Dad acquitted in slaying of driver who killed sons

Assoc. Press ^ | 08/28/2014 | By JUAN A. LOZANO

[Responsibility2nd]

ANGLETON, Texas (AP)

[Albion Wilde]

I am so sorry, Ditter. RIP your dear son, and all the victims of senseless drunk drivers, especially those who get off with a slap, or less.

[FredZarguna]

There are a couple of problems here. First of all, a vehicular homicide is very rarely an isolated incident. I don't know what the national figures are, but in 2009 the claim in my jurisdiction was that those convicted of vehicular homicide had on average 3.4 prior DUI convictions. Those are people with a wanton disregard for human life, and the death penalty should be on the table.

But setting that aside, when you have no weapon, no gun residue, and no witnesses, how is a juror with reasonable doubt participating in a "miscarriage of justice?" With all the apparatus of the state at his disposal, the prosecutor could do no better than the case as brought. You can't simply assume that everyone with motive and opportunity is guilty of murder.

[House Atreides]

“No gun and no gunshot residue?

I would say ‘Not Guilty’ if I was on the jury.”
**************************************************************************************

Yep, a just decision. The deceased should have paid closer attention to “errant bullets”.

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

I just think if a guy blows away a drunk that kills his two kids he shouldn’t have to rely on some technicality.

Maybe give him a New Ford F150 Lariat loaded with Crew Cab and 20” wheels or something, not forced to break the bank, defending himself. He did the world a favor and he gets put through that.

[Romulus]

And because the drunk is dead, there will never be an investigation into the circumstances of the collision: did Barajas contribute to the accident that killed his sons by getting them to push an out-of-gas vehicle on a public right of way? Does that sound like a good parental decision to you? Would you let your small boys do that?

[Opinionated Blowhard]

I’m going to disagree with a lot of the sentiment here. We have a drunk driver who plowed into two kids and killed them. That is horrible and he should be put in jail. I am very sympathetic to the father, but he does not have the right to kill the driver. I would have voted to convict the father of some degree of murder or manslaughter.

[DeoVindiceSicSemperTyrannis]

Good. Some folk just need killin’.

[Patriot Babe]

or perhaps someone else who witbess the tragic event and happened to have a gun with him and did a favor inbehalf of the father.

[duffee]

Justice, swift justice, the father did his job and the jurors did theirs.

[Fantasywriter]

If the father was the shooter, why did he have no powder residue on his hands?

Can you understand the possibility that someone else may have shot the drunk driver? Did any other relative have access to a gun, or even the family’s gun? Did the mother have access to it? If so, was she the only other person who did? Were all the possibilities tested? If not, does that not leave room for reasonable doubt? [& even if they were, & turned up negative, that doesn’t change the fact that the father was negative too. We just do not know with any degree of certainty who the shooter was, period.]

[Romulus]

Would it have been ok to kill the father as well, for the crime of endangering his sons, who didn’t need to be pushing a lights-out truck on a dark country road?

I ask only for information.

[Responsibility2nd]

Now that you got that knee-jerk reaction out of your system - read the article. Read the thread.

No weapon? No GSR? There is much reasonable doubt here.

[Jane Long]

+1

[C.O. Correspondence]

I feel shame that she is the DA of my County. I live about a 10 minute drive from Alvin, TX. They couldn’t have filled up the jury seats with enough people to convict him unless they pulled people from our neighboring county where Houston resides.

[Ditter]

Thank you all, it was 1984 and I have gotten past it. I still miss him but I am not suffering like I did.

I also suffered what I have been told was like PTSD. For the first few months I re-lived the visit from the HPD who brought us the bad news. It was like a video that played in my vision. It was like a negative between me and the real world. People asked me how I could be so calm, it was because I was watching that video, over and over and over.

I can understand how this man could have murdered the guy who killed his boys.

[Real Cynic No More]

Looks like the only thing the prosecution had was motive. They rushed to trial without any evidence.

[Talisker]

Actually a lot of people on this thread believe there is reasonable doubt. What makes you so certain the father was the shooter? He had no gun powder residue. How did he manage that, if he’d just shot the drunk driver?

You don't get out much, do you?

Here's a hint - the same cops that came out to help pick up the bodies of the dead children, are the ones who did the residue testing.

Do the math.

[zeugma]

That article is one of my favorite stories.

[C.O. Correspondence]

Ill bite. Even if the father was intentionally endangering his children on that dark highway, then no, it would not be ok to kill him here in Brazoria County.

Might have been that the only protection on that road was the vehicle. The country roads here have a small shoulder on each side that fronts a ditch on each side.