The facts are incomplete, I know, but I thought this was an interesting case....


Officials: Dad kills neighbor accused of molesting girl

POSTED: 5:43 p.m. EDT, August 30, 2006


FAIRFIELD, Connecticut (AP) -- A lawyer climbed through a neighbor's bedroom window and stabbed him to death after being told by a family member that the man had molested his 2-year-old daughter, authorities say.

Barry James, 58, was stabbed in the chest nearly a dozen times Monday. The lawyer, Jonathon Edington, 29, was charged with murder and burglary and was released on $1 million bail Wednesday.

Capt. Gary MacNamara said that police had not received a complaint about the child being assaulted before the killing, and "we have no indication it's true or not true."

Edington's attorney, Michael Sherman, said the information came from Edington's wife. "The daughter gave the mother information which was alarming and disturbing. The mom relayed it to her husband. That was the spark," Sherman said.

James' 87-year-old mother discovered his body. When officers went to Edington's home, they found him standing by his kitchen sink with what appeared to be blood on him, and a large kitchen knife next to him on a counter, authorities said

"He's in shock," Edington's attorney said. "This is the most unexpected turn of events one can imagine with this young man's background."

Police had gone to the neighborhood before, when Edington called to complain that he could see James through a window, police said. "Either he was partly clothed or revealed parts of his anatomy that were inappropriate," MacNamara said.

Edington, a graduate of Syracuse University and Fordham University Law School, has been practicing patent law, Sherman said. Police said Edington has no criminal record.

Rita James declined to comment on her son's death.

James served two days behind bars in 2001 on a drunken driving charge, according to the state Correction Department.

"He had some bizarre behavior over the last month," said Darrell Maynard, a neighbor. "He drove his car through his garage, hit the other neighbor's building."

Another time a neighbor found James intoxicated on the street, Maynard said. James shouted obscenities at children, he said.

As for Edington, Maynard said: "Something had to happen that was terrible for this to have occurred." Edington "seemed like a computer geek or something. He was not anybody you would ever feel you were threatened by."

http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/08/30/neigh ... topstories

im not sure the particular term, but guilty by temporaily insanity?

Voluntary manslaughter.

Again, there's facts that are missing, such as - did he go over to the guy's house with knife in hand or did grab it from the guy's kitchen while fighting him (premeditation vs. unpremeditated). He was found in the kitchen with the knife on the counter, so I guess it's the latter.
I don't think it would make a difference in my mind....I can't see finding the guy guilty of murder. I think volintary manslaughter would be about right.

YES THEY DESERVED TO DIE AND I HOPE THEY BURN IN HELL!

Depends on the charge. And since the facts are incomplete, not guilty.

Sounds guilty. IF the blood belonged to the neighbor and he broke into the guys house, it's murder right?

The molestation charge must be judged independantly of the killing. How do we know that it even happened? Couldn't he have told his wife to say that after the crime was committed to try and get him acquitted? The guys is a lawyer, he probably knows lots of ways to sway a jury.

but it did saw he was a patent lawyer, so he might not know that much about murder trials.

i have to think this guy had more to go on this what his wife said their two year old kid said.

Even if the guy did molest his daughter, that doesn't mean he can go next door and stab the guy to death.

I don't really know the intricacies of the law. What's the difference between voluntary manslaughter and murder.

I would say unless they can prove that this guy just snapped and didn't know what he was doing, he is guilty of murder.

doesnt mean he can, but it certainly means he should.

I tried to get a pic of the boondock saints but now I think I got spyware

best line EVER

Well...i won't argue that either way. But if you are going to take justice into your own hands, you should be willing to face the consequences. If vengeance is so important to you that you would be willing to sacrifice the rest of your life, and deny the rest of your family a life with your presence, then by all means do it.

I'm going with the lawyer.

Obviously.


There's premeditated murder (which this obviously is not), and "murder 2" (which this may be). I'd argue that it should be Voluntary Manslauhter because the impetus for the attack was an event that "so inflamed the passions" of the killer. The stereotypical example for this is finding your wife in bed with another man and then killing him. Finding out your child was molested would certainly fit that bill.

The question is a matter of how long it was between finding out and the killing. If he found out, ran next door, and killed the guy, that would probably be close enough in time for his emotions to have not cooled off. If he waited an hour, or drove across town, or something like that, it would be harder to argue manslaughter, and then you're looking at murder 2.

I can't see any prosecutor trying to get this guy on murder 1.

So bascially to be murder 1, the guy has to have time to logically think it through, and then decide he's going to do it anyway?

Murder 2 is kind of the halfway mark between manslaugter and murder 1? Like "he should have known better, but he was still a little crazy"?

You've basically got murder 1 right. I can't exactly remember the terms of art or elements of murder 2, but it is "Intentional homocide". It wasn't cold and calculated, but he was definitely trying to harm the guy, with the very good possibility that it would result in death. This type of voluntary manslaughter is the "he completely snapped" type. VM can also be "reckless homocide", like killing someone when driving drunk or doing some other unreasonably dangerous activity.

Wow. That seems a little nuts. Someone that kills somebody in a drunk driving accident gets the same punishment as someone that goes next door and stabs a guy?

Only someone who goes next door and stabs somebody IMMEDIATELY after finding out that somebody fucked his child.