Prosecutor doesn’t like CO’s “make my day” law
David sends us a link to n MSN News story about Mesa County District Attorney Pete Hautzinger who is unhappy with the fact that Colorado’s “Make My Day” law doesn’t allow him to prosecute Joseph Hoskins for the shooting death of Randy Cook. The law protects homeowners from prosecution for shooting a person if that person has illegally entered their home and intends to commit a crime.
After a night of drinking at a party in the western Colorado city of Grand Junction, Cook and another man went to fight Hoskins outside his house. The fight moved inside and to Hoskins’ bedroom, where the homeowner said Cook tried to snatch away his shotgun. Hoskins tackled Cook and shot him, according to Hoskins’ account of the night, which was relayed to investigators through an attorney.
“These grown men, otherwise basically upstanding, law-abiding citizens, are acting like drunken children, and as a result, a good man got killed, and I can’t hold anyone accountable for it in the criminal justice system,” Hautzinger told The Associated Press.
The altercation began in Hoskins’ yard and Cook followed him to his bedroom. It seems to me that there were plenty of opportunities for Cook to avoid being ventilated and I don’t know how far the prosecutor expected Hoskins’ to retreat. Unless, of course, Hoskins marched Cook and his friend into his bedroom at gunpoint, I don’t see a problem.
“It sticks in my craw to be unable to hold Joseph Hoskins accountable for his actions,” Hautzinger said. “But it’s not a very close legal call.”
Apparently, the argument began on Facebook, FFS.
Category: Legal
“These grown men…acting like drunken children”
And a prosecutor acting like a petulant two year old throwing a tantrum.
“Waaaahhh, I don’t want this doll! I want the prosecutor doll…oh, look, the head comes off….”
Jesus. Its been said here before: play stupid games, win stupid prizes. By the way “a good man got killed.” How the hell does he know he was a good man. Seems like it was a justifiable takedown. What’s he crying about. Had Mr. Cook not gotten in a fight over Facebook he wouldn’t currently be taking a dirt nap.
Sure does make me glad my FB friends and I get along well enough that nobody wants to go each others house and start shit. Good Lord.
Okay Mista Prosecutin’ ATtourney…you need to get a new line of work because this one doesn’t fit your hand.
I don’t have an issue with him not liking the law.
He is entitled to his opinion just as everyone is.
The good thing is that he did not try to go around the law with a bogus prosecution or even file charges which would have cost Hoskins would have had to hire an attorney just to get the charges dropped. (The process being the penalty in this case.)
There are a lot of rules that people don’t like from their company. There are laws that we don’t like. Just because this guy is a prosecutor doesn’t mean he drops his right to an opinion at the door of his office.
Eat a few brownies and you will feel better.
I see pot, I mean what, you did there…
Da procecutor wanted to send him to da joint! He is just tryin’ to weed out da criminuls!
He’s upset that he wasn’t killed or seriously injured, so he could plea bargain some ridiculous sentence to the guy that did it to inflate his closure stats.
What a twat.
Give me crap in my front yard,& follow me into my house? I promise you won’t make it any farther.
Sounds like justifiable homicide to me.
The dumbass should have not gone into someone else’s house trying to continue to assault him.
The Prosecutor is entitled to his personal opinion but he should shut his yap when the law conflicts with that, because we aren’t paying him for his personal opinion, we are paying him to obey and enforce the Peoples laws, duly passed by the Peoples representatives. He is our flunky and needs to mind his place.
A couple of years ago, our next-door neighbor’s son went into the home of his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend. No one knows why, but he was shot and killed in the back bedroom.
He was a nice guy, about 40, but really stupid to go there. It was heartbreaking for his mother.
We live in a different county in CO, it wasn’t even in the paper, let along a public statement from the cops. That’s how most incidents are here since most people recognize that you have a right to protect yourself in your home.
Cross my threshhold, all bets are off.
Pretty simple, actually.
