Posted on 05/27/2011 6:58:25 PM PDT by Red in Blue PA
An emotional jury Thursday decided pharmacist Jerome Jay Ersland was guilty of first-degree murder for fatally shooting a masked robber two years ago inside an Oklahoma City drugstore.
Jurors chose life in prison as punishment.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsok.com ...
I wasn’t aware that this 16 year old “man” had committed murder.
I wasn’t aware that this robber had committed murder.
You implied it by saying that the assailant was a potential murderer, he hadn’t committed murder, yet you think his execution is just.
I can dislike all of the bad guys at once, my brain is that big, you should try it.
“I wasn’t aware that this 16 year old “man” had committed murder.”
How do you know it was NOT going to end that way?? the Ghetto man lost!16 years old???How many murderers are committed by these, good boy teens of yours??
Did you watch this video?
“You implied it by saying that the assailant was a potential murderer, he hadn’t committed murder, yet you think his execution is just.”
When was the last time YOU faced a armed robber??
If he had merely exhibited even the slightest bit of body language that even remotely indicated that he perceived a continuing threat, I think the jury could have easily let him walk. Had he reentered the store and speeded up as though he saw the perp still moving, or backed up toward the counter to retrieve his second gun, or even spun around rapidly as though some movement or sound had alerted him and engaged from where he was standing...any one or combination of those cues or any number of others could have created enough reasonable doubt.
As it stands, his actions, all recorded on video, show that upon his return to the store, he did absolutely NOTHING to indicate that he was reacting to a threat or dange to himself or another person.
All the smoke and mirrors introduced on this thread have little to do, IMHO, with his guilt or innocence. The suggestion that he had previously been terrorized by gang bangers, his false claims of injuries and wartime service, his careless shooting down the street, etc. have little if anything to do with legality or illegality of his actions. They merely tell me that serious, responsible firearm owners, and proponents of legitimate self-defense need to pick our battles carefully, and this is not the hill to die on (no pun intended).
Never, but I don’t think I would defend myself and then execute the unconscious lump of trash on the floor.
“Never, but I don’t think I would defend myself and then execute the unconscious lump of trash on the floor.”
I have been through it and would kill the bastard a dozen times.
So, was this a jury of the perp’s peers, rather than the pharmacist’s?
I have been in my share of stuff as well over decades of hard living, but would you make up total nonsense like this?
Here are some of his earlier claims, people forget that he claimed to have been wounded in a desperate shootout and was wearing a bandage over the wound until the police made clear that he was the only one that had fired a gun. When you watch the video you realize that the guy is totally fantasizing and making it up up and lying.
Throw these claims in with his phony war hero stuff and you have a real nutcase.
>The robbers began shooting at him, with one bullet grazing him on the arm, he said he heard another round whiz past his ear.
Ersland recalled: “All of a sudden, they started shooting. They were attempting to kill me, but they didn’t know I had a gun. They said, ‘You’re gonna die.’ That’s when one of them shot at me, and that’s when he got my hand.”
Ersland grabbed the semi-automatic Kel-Tec .380 in his pocket.
“And that’s when I started defending myself,” he said. “The first shot got him in the head, and that slowed him down so I could get my other gun.”
Ersland also kept a much larger pistol in a nearby drawer, which he was able to retrieve, a Taurus Judge revolver. At that point, the second robber took off. However, the other robber was now getting up off of the floor, despite the head wound.
Ersland emptied his clip into the chest of the wounded robber, who turned out to be 16-year-old Antwun Parker.
“I went after the other guy, but he was real fast and I’m crippled,” said Ersland. Once outside, he saw a third black male sitting in a car with what appeared to be a shotgun.
Ersland said: “I pulled out my ‘Judge’ and pointed it right between his eyes and he floored it.”
A SECOND VERSION
>””All of a sudden, they started shooting,” he said. “They were attempting to kill me, but they didn’t know I had a gun. They said, ‘You’re gonna die.’ That’s when one of them shot at me, and that’s when he got my hand.”
Ersland said he was thrown against a wall, but managed to go for the semiautomatic in his pocket.
“And that’s when I started defending myself,” he said. “The first shot got him in the head, and that slowed him down so I could get my other gun.”
But as one robber hit the floor, Ersland said, a bullet from the other robber whizzed past his ear.
The pharmacist said he then got his second gun from a nearby drawer, a Taurus “Judge.”
After he had the big gun, Ersland said, the second robber ran.
But as he started to chase after the second robber, Ersland said, he looked back to see the 16-year-old he had shot in the head getting up again. Ersland said he then emptied the Kel-Tec .380 into the boy’s chest as he kept going after the second robber.
“I went after the other guy, but he was real fast and I’m crippled,” Ersland said.
Outside the pharmacy, he said he saw what he thought was a third black male in a car with the engine running and reaching for what appeared to be a shotgun.
“I pulled out my ‘Judge’ and pointed it right between his eyes and he floored it,” Ersland said.
I saw the video. The pharmacist certainly didn’t do himself any favors by lying and changing his story so many times. But in no way do I see this rising to murder 1.
It was the gun-wielding robbers that chose to create that incident that day. He finished it. I really don’t care that he emptied a second gun into the (mostly dead) perp. I don’t care if it was the extra shots that actually killed him (and really... that’s ~massive~ speculation on the part of the medical examiner).
