RKMBs Forums .::Important::. Politics and Current Events Man kills Teen for walking on his lawn.

Man Convicted of Lawn-Walking Murder
By TERRY KINNEY, Associated Press Writer
2 hours ago

BATAVIA, Ohio - A jury Thursday convicted a man of murder for shooting a teenage neighbor who walked on his obsessively maintained lawn.

The jury deliberated less than four hours before finding Charles Martin, 67, guilty of murder. Martin was tried on a charge of aggravated murder, but jurors convicted him on the lesser count of murder because they could not agree the killing was planned.

The defense didn't dispute that Martin shot 15-year-old Larry Mugrage Jr. after he stepped on the lawn Martin meticulously cared for, mowing it as many as five times a week.

But defense attorney R. Scott Croswell III said Martin had been harassed for years by Mugrage and other neighborhood youths who insulted Martin and ignored his pleas to stay off the lawn.

Prosecutors said Martin and the teen exchanged words when he stepped on Martin's front yard on the way to play basketball. Later, the boy stepped on the lawn again, and Martin fired at him twice with a shotgun, according to testimony. Martin called 911, telling a dispatcher: "I just killed a kid."

Kevin Miles, an assistant Clermont County prosecutor, told jurors that after the first confrontation, Martin loaded his .410-gauge shotgun and waited more than three hours for Mugrage to return.

Martin faces 15 years to life in prison when he is sentenced May 23. He remains in jail on $2 million bond.

bet the rest of the neighborhood punks think twice about fucking with old people...

This is sad, sick, and stupid.

In a way, I can understand... the man wanted his lawn left alone. He loved it and it was a source of joy. I feel the same way about my lawn, too.

But, if the kids were harrassing him, he ought to have just ignored them.

I know, because I live in a bad neighborhood... kids harrass me here, too.. but I have learned to ignore them.

If you ignore them, they quickly get bored with you because you aren't playing their game where you try to fight back.

That is what they want. They know they will win at that game. They are young. They are many. Fight them and they will wear you out, and you will only make yourself miserable.

I see a kid walk through my gate into my fenced yard, I ignore it.

That man ought to have ignored the kids.

Now, he has killed a kid, and ruined his own life, too.

Race? Religion? Where did he get the shotgun? COME ON! GIMME SOMETHING TO WORK WITH!

Private property is private property.

thats some deep understanding rex

Can't argue with that logic though.

Yeah, don't they have the "make my day" law?

i think if he said, "do you feel lucky punk, well do ya?" that should give him a out if the kid went ahead anyways

In Colorado we have the Make My Day law. If someone's on your property and you tell them to remove themselves and they refuse to comply (usually with intent to harm or vandalize), we have the right to use force against them. We are also allowed to carry handguns, I think still concealed.

Yee-haw!

Why didn't he...I don't know...call the law? File complaints? Seems he was a bit too obsessed with his lawn...

couldnt you just threaten to gay em up if they went in your yard?

That way you either creep em out or get young new lovers!

AND SPACE!

Instead of taking time to get a shotgun he should have got a camera. Take A few pictures or video of the little shits on his property and give the pics to the cops or a lawyer. Have the little shits arrested and maybe legal action on the parents for whatever vandalism the little shits have done.

yeah, that or even the unthinkable could have happened the boys parents could have taught him to respect other people's personal property

That's crazy!