Posted on 02/09/2011 3:59:11 PM PST by Uncle Miltie
A Gold Hill (OR) man who lost his lower right arm after a violent encounter with an Illinois Valley gold miner (testified) Tuesday at the miner's trial
Graybill, testified that he and his friends drove into an isolated campsite about eight miles outside of Kerby. Spears immediately began screaming at them to get off his mining claim, firing into the air with his 12-gauge shotgun for emphasis.
"He said, 'Get the f—- outta here. He was extremely agitated."
Graybill grabbed a beer and took off on foot. Spears suddenly appeared again. Graybill stepped toward Spears before he was "bayoneted" by Spears' shotgun in the right side of his ribcage.
He pushed the gun away just as Spears fired at point-blank range.
"If I hadn't done the left-hand sweep, I'd be dead. I swept. He fired."
The blast knocked the beer from Graybill's hand and tore away most of his right arm.
While one driver raced to cell phone range, Graybill's friends (used) a belt as a tourniquet.
"Blood was starting to slosh on the floorboards. I knew it was going to be close."
Graybill, Stacy and Olson testified before a gallery filled with Spears' supporters. About 20 members of the Southwest Oregon Mining Association, dressed in yellow shirts stating "Mineral Estate Grantee Vested Authority Jurisdiction Since July 26,1866," sat behind Spears.
The miners alleg(ed) Graybill and the others in his group were aggressive, drunken trespassers who initiated the confrontation.
"I think it's an enormous injustice," said Ida Reman, 32. "(Spears) was being attacked by drunks. He's been in jail for two years. They attacked an old man. They are young bullies. They should be in jail."
Stacy said Hood (82), the unofficial leader of the off-road group, committed suicide last Christmas, in part because of the stress of the incident.
(Excerpt) Read more at mailtribune.com ...
Heavily excerpted to comply with the rules. More at the site.
So, he grabbed a beer ~ from where?
I like the way that whole "tore away the arm" thing is treated as pretty much an afterthought.
Yeah, it should read: “...and tore away most of his right arm taking the beer with it.”
Yes, he should have got them when they were bunched closer together, might have scored a double.
Not guilty!
I found it really helps set the mood for this article if you have “Dueling Banjos” going in the background while you read it.
They ride into his camp and grab his beer and he is in jail?
Huh? Someone's exaggerating. One guy was 82. The one-armed man was in his mid-fifties. Hard for me to decide who behaved unreasonably here based on this article. It seems neither side was interested in de-escalating, that's for sure. I'd like to know what was Graybill's blood alcohol when they got him to the hospital?
“
“I think it’s an enormous injustice,” said Ida Reman, 32. “(Spears)
was being attacked by drunks. He’s been in jail for two years.
They attacked an old man. They are young bullies. They should be in jail.”
“
Sometimes there are simple solutions to real-world problems.
1. Head shots only
2. Shallow graves in the middle of nowhere
3. Push the victims’ vehicle into a VERY DEEP lake.
OK, I know that’s fantastical and illegal. And I’d probably never be able
to do it except under REALLY extreme circumstances.
Probably the better idea is rock-salt or sub-lethal shotgun rounds.
That actually seems to be a requirement.
I always give the road to the man with a shotgun.
The article was originally horribly written. My heavy excerpts have unfortunately emphasized that fact.
If you want more clarity, you have to go read the original. Not that it is proper English in the first place.
Lol, I hear ‘ya! Some enraged dude points a shotgun at me... I’d have to be totally sloshed to stand there giving him lip.
He did have a right to it. It was his mining claim. It was his campsite next to his mining claim.
It was his de facto “living room”. And they roared into it and told him he had no right to it and they were going to leave in their own good time if at all.
A patented mining claim is protected land. Once the claim has
been proven, the land is yours as long as you comply with
mining regulations. These yahoos had no business there and
were trespassing on private land. There are claims here that
I wouldn’t get within a mile as some miners will shoot first and then grab a shovel. Some of the old glory holes are
might deep..
It’s inconceivable to me growing up in a rural area of joyriding like a bunch of punks across someone else’s land. You don’t do ANYTHING like that here without permission. As far as I’m concerned these guys took their lives into their own hands and should feel lucky it didn’t end up worse.
I'm leaning toward the miner. If I'm out enjoying nature, and a bunch of drunk offroaders 'make their way through' my campsite, I'm likely to be a might put out. If they are messing with a mining claim ...
Exactlly. Even here in California, your remote campsite is yours, and you can legally open carry a loaded handgun in camp to protect it.
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