What the Fuck, Texas?

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

Quote:

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.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure Texas might be planning to lunge at us.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Kids die for Twinkies.

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

Nothing Texas does shocks me anymore. 'DOZE 'DEM 'DERE MY TWINKIES. ON YER KNEES, BOY.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

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.

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

If he had them on their knees and beat them up, that's kind of shady. Shooting a kid in the back at point blank range, kinda shady.

However, it did point out this dude'd had multiple break-ins. Also it pointed out something about drug-scarred border town. Could have been poetic license, or these could have been crackheads with the munchies.

Who's to say that one of them didn't behave provacatively, etc etc etc. Same tired argument.

Still, yes, let's nuke that fucking shit hole. Never should have let them in the union. God damn cowboys and their stupid Alamo. Also George Bush is from Texas, and you see where that got us.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Yes, a 13-year-old crackhead with the munchies lunging at you back-first from a prone position.

Texans have such a weird notion of "self". If I'm over here, and I see you in an entirely different building, and then I rush over there and shoot you, that's self-defense. Apparently Mr. Gonzalez considers those Twinkies to be a part of himself.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

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.?

FELIPE NO

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.

Quote:

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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My guns can reach further than your flames, sir

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Once again, you're stuck between a rock and a hard place.

The law is the law, and it comes down to a distinct note that has to be interpreted. Annnnnd you know nobody, especially in Texas, will try and interpret anything according to the books.

But I don't blame them.

There no way to be in that trailer the night of the killing. But most people will say it'd been better if he'd just gone in shooting instead of trying to subdue them, THEN kill them. Or he could've held them up, and called the cops. Lord knows they would've just gotten a slap on the wrist.
But who's to say that the kid wasn't just trying to make a bolt for the door?

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Sounds to me like this guy thought that a body would act as a deterrent for future B&Es and killed the little fucker just to get a message out. However, shooting a kid point-blank from behind is not self defense unless he is sprouting spines from his back. In which case, this man is a hero for defending us from violent muties.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Bradylama

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

Would you rather I go into a diatribe about how fucking stupid it is to defend a man who shot children at pointe-blank range because they stole Twinkies?

I mean, a normal person with a gun in hand would determine that they have control over the situation, even if the children were armed to the teeth there to burgle his trailer without his knowing.

I don't think anyone (with half a functioning brain) will disagree that this was by and far overkill. But HA HA Texas Law!

I do find murder over Twinkies kind of comedic, though. They hardly qualify as food.

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

We don't know the backgrounds of these kids either. Who's to say they're not latchkey children who come home to empty cupboards just to wait for mom or dad to stumble in piss-drunk at 11PM?

Twinkies would look like a goddamned smorgasbord in that situation.

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Well, in order to murder children over Twinkies, the food situation must be pretty fuckin' dire in Texas.

How ya doing, buddy?

Twinkie-taking is punishable the death penalty, alongside Ho-Ho-handling and Ding-Dong-diddling, by Texas law. How is this not nationally known?

FELIPE NO

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.

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

That's precisely what's so beautiful about it. After we put this event through the lenses of both the killer, his lawyer, and fox fucking news, it still looks dirty as hell. God knows what the hell kind of travesty it was before the whitewashers got to it.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

It's heartwarming to see red-blooded Texans rallying to protect a man named Jose Gonzalez. Truly the just are colorblind when Twinkies are on the line.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

It's okay that he's a spic

Since he killed another spic

the scales are balanced

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Hispanic Texans are whiter than you.

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

Friend, are you attempting to impugn my whiteness

My whiteness is epic

I am invisible on a snowy day

I am #FFFFFF

I was speaking idiomatically.

I was talking to a lurker, honky.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I STAND FOR WHITEY EVERYWHERE

RACIAL UNITY

FELIPE NO

That twinky was just another honky piece of shit.

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Originally Posted by Bradylama

Hispanic Texans are whiter than you.

With all the fruit picking that they do?

How ya doing, buddy?