Posted on 05/18/2012 5:08:30 AM PDT by marktwain
In a case that left his heroin-addicted accomplice dead, a Coburg man was sentenced Thursday to nearly six years in prison for participating in the botched robbery of a drug dealer in a southeast Eugene neighborhood.
Darrin George Dubouch was convicted of second-degree robbery and first-degree burglary, following a brief “stipulated facts” trial in Lane County Circuit Court. Judge Ilisa Rooke-Ley found Dubouch guilty of the felony charges after his attorney admitted that prosecutors had enough evidence to prove the allegations.
Dubouch, 39, was arrested Feb. 2 after he and another man — Springfield resident Shawn Connelly — forced their way into a Stoney Ridge Road home in the hills above East 30th Avenue with plans to steal drugs and money from Tyler Norman, a 27-year-old heroin dealer who lived at the home with his mother, stepfather and several younger siblings.
Norman, who was home alone at the time and said the robbers were armed when they came to his front door, surprised the intruders when he grabbed his own .40-caliber handgun from underneath a pillow and shot Connelly through the throat and upper torso, prosecutors said. Connelly, 44, died at the scene.
Norman then fired several more rounds as Dubouch ran from the residence. Gunshots shattered windows in Norman’s home and damaged neighboring property in the upscale neighborhood, prosecutors said.
In court on Thursday, Assistant Lane County District Attorney Chris Parosa played a recording of the 911 call that a breathless Norman made after the confrontation.
“Two people just broke in, with a gun,” Norman is heard telling a police dispatcher. “I shot one of them. I need help.”
Dubouch — who was carrying a realistic-looking air pistol at the time — was not injured by the gunfire. He ran down Stoney Ridge Road and was apprehended after a police dog tracked him down in a brushy area near East 30th Avenue, authorities said.
Dubouch left the home after taking Norman’s wallet and a plastic baggie that contained about 19 grams of heroin, Lane County Deputy District Attorney Chris Parosa said.
The drugs and the wallet containing $1,000 cash were found along the route that Dubouch took to flee from Norman’s house.
Prosecutors ruled that Norman acted legally and in self-defense when he shot Connelly and then fired several more rounds toward Dubouch.
“The threat (to Norman) was ongoing” as Dubouch ran away, because he had what Norman believed was a firearm, Parosa said.
Although Connelly’s girlfriend told police that Connelly had purchased a large amount of heroin from Norman in late January, Parosa said investigators found no evidence to confirm that Connelly and Norman had ever met.
Connelly’s girlfriend, however, did know Norman personally — and Connelly was certainly aware that Norman sold drugs, Parosa said.
Although Norman was not charged in the shooting, he did plead guilty and was sentenced to probation in late February to a felony charge of heroin delivery. The charge stemmed from a drug sale that Norman completed in his driveway just moments before Connelly and Dubouch arrived there, Parosa said.
Norman was arrested Monday for allegedly violating the terms of his probation. He was released from the Lane County Jail after a brief period of incarceration and is scheduled to return to court for a probation violation hearing on May 29. Parosa declined to discuss the alleged violation.
The shooting case, meanwhile, highlighted the jail’s inability to keep some dangerous criminals behind bars. Connelly, who because of a prior bank robbery conviction was on federal parole at the time of his death, had been arrested in Eugene the day before the shooting on charges of heroin possession and eluding police.
Connelly spent just four hours in jail before being released for “capacity-based” reasons. Jail officials say a staffing shortage often forces them to free inmates before trial without first requiring them to post bail.
Parosa said Connelly actually swallowed a bag of heroin before being taken to jail and was desperate for more drugs when he decided to rob Norman, “a person who came from an upper-middle-class background and was smaller in stature” than both Connelly and Dubouch, the prosecutor said.
The tall, heavily tattooed Dubouch declined to give any statement in court before Rooke-Ley sentenced him to a mandatory minimum prison term of 70 months.
“Someone died because of this,” Rooke-Ley told Dubouch, referring to Connelly.
“You have to live with the consequences of your actions for the rest of your life, but it’s up to you to decide how you’re going to live the rest of your life,” the judge said.
This is important to note. If a criminal that has threatened you has a weapon that can reach out from a distance (or you reasonably beleive that they do) then they are still a reasonable threat, even if they are running.
They may be running to get to a better position to shoot you from. They may turn to shoot at you at any moment.
Depends on the state.
That’s true here in Alabamastan.
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