Posted on 12/26/2021 4:25:40 AM PST by marktwain
EVERETT — Ryan Leenders collapsed and wept in the arms of his defense attorneys Thursday as the verdict in his murder trial was read aloud.
Not guilty of first-degree murder.
Not guilty of second-degree murder.
Not guilty of first-degree assault.
It took a jury of five women and seven men less than two days to acquit Leenders, 36, of all charges related to the deadly shooting of William Harper, 28, who was a guest at a party in 2020.
Leenders walked out of the courtroom a free man, two days before Christmas.
The jury sat through nearly four weeks of witness testimony this month in front of Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Bruce Weiss. Leenders took the stand in his trial, testifying he thought Harper had a gun in his pocket. Leenders claimed self-defense.
Jurors accepted his story.
(Excerpt) Read more at heraldnet.com ...
If Leenders were a cop, they’d be calling for his blood.
He invites them into the party.He and his wife are "swingers".
He invites the couple into the hot tub.
He makes a pass at the woman of the couple.
They get out and are leaving.
Leenders demands their belongings (according to the article).
The victim steps in front of the woman.
Leenders feels threatened, claims he beleived the victim had a gun in his pocket.
Leenders shoots the victim multiple times, killing him.
A very weird case.
It certainly did sound weird.
Self-defense in this instance sounds like five pounds of sh!t in a three-pound bag. WTF.
The belongings belonged to whom ???
The home owner/shooter or the guy who was shot ???
Forget it, Jake - it’s The Left Coast.
I’ll have to remember that the next time I go to a party with my wife and we get into a communal hot tub in California;)
Maybe stop inviting strangers and their attractive girlfriends into your hot tub/ massage parlor/vaping room.
Degenerates.
No such thing as free sex after all.
As well: 12 whatevers on the jury who could totally understand how such a little misunderstanding could occur !
It’s a very badly written or intentionally misleadingly written article.
Reading between the lines it sounds like Leenders thought they stole his gun so he got another one and confronted them and they fought back and he shot first “in self defense” thinking the vape pen was the gun.
I’ll agree that if he had been a cop OR Harper had been black that this guy would be going to the pen for a long time.
I think the jury probably made the right decision here as nobody seems to have contested the order of events/story - but this Leenders guy sounds like a real piece of work.
A real weirdo.
Pulling out a gun and showing it off to a couple of random strangers he just met on the street. Then leaving it on a chair as if it’s a play toy.
Next he starts getting fresh, and coming on strong, to the stranger’s wife. After all, they must be “swingers”! Why else would they agree to join him in his hot tub?
The strangers are duly offended, and prepare to leave. He ostensibly claims the strangers stole the gun that was earlier laid aside. So he brandishes a 2nd gun and then fires it 3 times at the male stranger, killing him.
Now I know what a swinger is.
Now I know what a swinger is.
But Rittenhouse was somehow a bad guy.
From the article, I do not see how this guy was acquitted.
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