some footing on the issue - and they just haven’t been having any luck, so far.
If all these extra homicides have been justifiable, obviously we were getting short-changed before SYG passed!
OUTSTANDING. President Romney should give Zimmerman the Medal of Freedom for inspiring his fellow Floridians to dispose of criminals in record numbers.
Charles Robbins stumbled to his feet as someone pounded on his door. ___ Outside the Woodland Avenue residence stood 24-year-old Tyler Orshoski, a career criminal who police believe was ready to strike again.The 82-year-old man grabbed a World War II-era Russian-built Tokerev, walked to the door and fired once.
"I did what I had to do and I would do it again," the Daytona Beach man said. ___ Minutes later, Orshoski lay dead on Robbins' porch. Robbins was never charged.
Mr Robbins has a good taste in weapons. The Tokerev fires one mean mother of a round, the 7.62x25mm Tokarev (Bottleneck round). And it's one round you don't want to screw around with -- if you're on the receiving end.
Ballistic wise, it's basically a rifle round just being fired from a pistol. It will go through Level II Body Armor ('bullet proof vests' /s) like they weren't even there. And if up close, I've read even through Level III vests (But no hard data for this, just 'hearsay'). But a normal wooden door will not be a problem for this little hummer.
I've been meaning to get one of these for yeeeears with my C&R License (I luv the ATF). The Romanian TTC Tokarevs are now the most available on the market (Polish variant around also). There's also the CZ-52 that 'used to be everywhere' but I haven't seen them in a while on the C&R sites I go to. (They have brittle firing pins and you have to get a modern one right off the bat.)
Oh and if the Drunken Fatso Kennedy got his way when he was still kickin' Mr Robbins wouldn't have this gun, it's a 'Cop Killer'.
“In the six years after the law was passed, 228 people were killed by citizens acting in self-defense— about one justified homicide every 10 days.”
Holy smokes, especially when the light dawns that had these deceased perpetrators instead been (expensively) arrested and convicted and sentenced to prison, *each one of them* would have cost taxpayers between $1-2 million dollars!
Of course, many of the deceased perpetrators would *not* have been caught, many would have been acquitted at trial for whatever reason, and *most* would have plea bargained to lesser sentences.
So it is rather hard to calculate the actual costs, except by noting that once dead, they never re-offend, which saves another huge amount of money, as well as the human cost.
All for the low, low price of bullets, and citizens exercising their natural rights, as endowed by their creator.
Just in this ONE case, Mr. Tyler Orshoski has 13 different mug shots in just one county. At the age of 24.
Liberals demand criminals be released into the public as they denounce our prisons for having too many criminals locked up. They race bait it claiming the race quota of Black men locked up is too high. Slowly they are overcoming the idea that the purpose of our criminal justice syste m is not to coddle criminals but to protect public safety.
These criminals would be safe and sound if they were still in prison where they belong. It is not self defense that is the problem. It is a criminal justice system that releases criminals will long histories of offenses.
Criminals are responsible for dozens to hundreds of crimes over their lifetimes. When a criminal career is cut short by death there is an incredible reduction in costs for insurance, courts and incarceration. Two hundred criminals dead, that’s 20,000 crimes not committed, that’s ( I Am guessing here) 50 people not murdered, that means fewer police and judges needed ETC ETC ETC.
The positive benefits to society just keep coming.
Politicians are idiots. Stand behind statistics.....they do not, and cannot lie.
There absolutely is a need for this law!
Don't pretend that there has ever existed a “law” protecting ones right to inflict lethal self defense in your home or business, BEFORE YOU ARE INJURED.
I moved around a lot in my younger years. I always called the local LEOs to find out what local “rules” applied to me, as a citizen concerned about my personal safety, but unable to afford armed bodyguards.
There are always quirks about carrying a weapon in your POV, and almost always, there was a presumption that I would have to wait untill my last physical barriors (doors or windows) were actually breached, and the intruder/attacker was within arms reach, before I would be considered “allowed” to defend myself by any means necessary.
In the real world, innocent people are regularly incarcerated for a year or two before the courts bestir themselves to finally hold an actual trial to “sort it all out”.
And yes, I support my home state SYG law.
When seconds count, the police are minutes away.
BTW, my car was recently stolen, but since I reported it immediately, when it was “found abandoned” a few days later, the police notified me where it was towed too.
They did not even bother to take fingerprints, or even pretend to investigate the crime, or make any attempt to find the thief.
I wonder what they would do if I had been sitting in the car, and somone tried to steal it from me, and I shot them dead instead.
You appear to believe I had a natural right to defend my property and myself. I didn't before SYG. I do now.
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