Gun control is working great in Iraq right now. The libtards need to make some campaign
Commercials.
I can’t hold anyone accountable for it in the criminal justice system
Don’t worry; someone got held accountable. Don’t be mad that it wasn’t the kind of accountability you wanted.
Okay, let me see if I have this straight. Asshole gets pissed over some chickenshit on Facebook. Asshole goes to guy’s house. Asshole attacks guy in guy’s yard. Guy retreats into his house. Asshole follows guy into guy’s house, and chases guy into his motherfucking BEDROOM. Asshole goes for guy’s shotgun. Guy regains control of his weapon. Guy terminates asshole who has aggressively assaulted him and invaded the most private part if his home with violent intent.
Now asshole #2 (attorney) says guy should be prosecuted for defending himself in an incident that was instigated, escalated, and driven by the asshole. Methinks the asshole had plenty of chances to choose to continue breathing. Instead, he chose to continue escalating the situation. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes, kids!
I bet I could guess this attorney’s party affiliation.
The source story at MSN mistakenly (deliberately?) confuses the killing of Trayvon Martin with the Stand Your Ground law. The case had nothing to do with SYG, as the folks over at Legal Insurrection have repeatedly pointed out.
So, consider the source. I bet thats not all they distorted re this incident.
It’s also worth noting that the guy who got shot was not part of the original dispute – that was between the unnamed third party and the shooter. So the dead guy basically jumped into someone else’s fight and got his ticket punched.
As Paul Harvey says… The rest of the story… The “dead guy was NOT the person that was upset over Facebook. The shooter who does a video blog of his life… actually went and got a camera and videotaped himself taunting/confronting and grabbing the “dead guy” as the said dead guy WAS actually vacating the house from a previous skirmish (which also went from outside to inside the house with another individual AND which at some point saw the girlfriend of the shooter pull a loaded pistol) The shooter and until that point witness to the shooters previous fight BOTH began punching and wrestling around. The fight spilled into the house where the shooter separated himself, went into a separate room, closed the door, got a shotgun, loaded it, called 911 but chose not to speak, placed the phone in his pocket with his video recorder (with camera still recording all audio) then shot “the dead guy” in his left side of his BACK. He and his girlfriend then went back in said bedroom (moving the “dg’s” feet outside the room so they could shut the door). They then got their story straight what to tell the Police. He even had the presence of mind to tell her to NOT talk to them at all and to tell her how she would need to go “work” a nightclub type place for money. (AND where the girlfriend apologizes to the shooter for not shooting the first person her boyfriend was fighting with) This is all done BEFORE he decides to take his phone out of his pocket and answer the 911 operator who can clearly be heard saying “hello” the whole time… yet he later says he was afraid for his life?) Please people before you judge the “dead guy” get more facts. BTW all of this is including the video is now Public Record so feel free to do what many of the concerned friends and family of the “dead guy” as well as concerned residents and or visitors of that community AND what a jury was denied the right… Read more »
That’s actually not how it happened as I have read the reports above. It seems the district attorney was friends with the dead guy. He even started his press conference saying so which blows my mind. ( conflict). Did the above post say that they broke into this guys house twice attacking him? Wow! It’s followed with the guy follows the dead guy out of his house and attacks him in the video when in every report, police forensic analysis and eye witness statements say the guy came outside and slipped and fell down the stairs where the “dead guy” turned and attacked him a second time. The above statement seems a bit skewed as it may be coming from someone directly affected by the incident and in return trying to justify their friends actions. Another quirk that seems to never get mentioned is that in the audio you can hear the victim talking about what happened that night. He does tell his (assumed) girlfriend not to talk to the police UNTIL they have an attorney. I don’t think anyone would disagree that was a smart decision with the demeanor it seems the DA had. Most importantly the victim finishes it seems rehashing the incident with “Just tell the truth” and is probably in a bit of hysteria over being attacked twice in his home and having to shoot someone. Typically if someone is coaching some one up to lie they don’t finish with “Just tell the truth”
