[southbysouthwest]

Joe Horn was cleared on the shooting of the two burglers in TX last year.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080701/ap_on_re_us/burglary_shooting

HOUSTON - Ever since he fatally shot two men he suspected of burglarizing his next-door neighbor's home, 62-year-old Joe Horn has been both praised and vilified for his actions.

Horn called 911 and told the dispatcher he had a shotgun and was going to kill the intruders. The dispatcher pleaded with him not to go outside, but a defiant Horn confronted the men with a 12-gauge shotgun and shot both in the back.

Some community activists wanted Horn to face charges for the deaths. Supporters of the retired grandfather said what he did was justified under the law.

After listening to evidence in the case, including testimony from Horn himself, a grand jury on Monday cleared him of the shootings.

"He wasn't acting like a vigilante. He didn't want to do it," said Tom Lambright, Horn's attorney.

Lambright said Horn was not a "wild cowboy" who took the law into his own hands after he saw the two suspected burglars, with bags in hand, crawling out of windows from his neighbor's home on Nov. 14 in the Houston suburb of Pasadena. The neighbor was out of town at the time.

Instead, Horn was a frightened retiree who tried to defend his neighbor's property and when the two men came onto his yard and threatened him, Horn defended himself, Lambright said.

"He was scared. He was in fear of his life," he said.

Grand jurors had to consider two issues in the case: the intentional killing of another person and whether the killing was justified either by self-defense or the defense of property, Harris County District Attorney Kenneth Magidson told reporters.

"I understand the concerns of some in the community regarding Mr. Horn's conduct," Magidson said. "The grand jury concluded that Mr. Horn's use of deadly force did not rise to a criminal offense."

Texas law allows people to use deadly force to protect themselves if it is reasonable to believe they are in mortal danger. In limited circumstances, people also can use deadly force to protect their neighbor's property; for example, if a homeowner asks a neighbor to watch over his property while he's out of town. It's not clear whether the neighbor whose home was burglarized asked Horn to watch over his house.

Frank Ortiz, a member of the local League of United Latin American Citizens chapter, said he hopes federal authorities investigate the case further.

"That's amazing that they would no-bill him with so much evidence against him," Ortiz told the Houston Chronicle in Monday's online edition. "This was no more than a vigilante."

Horn did not speak with reporters on Monday.

A large red sign with the words "No Trespass" on it blocked the path to his front door and a handwritten sign on the door said "Please no media," "No Trespassing" and "Do not knock or ring bell." A couple of neighbors also had signs on their doors asking media to leave them alone.

A few police cars patrolled the area near Horn's home.

The two suspected burglars, Hernando Riascos Torres, 38, and Diego Ortiz, 30, were unemployed illegal immigrants from Colombia. Torres was deported to Colombia in 1999 after a 1994 cocaine-related conviction.

The city of Pasadena, where protesters and defenders of Horn engaged in counter-demonstrations, pledged to keep its police force staffed enough to protect its citizens.

Keith Hampton, a Houston attorney not connected with the case, said he didn't expect Horn to be indicted. "This is a real conservative county," he said. "A lot of folks in Houston and Harris County are saying this man was doing a good thing."

In the 911 call, a dispatcher urges Horn to stay inside his house and not risk lives.

"Don't go outside the house," the 911 operator pleaded. "You're going to get yourself shot if you go outside that house with a gun. I don't care what you think."

"You want to make a bet?" Horn answered. "I'm going to kill them."

After the shooting, he redialed 911.

"I had no choice," he said, his voice shaking. "They came in the front yard with me, man. I had no choice. Get somebody over here quick."

 

[Chad G]

Only in Texas, too bad Arizona law doesn't read the same way, the illegal aliens would be leaving in droves.

 

[AaronHorrocks]

Leave? With the way farms are struggling we could use the extra fertilizer.

 

[1RHINO]

I bet the league of whatever poor underprivleged illegal aliens will sue him in civil court, or the feds will say he violated their rights.

