It’s a good shoot.
Guy gets up in his face when confronted with a gun and told to leave. Kyle Carruth even fires a warning shot in the ground before Read advances.
Then Read attempts to take the gun. At that moment it is, besides trespassing, assault / battery with a deadly weapon.
Read played stupid games. He won stupid prizes.
Agreed! Despite numerous clear warnings, Read decided to play stupid games on someone else's property, by shoving someone else on their porch and trying to grab someone else's weapon.
Spot on! If this was in Texas, Read knew the meaning of castle doctrine. He failed, biggly.
Dunno about that. Going back in the house to get the gun was his mistake. He could have closed and locked the doors and called the cops at that point.
Chad could have backed off at that point and called the cops himself. He had the right to pick up his kids... but getting in the other guys face over it was not the smartest thing to do.
I think a jury is not going to side with him.
1) Read was there for a custody transfer. I have not seen anything stating how long this had been in place, but one might assume this has been going on for a period of time. Therefore it was not unreasonable for him to expect the transfer at 3:15pm.
2) Read was informed by his ex the child in question wasn't there. Read became agitated by this news, at which point Carruth went inside the home, retrieved a firearm and told Read to leave. This is called interfering with a child custody transfer, and not only is it illegal under Texas state law, the commission of a crime is an exception to the so-called "Castle Doctrine" law.
3) Yes, the presentation of a weapon did result in a physical altercation, but as the Ahrbery case showed, firing the weapon because it was grabbed isn't self defense. And Carruth was actually away from Read when he fired the fatal shots. Unlike Michael Brown, Carruth was not in immediate danger.
I'm actually surprised you would take this tack. I thought you were aware of the responsibilities that come with owning a firearm. This is open and shut, cut and dried when you look at Texas state law: Carruth committed murder. Period. But because he's married to a judge he'll probably get away with it.