The big question for me is, how come no one from the group that burglarized and it sounds like gang assaulted this guy hasn’t been charged. In some states these people would have been charged with the murder themselves
I know the victim and have heard the story first hand. Firstly, Joe was OK with fist fighting the guy in the driveway. And they did. After that was over, he went inside his house…where the gang of 3 guys and 2 girls followed him and forced entry. They then assaulted him, had him on the ground, and beat the living shit out of him. That’s when he told his girlfriend to “get the gun” and she did. At that point, the other 2 girls knocked the gun out of her hand. Then he retreated to his bedroom…a loose gun in the living room. Shut the door. The dead man forced himself into the shut bedroom. Ummm, at that point Joe was backed into a corner, of his own house, a loose gun outside his room, and someone charging through his bedroom door…people that beat him bad and weren’t going to stop. So, what did you want him to do? Get beaten to death? BTW, they beat up his girlfriend and a elderly neighbor woman that also entered the house and tried to break up the fight. Basically, a drunken group of 5 people drove to his house to kick his ass. He was willing to fist fight the guy that had a beef with him, but for group to gang up on him, invade his home, and beat him and innocent women is just f-ed up!
Mr smith, Your story is way off maybe you should read the discovery and watch the video before you tell your version. The fight started outside and ended up in the living room that is when his girlfriend pulled a pistol out which was wrestled away from her and hoskins turned on a video recorder and follows Cook outside. In the video you can hear Hoskins mention them grabbing the gun inside and then taunts Cook as he is leaving. So NO he did not run into the room and shut the door after the gun was taken. Also according to statements hoskins slipped and grabbed onto cook from behind if someone you were just in a fight with follows you screaming and taunting you and then grabs you from behind accident or not how are you going to react? Probably the same way cook did and fight back thinking your being attacked so then the two are going at it again and they end up tumbling back through the open front door and Hoskins makes it to his loaded shot gun and shots cook in the left side back area. How does he get shot in that location if cook was trying to take the shotgun from hoskins or if Hoskins had to tackle cook as he claims? Or did Hoskins grab the gun and shoot Cook as he was trying to get out of there again for the second time? None of Hoskins statement matches the reports and other statement like his girlfriend being beat up and held down on the couch when Cook was shot how is that possible when everyone else was outside when the shot was fired tge statements and video show this sure they could have came back in attacked her in the 10 seconds it took for Hoskins to pull the trigger but in the video she tells hoskins he almost shot her cause she was standing right next to cook when he shot and she could hear the bullets whiz by that makes sense she must have the ability to be in… Read more »
Somebody needs to re Read the discovery
That’s actually not how it happened as I have read the reports above. It seems the district attorney was friends with the dead guy. He even started his press conference saying so which blows my mind. ( conflict). Did the above post say that they broke into this guys house twice attacking him? Wow! It’s followed with the guy follows the dead guy out of his house and attacks him in the video when in every report, police forensic analysis and eye witness statements say the guy came outside and slipped and fell down the stairs where the “dead guy” turned and attacked him a second time. The above statement seems a bit skewed as it may be coming from someone directly affected by the incident and in return trying to justify their friends actions. Another quirk that seems to never get mentioned is that in the audio you can hear the victim talking about what happened that night. He does tell his (assumed) girlfriend not to talk to the police UNTIL they have an attorney. I don’t think anyone would disagree that was a smart decision with the demeanor it seems the DA had. Most importantly the victim finishes it seems rehashing the incident with “Just tell the truth” and is probably in a bit of hysteria over being attacked twice in his home and having to shoot someone. Typically if someone is coaching some one up to lie they don’t finish with “Just tell the truth”
The big question for me is, how come no one from the group that burglarized and it sounds like gang assaulted this guy hasn’t been charged. In some states these people would have been charged with the murder themselves