Selma Man Won't Face Charges in Pinned Intruder Case

WRAL ^ | December 10, 2007

[NCjim]

Selma — A grand jury declined Monday to indict a Selma man who says he accidentally killed an intruder who was on his property.

John Reid said he was trying to block two men from leaving his property on Nov. 8 when he says he accidentally hit the gas pedal. Reid's pickup hit Cornelius Brown, pinning him between the truck and a fence. Brown died the next day at the hospital.

Another man, Mark Ray McNair, 46, of Dudley, was charged with trespassing and larceny in connection with the incident.

Reid said his property had been burglarized several times in recent months. Investigators found a piece of machinery belonging to Reid into the back of the suspects' car.

Johnston County District Attorney Susan Doyle sent the case to the grand jury because of the unusual facts and complex legal issues.

[bikerman]

love a happy ending.

[Popocatapetl]

I am reminded of the story of a guy whose inner city liquor store was frequently robbed. After killing a robber, once the police left, he got some masking tape and white paint, and made the robber’s chalk outline on the floor permanent.

After then, for several months, about once a month some hard case would enter his store, see the outline on the floor, then just turn around and leave without saying a word.

Since then, I’ve wondered how this idea could be extrapolated to other frequent violence locations. It would have to be on private property, of course, but it could also be a fine deterrent to future crime.

[Dubh_Ghlase]

This was such crap! Rather that just dropping it, the DA punted it to a grand jury because they didn't want to have to take any heat from some special interest groups. Being that he had been robbed in the past, most around hear applauded his actions.

North Carolina really needs the passage of a "Castle Law" similar to Florida or Texas. "Nuff said...

[Panzerlied]

Robert Heinlein wrote a story in which one could post the heads of robbers outside one’s business.

[festus]

Good.

Does he get to have the dude stuffed and mounted though ?

[Old Teufel Hunden]

“If there was such thing as a robbery, does the law give you the right to take the law into your own hands and run a person down and murder them with your vehicle? A person with no weapon, [when] your life is not threatened, you cannot do that,” the victim’s sister told WRAL.”

Don’t you just love when the perp’s family complains about the “injustice of the system”? I’m quite sure if he would have made off with the loot and she found out about the robbery she would have promptly reported Cornelius to the authorities so that this man could get his property back.

Note to families of perps, if you play with matches you might someday get burnt...