Posted on 01/15/2020 8:32:33 AM PST by Theoria
A homeless man is fighting his case by invoking New Yorks castle doctrine, which gives people the right to defend their dwellings.
Each night, Joseph Matos builds his home on the East Side by placing several cardboard boxes on the ground for cushioning and then linking together a half dozen others so he can fit inside to sleep.
One night in October 2018, he said, he was jolted from his slumber by a thud, followed by another. Startled, he leapt outside and grabbed a knife. A college student, walking by with a friend, had kicked Mr. Matoss box because he thought it was trash, investigators said.
What happened next could send Mr. Matos, 57, to prison for more than a decade. Mr. Matos faces assault charges for stabbing one of the men and slashing the other, but he is fighting the case with an unusual argument: His lawyers say he was defending his home against attackers.
Under New Yorks castle doctrine, a person has a right to protect his home with deadly force if he reasonably believes another person is entering without permission and is seeking to commit a crime. The defense hinges partly on whether a collection of cardboard boxes is a home.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
One man’s box is another man’s castle . . .
Homeless guy needs to go all in, and show up to court dressed as a woman. In the game of Intersectional Victim Poker, a Homeless Tranny Flush beats a Guatemalan Strait Pair.
That doctrine would not defend his actions in this circumstance. The student had no way to reasonably know for certain that this ‘box’ was someone’s residence, and not a large piece of rubbish.
“If I dont pay the State 3400 bucks a year.... They will own it.”
Dont complain unless ...
You dont use the county facilities and disable 911 on your phone.
pay wall.
pay wall bypasser.
OK Yes. This is great logic. If they can “defend” their home, then they should be subject to the local laws for residences. So then he is either trespassing or subject to a bunch of other laws about residences.
Can’t have it both ways.
Thats not the point for the street folk
Most live this way by choice
Mostly alcoholics first
Other drugs second
He doesnt want support like prison might give
Cant stay drunk or high
Does he have a mortgage?
= = =
How about an HOA?
You got it all wrong!
Those two college kids who kicked his refrigerator carton, thinking that it was just "trash," were in fact trespassing on his private property (= "castle").
At least, that's what the Defense Attorney is implying.
Regards,
In Missouri, all things else being lawful, he could be successful. Car,tent cardboard box....could be a protected domicile.
Does he have a “property” in the boxes? Then he owns it.
Well sure as soon as he presents a title, mortgage papers, hotel check-in documents, or a rental agreement from the person he was borrowing the land from to build his Kraft Paper Cottage. Otherwise he was defending someone else’s property without their permission.
Unfortunately true. Used to be they just taxed your dining room table... but then people made them so they could convert to a chair with a big round back anytime the tax collector showed up. So they taxed clocks... then people put paintings on the clocks and called them art... then they taxed interior doors... so in the Federalist period in Missouri the people put long back porches on their buildings so they could go from room to room because most rooms only opened to the porch with untaxed exterior doors. ...
Maybe they should first have to convict the students of breaking and entering.
I’m pretty sure his ‘home’ is not up to code....
Except he doesn’t own the land and cannot prove he rents it.
probably a smaller box not far from his box tool shed.
Indeed. Its moments like this that I really regret not going to law school instead of getting my clown college degree. A real bloodthirsty cynic could make millions mining this era of crazy as a Civil Injury lawyer.
The jar of vaseline was a dead giveaway.
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