 

[Bolt2bounce]

A good day in Texas, Thieves should be shot, we are not short of people on this planet, why keep the bad ones. I don't care if they are, illegal or not they should be removed from the gene pool. They would get that in their own country of columbia too, Police will shoot you if you run from them...That's a fact... B2B

 

[FAL freek]

Good deal. More citizens were able to defend themselves and looked out for their neighbors there would be a lot less thievery. Prime example of the fact cops can't be everywhere.

 

[moosiah]

old town justice, south of the border. way south.

slightly related` matter: kid that I work w told me about visiting his family back in el salvador....... gang bangers moved into his ex's neighborhood. week later their trying to sell dope around the school........... one night a notice appears on front doors:" leave 10$ here tonight, bangers gone end of wk" they turned up tied to the stop sign and post box ,like they were waiting for a cab, but w a bullet hole right in the forehead....... he said that it took the cops about 4 days to get around to picking them up.... the local radio dj told people to drive by and wave to the dead bangers whom were waiting for a ride to hell....
He heard the same dj announce that there had been a failed car jacking ,that both jackers were dead, shot by the jackee, and the bodys were lieing in the intersection, "if you feel like it drive around, other wise just drive over them untill the garbage truck shows up"
Gee ,I guess their tired of criminals and other bad actors back down there in small town el salvador
Oh !I forgot about the signs on the dead guys !! little cards that said somthing like " nortenyo s stay out of our neighborhoods"

 

[Chad G]

Leave? With the way farms are struggling we could use the extra fertilizer.

Yes, but they come complete with salmonella food poisoning if used for fertilizer

 

[phalanx]

http://www.khou.com/topstories/stories/khou080627_tnt_pasadenaprotestfolo.45b577dd.html
I guess it would be better to them if they had killed him .
Or the punks who killed our cousin , oh i forgot, they were Mexicans that explains it all ,they should all be released.
The Liberals are right , Americans do not have the back bone to face us on gun issues . Gun Rights marchers numbered 6 ,Liberals 170. SCOTUS ruling . The man who tried to organize the gun owners in this had been on a Forum 10 years .All the members there said they were in , this man even paid for it all .Him and his family were all we had to counter the Liberals .They spit on him ,knocked them down ,and threw a bottle causing his daughter to receive 7 stitches.I wish i had known he was going , i am not a member of his site but when they started that crap I may go to jail ,or the Hospital or morgue. But their would be a lot of those SOBs going with me ,along with Miss big mouth.I know some of you would also ,and we could laugh in jail waiting for bond and say , Yup ,but one of us just kicked the cowboy sh&t out of 12 of you . Obama ,They hide in fear clutching to their Bibles and Guns. I don't think that was just a slip of the lip , He knows what he wants to do.
The more i see this stuff ,he may be right.
Them Liberals, they are real afraid of us.

 

[Flash-hider]

The proplem with so called "community activists" is they always seem to pick the wrong side to rally around.

 

[phalanx]

I saw that on the day SCOTUS made that ruling , i even posted here i think that the DC cops were breaking uo some protesters.
The Cameras showed this guy and his family but it never sai anything about their size or numbers .
Someone posted on another site that the Brady center had people there also ,but i never heard that.
It all just pissed me off when that Liberal chick got up there and said that Americans and gun owners never stopped us before.
Like an American and a gun owner come from different Country's or something.
All the reporter asked her was if they were concerned that protesters on the other side of this issue would be angry at them roughing up their people.
She saw 6 people up against her 170 ,so that makes us look real organized don't it.
And we don't face them ,so they think we don't have the Back Bone .
They do the same thing to Conservatives in Congress.
Im not saying run around with your gun ,they would love that .
And sometimes i think they are baiting us ,seeing how far they cam go.
But like this ,let them start in on those 6 people ,then about 1000 come out and play with them a little.
You know a little fresh poop in a sling shot.