Posted on 12/22/2015 8:53:13 AM PST by Da Bilge Troll
ST. LOUIS - Prosecutors filed on Friday a charge against a man from St. Louis they say fatally shot a teenager rifling through his car last month - not for the killing but for being a felon in possession of a gun.
Prosecutors have been reviewing potential charges against Lervurance McDade, 60, in the death. But it appears that the shooting of Martinez Smith-Payne, 13, may be considered legal under Missouri's 2007 castle doctrine statute that permits use of deadly force in the face of "reasonable fear."
The shot was fired from a distance of more than 70 feet away, police sources said.
Documents charging McDade with unlawful possession of a firearm say he handed a Colt .380-caliber pistol to police Sgt. James Kenny five minutes after the shooting. McDade was arrested and admitted that he owned the gun.
He had pleaded guilty of illegal possession of a weapon and unlawful use of a weapon on Nov. 21, 1989, in Pemiscot County, Mo., court documents say. He also was sentenced in 2013 in St. Louis County Circuit Court to five years on probation on a felony charge of being more than 12 months in arrears on child support.
Bail for McDade was set at $30,000 cash.
Martinez's mother, Frances Smith-Woods, said Friday that she was happy about the gun charge but still wanted to talk to McDade.
"I just know that it still will not bring back Martinez," she said. "But I would really want to ask him why did he just shoot instead of coming out and scaring them or yelling at them? I know my son. If (McDade) would have come out and said, 'Get out of here!,' my son would have ran. He didn't have to kill Martinez. He took a big piece of me away."
(Excerpt) Read more at stltoday.com ...
A fatal shot with a .380 from across the front yard and across the street (probably about 70 feet)? I’d say you’re right.
I have a friend who ran away with his girlfriend. He was 18 or so and she was around 16. He was charged with kidnapping and can never own a gun for the rest of his life. He’s cleaned up and is a very good, godly man. He can’t protect his family.
One is Free or a criminal. The latter, requiring jail and/or probation, does not have the Rights of the former.
So, unless we have tiers of ‘classes’ in the U.S., there is no in-between and thus, no ‘crime’.
Yet, ponder the charges of those that break our immigration laws, overstay their visa, mail/voter/tax fraud....
More freedoms for the law-breakers than the lawful?
Those are acts of love, right?
Paraphrasing Atlas Shrugged:
There is no way to control an innocent / free person. Therefore, we need to make you all criminals. Therefore we need MORE laws, so many that you cannot comply with them all, just as we want. Once you are all criminals, stand by.
In Missouri convicted felons can't own firearms. It is what it is.
Maybe the point is that being in arrears on child support shouldn't be a felony. The whole family court thing is stacked against men, so I could see this happening pretty easily, and BAM! Felony.
Agree. But, once you are in the “system” it is VERY hard to get free from it.
Again, it is what it is. But even without the child support charges the two weapons charges from 1989 were felonies themselves.
It’s sadly amusing that Mama’s comment strongly implies prior experience watching her son commit crimes. She’s so dumb she assumes everyone else knows whatever she does.
A bit too good for me to believe, and I think it’s BS to hype the sad story of Lil’ Dindu’s demise. A 70+ foot shot is possible, but why would the police accept that McDade was in “reasonable fear for his life” at that distance. I smell a journalist at work.
Arrears in child support deserves a public stockade with lots of rotten tomatoes and repossessing his property but it’s far from a felony charge, imo.
The defendant was a fellow stopped on the street by the police. When they asked him to turn out his pockets, a receipt from a gun store fell out. By that time they had run a background screen and it was clear that he was a convicted felon. They asked him where the gun was, and he told the police it was at his home. The police told him to go home, get the gun and bring it to the local precinct house. He did that and was arrested on the spot and charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm.
The jury deliberations were edited down slightly to fit into a 1 hour documentary. It was a slam dunk case, in which the jury ended up returning an acquittal - a perfect example of jury nullification. The defendant was a very poorly educated man of manifestly low IQ. The jury was sympathetic to him, and simply ignored the evidence and the law and acquitted him.
Yeah. The first thing you want to do when dealing with potentially dangerous criminals is yell at them. That’s the ticket. /s
Quite right
Agree. Do we lose first, fourth, fifth amendment rights because of a conviction? Shouldn’t a libel verdict be grounds for demanding you stop speaking? A felon? No more right to a warrant. Etc. Can you imagine if the same principle were applied to abortions? No, can’t interfere with a fundamental right. But any excuse to keep people disarmed and helpless, even if they might need it more because a felon might not get to live in the best neighborhood.
Disgusting.
If he was smart he would have robbed her instead, since she knows what to do.
Moral of story: never live in St Louis
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