Stand Your Ground? Texas man kills teacher over noise complaint.

In Texas, trespassing with a firearm is a felony.

I have to agree with the those that feel there may be a problem with his claim given he went on to someones property.

Found this from a 2010 article when the incident took place:

Rodriguez, 44, called authorities with a noise complaint Saturday night about his neighbor two houses away. A Harris County constable informed Danaher of the complaint and left his home after deeming the homeowner in compliance, according to the incident report.

Rodriguez then gathered his gun, flashlight and a video camera and went to Danaher's home around midnight, according to authorities.

link

Yeah, Rodriguez is a murderer. Proper channels didnt satisfy him so he went all vigilante on a noise complaint.

reply to post by thisguyrighthere


Glad to see you are a reasonable person who can change their mind upon further information. Rare breed this day and age.

This is not self defense, its aggravated defense and murder. In fact it may even be first degree, premediated as it seems he thought this out.

But, that has nothing to do with the Stand your ground defense, which is self is self defense basically. Self Defense is always legal, while there may be people in this current paradigm (I won't say there were "always" be people as I feel things will end and the solar system, galaxy will upgrade as all things are meant to do and people will be healed so they can all recover from this bad dream), who will abuse it.

Just because things can be abused, not having them in place is far worse.

reply to post by thisguyrighthere
Generally agreed. He should have said what he was there for, left, and called the cops to handle it if the problem continued.

And definitely NEVER should have drawn. Sure, have the weapon handy in the event that you find you DO actually need it, but I can only see this one as him having brought the situation on himself by hanging around and pulling the gun, then continuing to hang around and argue - if I got to that point, I'd have just started backing away while keeping a keen eye out and just gone on home. Tactical withdrawal.

Regardless. It's a sad, stupid thing that shouldn't have happened for a couple of reasons. I'll definitely agree the drunken idiots should not have been egging on the guy with the gun, as well - that's just common sense.

I know you cant always say this case ended like this so this should be the same and all that...but if you search the web you will find what Im talking about..there was a guy that would fight with another guy all the time. The other guy obviously was bigger and badder. So the guy called the bigger badder dude and goaded him to come over, he walked up on the porch to I assume pummel the guy. The guy that lived at the house, on his porch had a cam corder setup filming this, you can see it so he could claim self defense and finally be done with the other guy is my guess. So most would say, hot head came to the guys house on his property so he was justified to be shot once he told him not to come any closer. Well , the problem was, it was 100% setup by the home owner to do this, so he got premeditated murder instead, so much for his plan. So I can see this going the same, it was setup by this person and he filmed it so it appeared he would have the law on his side, but if they reference that other case he will lose, and should.

The stand your ground law is sound, but might need the wording tweaked a bit maybe. But Im a Texan and believe if used the way it was actually intended, its a good thing.

Originally posted by Skewed
reply to post by Hessling

 

I think this is where I think our system fails. What needs to happen is some serious education. I am all for stand your ground, I think overall the idea is a positive one with great benefit to the populace. But we must take into account the hot heads out there. When laws such as these are in effect, the people must be educated about it and what it really means.

Proper education fixes the majority of problems, not money or more laws.

Education seems to be out the window since he just shot a teacher... (bad, ill-timed pun)

This guy is clearly wrong in what he did. He wasn't confronted, he did the confronting. He didn't have to be there so it wasn't an infringement on his rights. He called the authorities and should have let them handle it.
Zimmerman was at least a neighborhood watch leader and had a tiny bit more right to intercede than this guy did, but not a whole lot. This fella had zero right to be there at all and clearly went there for the purpose of "weilding power" and forcing them to do as he wished. His activity was criminal in every sense of the law and he should be locked up for a very, very long time.

Originally posted by mytheroy

Okay, now he was on with the 911 dispatcher and he did warn the victim not to come any closer or else he would take action.

Well he did say don't come near me or I'll defend myself...So he was warned, If the guy was acting with violence, and the shooter felt he was in danger, then the stand you ground law is legal.

If you were to come at me with violence and rage, you better bet I'll do what I deem necessary to end the conflict

But on the other hand...Why can't people just duke it out and at the end of the day go home bruised but still alive. Some people are just to quick to pick up a gun vs just taking a butt kicking. Must be a pride thing

He was tresspassing on private property with a firearm to begin with, so he was the instigator, not the victim and the stand your groud law would not apply to him due to that.

reply to post by PurpleChiten


I agree. Zimmerman had a whole lot better defense than this guy, and it was still shaky, and he still sits in jail. If Zimmerman is the new benchmark of where the gray area starts and ends, then this guy is going to jail for a long time!