Sure, I wish he was a more sympathetic figure. It was a douchebag thing to do to claim military service he didn’t have. It was stupid to bother lying about any of it. He should have been more honest about all of it. But all that said... there’s nothing here that rises to murder 1. OR any charge at all in my book.
Here’s the question: Who would I rather have as a neighbor? This pharmacist or the goons that robbed him? I’d take him in that, any day.
“I have been in my share of stuff as well over decades of hard living, but would you make up total nonsense like this?
Here are some of his earlier claims, people forget that he claimed to have been wounded in a desperate shootout and was wearing a bandage over the wound until the police made clear that he was the only one that had fired a gun. When you watch the video you realize that the guy is totally fantasizing and making it up up and lying.
Throw these claims in with his phony war hero stuff and you have a real nutcase.
>The robbers began shooting at him, with one bullet grazing him on the arm, he said he heard another round whiz past his ear.
Ersland recalled: “All of a sudden, they started shooting. They were attempting to kill me, but they didn’t know I had a gun. They said, ‘You’re gonna die.’ That’s when one of them shot at me, and that’s when he got my hand.”
Ersland grabbed the semi-automatic Kel-Tec .380 in his pocket.
“And that’s when I started defending myself,” he said. “The first shot got him in the head, and that slowed him down so I could get my other gun.”
Ersland also kept a much larger pistol in a nearby drawer, which he was able to retrieve, a Taurus Judge revolver. At that point, the second robber took off. However, the other robber was now getting up off of the floor, despite the head wound.
Ersland emptied his clip into the chest of the wounded robber, who turned out to be 16-year-old Antwun Parker.
“I went after the other guy, but he was real fast and I’m crippled,” said Ersland. Once outside, he saw a third black male sitting in a car with what appeared to be a shotgun.
Ersland said: “I pulled out my ‘Judge’ and pointed it right between his eyes and he floored it.”
A SECOND VERSION
>””All of a sudden, they started shooting,” he said. “They were attempting to kill me, but they didn’t know I had a gun. They said, ‘You’re gonna die.’ That’s when one of them shot at me, and that’s when he got my hand.”
Ersland said he was thrown against a wall, but managed to go for the semiautomatic in his pocket.
“And that’s when I started defending myself,” he said. “The first shot got him in the head, and that slowed him down so I could get my other gun.”
But as one robber hit the floor, Ersland said, a bullet from the other robber whizzed past his ear.
The pharmacist said he then got his second gun from a nearby drawer, a Taurus “Judge.”
After he had the big gun, Ersland said, the second robber ran.
But as he started to chase after the second robber, Ersland said, he looked back to see the 16-year-old he had shot in the head getting up again. Ersland said he then emptied the Kel-Tec .380 into the boy’s chest as he kept going after the second robber.
“I went after the other guy, but he was real fast and I’m crippled,” Ersland said.
Outside the pharmacy, he said he saw what he thought was a third black male in a car with the engine running and reaching for what appeared to be a shotgun.
“I pulled out my ‘Judge’ and pointed it right between his eyes and he floored it,” Ersland said.”
He faced a armed robber,the robber died, end of story.
A lot of bad things in this case. Two teenagers, one with a gun, trying to rob a pharmacy. A disaster in the making for all, including the two women employees.
What the hell is a 14 year old doing with a gun? He’ll get off with a few years despite this being a FELONY MURDER case, and a criminal conspiracy case (the two adults who got life were planners of the conspiracy and provided the gun).
The16 year old who got killed deserved it. Whether the pharmacist should have shot him after he was down, and after some time had passed, is a bad call all around. The gang could have come back for revenge.
However, the pharmacist and his attorney should have pled to either Second Degree Homicide or Voluntary Manslaughter. He might have gotten a break.
And what is with the majority of criminals in Oklahoma City blacks, esp. teenagers? What is wrong with that city, its Mayor, City Council, etc. that this is happening? ‘ve seen too many crime reports from OC not to ask this. Is poverty behind this or something else, more invidious, such as a liberal welfare/victimology mentality that lets the criminal element go hog wild?
These ain’t AMISH robbers, folks. Something is wrong in OC. Please tell me what it is.
If that were the end of the story we would not be having a post trial, murder conviction discussion about the Stolen Valor Pharmacist.
From what I remember about this case, the pharmacist saw the guy still reaching for something on the ground or trying to get up after he was telling him to stay down. The camera in the store did not have an angle to show the criminal on the floor.
I would have believed the store owner that the criminal was still a threat.
What is so difficult about looking at an entire event and seeing the actions of all parties, why treat it as if you have to take a side of one bad guy or the other, why not just accept that it was a freak case of robbers trying to rob a Walter Mitty psychopath.
I find the coincidence of these characters all meeting up as the amusing aspect of this.
The coroner and forensics said that the flat on his back, hands out, unconcious, brain injured robber never moved, even as the five bullets were being pumped into him.
Huh...you never heard of “premedidated”? If you plan to do
something wrong, you’re not tried until you do it and are
caught...if it was found that you had planned it, you get a
bigger penalty....than if you did it on a whim...which is
why the pharmacist should not be given life.....he was forced
into a situation which made him act that way..(how about
an entrapment defense???)
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