“Your recitation leaves out a lot of relevant, determinative, facts.”
Maybe, but based on the little that was there, I don’t think I left anything out that would be relevant to a DA.
Can you get a conviction on 2nd degree manslaughter from a jury? Not in the sticks you can’t. You can in a blue city in a blue state, but not in the sticks.
Could you get a guy like this to plead on this one, and then hammer him if it happens again, almost definitely.
Which one cost the state less?
The plea.
Is the family going to be pissed?
Maybe, but then I’m sure they’ll get free advice along the lines of ‘when a property owner comes up to you with a pistol and asks you to leave, you probably should get back on your inner tube and leave. Picking up rocks, arguing with him, and then assaulting him isn’t the generally accepted method of diffusing a potentially dangerous situation.
If they plead him down and he does it again, its a lock to convict on the second incident.
Take him to trial and he wins, then he does it again, it’s like the first incident never happened, and worse, it establishes precedent for the second time he walks if the circumstances are similar enough.
With a plea, there’s an admission of guilt.
I'll be happy to wager that the shooter gets manslaughter or higher. I think more likely higher, but they might let him plea to manslaughter and 5 or 10 years.