Originally posted by Skewed
reply to post by mytheroy

 

Was it determined that the lady did indeed have a weapon? If not, I do not see how the man could be threatened by an unarmed lady. Surely, being a decent sized guy, that if the unarmed woman approached him aggressively he could have simply just bitch slapped her to stop her at the least, no need to end her life.

But to me, in this case he went looking for trouble and should have consequences.

The teacher was male, not female and your post seems very sexist.

Originally posted by getreadyalready
reply to post by Hessling

 

I agree, not a "stand your ground" situation. You have no "stand your ground" rights on someone else's property. The property owner had every right to walk toward this guy and forcibly remove him from their driveway.

The fact that it was originally a noise complaint has little bearing, because once it escalates to violence, that is the important aspect, but he never had the right to trespass on someone else's private property, with his gun, and threaten them.

The problem here is that the teacher didn't have a gun. She should have shot him first, and we would all be better off.

The news report says the teacher was male, not female

I think the reason some are saying her is the name is Kelly...so I would not freak out about that small tidbit on the replies. Everything else still applies. This guy is not going to get off on this one.

Originally posted by Wiz4769
I think the reason some are saying her is the name is Kelly...so I would not freak out about that small tidbit on the replies. Everything else still applies. This guy is not going to get off on this one.

yeah... Kelly and elementary teacher, so they are assuming female.
It's a male, elementary PE teacher for those who were confused about it.

I just wanted to weigh in here as a CCW holder... This guy should be arrested for first degree aggravated murder. This doesn't rise to ANY standard of "Stand Your Ground" and is nothing more than pre-mediated murder.

Take away "SYG" for minute and you have a guy that grabbed a weapon, sought out the aggrieved partys, instigated a confrontation in a non-emergency situation, and then killed someone. he attempts to cover it up by attempting to convey a "SYG" defense. Sorry - no go!

He should be arrested and tried for murder in the first degree. in Texas it may cost him his life as it was pre-meditated and they are capitol punishment state.

It was not his "ground" to stand upon!

He committed the Immortal Sin of murder, through anger no less! He will be sentenced to Hell unless he can get a better lawyer!

Does stand your ground give you the right to stalk, or to enter some one else s property armed with a gun?

Both this case and the Tryvon case has the aggressor confronting another person while armed, yet they claim to be scared for there lives?

If Zimmerman and Raul were on there own driveways and were attacked I can see a defense for stand your ground, but to actively pursue, confront and then kill because of fear???? whatever, both these men should have let the police do there jobs.

Mr Rodriguez caused the escalation by (here we go again) pressing the issue.He made the unnecessary choice to to approach on his own with a weapon..It is manslaughter.He didn't intend to kill but his actions caused an altercation resulting in his shooting another man dead.
I really wonder what he expected would happen. Guns are not mean't as tools of fear.In America it can have a very different effect and make the other guy angry.

These are so obvious it's pitiful.Is there anyone who would see confronting a party in TEXAS that is too loud with a gun as a good idea?
I'll show up with my AK47 that'll show em. This would be a fail, yes?

From the video he was acting as a fool going there with a gun in the first place. However at the very end of the video you hear crazy laughter and the camera is jostled. It appears from that some of the boobs at the party had circled around and went at him from the back or side trying to disarm him. If that's the case then I still wouldn't let him off but would convict on manslaughter or maybe 2nd degree murder.

He shouldn't have been there in the first place with the gun but he had the responsibility to retreat when the homeowner asked him to leave. But the Jack* that went after to disarm him deserves much of the blame.

I don't know if it was murder but is def a homicide. The guy that shot him was in the wrong. The police should have told him to go home. He brought the gun for a reason and that tells alot. I'm willing to bet they hard parties alot. The guy had enough of it went down to scare em and the teacher getting killed was the result.

reply to post by Hessling


The "legalese" of the Stand Your Ground Legislation no more justifies murder than police screaming "stop resisting. stop resisting." while beating Kelly Thomas to death.

Except as provided in Subsection (b), a person is justified in using force against another when and to the degree the actor [he] reasonably believes the force is immediately necessary to protect the actor [himself] against the other's use or attempted use of unlawful force.

(Emphasis Added)

The law is not a magic spell where utterances of mystical incantations can mysteriously excuse criminality.