It's open and shut because no matter what someone does to you previously you can't chase them down and shoot them in the head because you got scared or peeved.
BBM and snipped for focus.
That's exactly it. I'm not convinced that EN ever "chased" the Meyerses.
We know the
Meyerses chased
EN. There seems to be no dispute about that. Under the exact scenario in the sentence from your post that I quoted (except they found and chased the wrong guy) -- they thought that EN had road-raged TM and KM earlier, and they went out with gun in hand to hunt him down. We all agree, I think, that no matter what someone does to you previously you can't chase them down once the threat has passed. The
Meyerses were absolutely in the wrong to take a gun and go out hunting for a car that they thought had road-raged TM & KM earlier. You're just not allowed to do that. Add in that the Meyerses found and chased the wrong guy -- a guy who had been sitting harmlessly in the park and doing absolutely nothing to them -- and the Meyerses were
doubly in the wrong.
But as far as EN chasing the Meyerses....Eh, I'm not so sure. Go read the testimony about his confession again. The silver car EN was riding in
fled. The Myerses gave chase. The silver car fled
again.
When the silver car finally got away and the immediate threat was over, EN was trying to go home; he was giving the driver directions to take him home. He saw the Meyers's green car driving on the same road as his house, and thought they were now targeting his house. Somehow -- in the testimony about EN's confession it's not clear how -- they ended up in the cul-de-sac. Keep in mind that EN was
not driving. He was a passenger and was giving directions to the driver who lived in another part of town and who wasn't as familiar with the neighborhood. There is not -- that we know of -- clear, undisputed evidence that EN deliberately chased TM & BM. There's a murkiness there.
Here are some excerpts from Mogg's testimony in the GJ:
"as he was driving westbound with the other male, he says "No, this can't be happening, this can't be happening.""
"he would have seen that car coming down from Cherry River onto Carmel Peak probably prior to or just as it turned into the Mount Shasta cul-de-sac. He said they continued westbound and he said that he couldn't believe they were driving past his house."
"he said "I know a left turn, a shortcut to get to my house," something to that effect."
"They come back into the cul-de-sac"
Those statements do not sound, to me, like the state of mind of someone who was chasing the Meyerses. Those statements sound, to me, like someone who was trying to get away from the Meyerses and who thought they had not yet given up the chase. Exactly how or why the silver car ended up in the cul-de-sac is unclear, but we always have to keep in mind, EN was
not driving. He wasn't in control of where the silver car went.
And in the cul-de-sac, he said thought that BM was going into the house to get more guns. According to the testimony about EN's confession, it seems that he thought the danger was not over and that he still needed to defend himself against these people who had already come after him and chased him.
At the end of the GJ proceeding, part of the charge to the GJ was:
Actual danger is not necessary to justify a killing in self-defense. A person has a right to defend from apparent danger to the same extent as he would from actual danger. The person who kills is justified if: 1. He is confronted by the appearance of imminent danger which arouses in his mind an honest belief and fear that he is about to be killed or suffer great bodily injury and; he acts solely upon these appearances and his fear and actual beliefs and; a reasonable person in a similar situation would believe himself to be in like danger.
I suspect that if I had been sitting in a park minding my own business and the Meyerses had come and chased me with a gun -- and even after I fled, and after I shot at them to try to get them to stop chasing me, they continued the chase -- I might well believe I was still in danger from them if I then saw them (or thought I saw them) driving right past my house. And then on my way home, suddenly there they are. One standing there, possibly about to shoot at me, and one that I believe is running to get more guns.
In fact, given the Meyers's behavior that night, I'm not at all convinced that the danger to EN
was in fact over. Maybe BM
was going to the house to get more guns, and that's why TM was still out at the car rather than running into the house with her son.
So no, it really isn't all that open-and-shut. This is why we have juries.
