What the Fuck, Texas?

FOXNews.com - Neighbors Defend Texan Accused of Murdering Teen Over Snacks - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News

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LAREDO, Texas — The trial of a man accused of executing a teen who broke into his home with friends looking for snacks has many in this border city outraged. Not because of the crime, but because the man is facing a murder charge.

In a state where the right to use deadly force to protect one's life and property is sacrosanct and frontier justice is still sometimes the norm — particularly on the violence-plagued Texas-Mexico border — prosecutors have to explain the decision to try Jose Luis Gonzalez.

Even their future boss, the man who is running uncontested for Webb County district attorney in November, disagrees with the decision; he is Gonzalez's defense attorney.

Gonzalez, a wiry, graying 63-year-old, had endured several break-ins at his trailer in a hard-scrabble community east of town when four boys, ranging in age from 11 to 15, broke into his trailer to rummage for chips and soda in July 2007. Gonzalez was in a nearby building at the time.

Gonzalez went into the trailer and confronted the boys with a 16-gauge shotgun. The boys, who were unarmed, were forced to their knees, attorneys on both sides say.

The boys claim they were begging for forgiveness when Gonzalez hit them with the barrel of the shotgun and kicked them repeatedly.

Then, the medical examiner testified, 13-year-old Francisco Anguiano was shot in the back at point-blank range. Two mashed Twinkies and some cookies were stuffed in the pockets of his shorts.

Another boy, Jesus Soto Jr., now 16, testified that Gonzalez ordered them at gunpoint to take Francisco's body outside.

Texas law does allow homeowners to use deadly force to protect themselves and their property, and prosecutors and grand juries have generally applied that standard broadly. In June, a grand jury in Houston cleared a homeowner who shot and killed two burglars outside his neighbor's house despite the dispatcher's repeated request that he stay inside his own home.

"The homeowner's right to defend himself is not what's on trial in this case," said Assistant District Attorney Uriel Druker, speaking of the Gonzalez case. The shooting "was unnecessary and unreasonable, and Texas law doesn't protect that kind of behavior."

But folks in this border city scarred by drug violence across the Rio Grande defend Gonzalez's actions.

"It's a table topic at coffee shops, not only in Laredo but throughout the region," said Mayor Raul Salinas, who noted that folks tend to have strong opinions about the right to protect themselves here. "There's been some debate."

Reader responses to articles published on the Laredo Morning Times Web site called Gonzalez's prosecution unfair and blasted the teen, saying Francisco got what he deserved.

Food distributor Francisco Hernandez pointed out in an interview with The Associated Press that a homeowner wouldn't know whether the intruders were there "to steal potato chips or to stab you."

"He really shouldn't be on trial," Hernandez said.

Gonzalez could get up to life in prison if he's convicted of first-degree murder. His attorney, Isidro "Chilo" Alaniz, said his client was simply acting in self-defense when he found the boys in the trailer late at night.

"There is not a day that goes by that Mr. Gonzalez doesn't think about that little boy," Alaniz said. But Gonzalez "feared for his life."

It was four on one when Gonzalez entered the trailer, Alaniz said. He had the boys on the ground and recognized at least one of them, but Gonzalez thought 13-year-old boy was lunging at him when he fired the shotgun, Alaniz said.

The case will be Alaniz's last as a criminal defense attorney. The 40-year-old won the Democratic nomination in April and has no Republican opponent for district attorney in the November.

He said he became Gonzalez's attorney long before he decided to run for office and has stuck with the case because he believes in it. He was asked whether his client would be on trial for murder if he were already in office.

"That's a good question," Alaniz said. "This case has huge implications for homeowners, gun owners."

The trial is expected to wrap up Friday.

Time to exercise the gun rights the Founding Fathers gave you and raze this shithole to the ground.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Sassafrass

I don't know. If you remove yourself from the gravity of the situation, it's pretty fuckin' hilarious.

Yeah, children dying trying to get food. What a laugh riot.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

They're his "property" but I guess he'd only be able to prove that if he kept the A&W receipt.

Of course the issue is that Castle Laws don't protect execution killings.

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Sure this case is borderline fucking crazy, but as with any trial it has to be understood that it has much larger ramifications then some bat-shit old man viciously slaughtering a kid for taking his twinkies. Actually, no I guess it doesn't. Fuck it. If you guys are going to nuke the place could you at least front me the cash for some plane tickets first.?

All Texans are responsible for this collective sin. Prepare to burn.

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Originally Posted by Zephyrin

But who's to say that the kid wasn't just trying to make a bolt for the door?

His own attorney doesn't dispute the nature of the killing.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Hispanic Texans are whiter than you.

I was speaking idiomatically.

I was talking to a lurker, honky.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

The only way I could see that kid get shot in the back of the head in a struggle would be if he did some MJ and spun around to a crotch grab.

Wasn't there a forensics team that could've confirmed a struggle or an execution killing?

FELIPE NO

I've got no tremendous issue with castle laws. While I think it's ok to shoot an intruder presupposing self-defense, I don't think it's ok to execute intruders or to kill people who are clearly not threatening your self.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?