Posted on 06/26/2011 7:57:07 AM PDT by marktwain
Mendocino County prosecutors on Friday won their bid to try a Laytonville man for murder under the rarely-used Provocative Act Doctrine, which holds that a person can be guilty of a killing even if someone else committed the slaying.
Noah Shinn, 39, of Laytonville, faces the murder charge because he allegedly orchestrated a marijuana-related home invasion robbery last October at the rural Steele Lane residence of Jill Cahill. Homeowner Cahill actually shot and killed one of three intruders while Shinn allegedly waited outside. The masked robbers included victim Timothy Burger, 21, and Shinn's 19-year-old son Christopher, both of Sacramento.
Deputy District Attorney Ray Killion successfully argued after a three-day preliminary hearing that even though Cahill fired the fatal shot that killed Burger, Noah Shinn is legally responsible for his death.
Killion said the senior Shinn earlier had instructed Burger, his son and a friend Tyrone Bell, also of Sacramento, to don masks, force their way into the house and use a pistol and mace to rob Cahill and other occupants of marijuana.
Killion said once inside, however, things turned violent. Christopher Shinn allegedly fired a .22-caliber pistol inside the house. "Bear mace" was sprayed in the eyes of the occupants. In the melee, Cahill seized a weapon and shot and killed Burger as the three young men attempted to flee.
Shinn's attorney, Public Defender Linda Thompson, contended that homeowner Cahill triggered the violence by firing first. Thompson also argued that the trio of intruders believed she was home alone and unarmed.
But Superior Court Judge David Nelson on Friday ruled that Noah Shinn will stand trial for murder, in addition to attempted first-degree armed robbery and burglary. Noah Shinn faces life in prison if he is convicted at trial.
Nelson noted that the senior Shinn allegedly planned the marijuana robbery, and that he "brought together the crew that was to perform the rip-off."
Shinn, the judge found, also instructed his son and his two accomplices on how to subdue the home occupants. Nelson found that the senior Shinn handed out the firearm and mace used in the botched robbery.
As far as what happened, Nelson said it doesn't really matter who fired the first shot. "It was reasonably foreseeable that rural marijuana growers would be armed and fire in self-defense," he said.
Nelson concluded Noah Shinn should be held responsible because he knew "there was a high probability that a gun battle would result from the acts of spraying bear mace and pointing and firing firearms at the occupants of a marijuana plantation during an early morning entry."
looks like felony murder.
Thanks for catching my typo. Felongy should be felony.
under the rarely-used Provocative Act Doctrine
Tyrone? Sounds like an Amish name to me. I thought they were all in PA.
Looks like too many fools have been watching too many “ripoff” movies. The problem, though, is that in real life, such ripoffs are a lot harder to pull off than they look in the movies, and if ripoff movies are inspiring you to ripoff someone, that pretty much means you don’t have enough intelligence to pull off a successful ripoff. And besides, haven’t these morons seen that the movie ripoff criminals always come to a bad end, usually being killed off during or right after the ripoff?
No doubt, this is a clearly a case of life imitating “art”. Thank goodness the “innocent” pot growers were unhurt and the pot theives are the ones that got popped.
No, the violence started when then intruders committed invaded the home, sprayed mace in the occupants' eyes and threatened them with a gun.
And they thought wrong... what does that have to do with the price of tea in China?
What could go wrong? LOL
A public defender actually made that statement in public? The loss of her license to practice law is in order here IMO.
The article goes on to describe Linda Thompson as "the best defense lawyer local prosecutors have ever had."
Linda Thompson looks a little bit like Lynne Stewart. There's a picture of her in the article at the link.
I think she was pulling things out of her rear end because there was no other defense...
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Happens here in Humboldt county all the time and many of them are Tyrone’s brothers, cousins, fathers and then there are the Juans, Mertinzes etc...
Happens here in Humboldt county all the time and many of them are Tyrone’s brothers, cousins, fathers
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The whole point is being ‘missed’ here.
Hard working Mr Shinn, is trying to train his 19 year old son to work in the family business.
We are always ‘complaining’ these yutes have no parental guidance, especially from the Paternal side.
So Mr. Shinn, eager to learn his boy something, got in a little jam.
Like I said... It’s not unusual in todays drug culture
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