William Andrew Sheets
Posted on 07/18/2018 4:38:59 PM PDT by servo1969
I’m often asked to describe the most common way people screw up their self-defense claim. The truth is there isn’t a single most common way. Too many people manage to find an apparently infinite number of ways to step outside the bounds of the law. Often, there were a bunch of exits off that jail-bound freeway that they could have taken, but didn’t.
For most normally law-abiding people this is not done out of malice, but ignorance. I mean ignorance not in a derogatory sense, but in a technical sense–they didn’t know where the legal boundaries were, and stepped over them without even knowing it.
In their minds they acted lawfully. “I can’t believe I’m being prosecuted for self-defense,” may be amongst the most common statements I hear from clients.
Indeed, it’s not unusual to see a defendant fail not from a single error, but from a cascade of errors, each building atop the mistakes already made.
A good example of this kind of cascade occurred in a case out of Virginia. The case ended in some social media outrage when the “defender” was compelled to take a misdemeanor plea deal after using a gun to fight off a pair of home invaders. (Source: Prosecutor responds to article, outcry about sentencing of man who shot intruder.)
Stated in that fashion, this certainly seems outrageously unjust. Perhaps not surprisingly, however, the actual facts of the case shed light on why a misdemeanor was not as unreasonable as it might first appear.
The facts viewed in the light most favorable to the “defender” are as follows: 35-year-old William Andrew Sheets was in his backyard when he saw two strangers enter his home from the front door. His home had just recently been burglarized, and Sheets decided to intervene and stop what appeared to be yet another burglary.
Sheets, who was armed with a handgun, entered the home through the back door and confronted the two burglars, resulting in a fight with one of them. The burglar was subsequently shot in the face by Sheets and then was shot twice more. Both burglars were ultimately arrested, charged, and convicted of felony burglary.
So, how did the “defender” end up getting charged and taking a plea deal requiring 30 days in jail, two years of supervised release, and five years loss of his gun rights? Well, for several reasons.
First, the “home” in question was not actually Sheets’ home, at least not any longer. Although he had previously lived in the house, he had since moved to a new residence. He had, however, also left some of his personal property behind, planning to pick it up at a later date.
It was during this delay that the previous residence was burglarized and some of his property was stolen. Reasonably enough, Sheets reported the burglary to the police, but because he was unsatisfied with the police response he made another in a cascade of errors.
That second error was to decide to take the law into his own hands, by arming himself and setting up a tent in the backyard of his former residence, in the expectation that the burglar would return to steal more stuff.
When he observed two men entering the home, presumably to burglarize it again, instead of calling the police to report a burglary in progress Sheets decided to enter the house—which, remember, is not his home—and confront them with a firearm.
When he did so he ended up in a physical confrontation with one of the burglars, shooting that burglar in the face. Incidentally, Sheets would later concede that he knew neither of the men was armed. The two burglars then fled from the house. Folks, remember, when you go to the fight, rather than the fight coming to you, that’s not going to look much like self-defense to a lot of people.
His fourth error was to then pursue the fleeing burglars out of the home and to their vehicle, continuing to fire at them as they ran, shooting one of the burglars twice in the buttocks. Incidentally, these rounds are flying around a residential neighborhood. Pro-tip: if you’re pursuing, you make it pretty easy for a prosecutor to argue that even if the person you’re chasing initiated the confrontation, you’ve now become the active aggressor in a second fight.
But he didn’t stop there. His final error occurred after the two burglars were in their vehicle and driving away. Sheets ran up to the car and fired two shots into the vehicle. There may be circumstances where it’s allowed to shoot into another guy’s vehicle—if he’s using it as a weapon to drive over you, for example, or he’s shooting at you from within the vehicle—but when the other guy is using the car to escape from you, that’s not one of them.
As is often the case in these kinds of use-of-force encounters gone wrong, Sheets continues to have a genuine, good faith belief that his conduct was lawful. As the news article reports, “During his sentencing, Sheets reiterated that he did not believe what he did was wrong and was outwardly angry at the prospect of incarceration.” In truth he’s lucky to get a misdemeanor plea deal. In many jurisdictions an attempted murder or felony aggravated assault charge would not have been out of the question.
William Andrew Sheets
He made a mistake confronting the burglars instead of calling the police? Duhhh...He was there the police weren’t. “Hold on dirtbags, I’m calling the police...” Yeah, that’ll work...NOT! When seconds count, the police are only minutes away.
So this guy called the cops himself? I mean, I can see setting up an ambush for a couple of guys who've already ripped you off, but then after your ambush works and you get a piece of them, you call the cops? Why?
Most Conservatives also don't get that massive LEGAL immigration is political suicide.
We have close to 25 million naturalized voting citizens in the USA, and we are currently adding 700,000 more each year.
As a group, those folks vote 70%-80% for the Democrat Party.
We are quickly reaching the point where it does not matter how hard Conservatives work to elect Second Amendment candidates.
In the end, basic math always wins.
"...Conservatives don’t get it..."
There is an entire army of prosecutors around these days who love nothing more than screwing gun owners on some petty technicality who were protecting themselves, their families and/or their property, but didn’t cross every t and dot every I.
You have to be very, very careful.
Say nothing. Get a lawyer.
Florida had a self-defense law. It's not clear from that story how "Stand Your Ground" would have helped him.
I agree that it was self defense.
The court tho said that after the guy emptied his gun, Grandpa was no longer in danger and should have just left.
In the old West, there were outlaws. That is people who did something against the law were outside the law. Simple, yeah. Break the law, become an outlaw, forfeit any protection under the law. Steal a horse, get caught by some law abiding citizens, and swing from a tree. The citizens broke no laws, the hanged guy had no protection, under the law he was a non-entity. Same as a cockroach. Who came up with the idea that an outlaw had rights, that is a horrible misreading of the law.
Saying "it was self defense" can be seen as a confession that it was you who shot the assailants. Say NOTHING beyond "I feared for my life. I wish to speak to my attorney”. Say nothing that can be taken as an admission that you DID anything.
Put the prosecutor in the position where he has to prove you did something wrong, without assisting him with admissions.
Morally, he was in the right.
Legally? He was in no danger. He pursued the criminals into the house (which was no longer his).
I don’t think most law on self-defense actually allows the defender to pursue criminals, not even castle doctrine and stand your ground. Maybe if it had actually been his house, it would have been okay, but I wouldn’t test it.
Besides, lawyers and cops hate it when you take business away from them.
Ask anyone who’s ever been the victim of a burglary. Most will tell you that the police DO NOTHING except write up a report. Most cops have ZERO INTEREST in protecting your property or recovering your property, or catching the perps.
3 cops in my family. So yes, some cops are good, but far too many don’t care.
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