(no subject)

[theweaselking]

Enraged after being cut off by a teen driver, authorities say a man then followed the high school athlete home and tried to run the youth down with his car. Instead, the 53-year-old was punched into unconsciousness and died Tuesday.

Jeffrey Zucker, a lawyer for the 17-year-old, said the teen was on his way home from football practice around 5:30 p.m. when he inadvertently cut off the other driver. Authorities said James D. Munter followed the teen three miles to the student's home in Lindenwold, screaming through his window all the way. The teen used a cell phone to call his father, who told him to drive home, officials said.

When the teen arrived home, Zucker said, he ran across the street to his home from his still-idling truck, but he was not fast enough. With the teen's father watching, Munter drove into the youth, authorities said. The teen, who Zucker said is about 6-foot-6 and 300 pounds, rolled off the hood of Munter's 1999 Mercury Sable, landed on his feet, walked to the driver's side of the car and punched Munter twice in the head.

Munter's son-in-law, Mark Serota, who described the man as "nice, fun-loving, goodhearted," said he lost consciousness instantly and never regained it.

The teen was jailed, charged with aggravated assault. The charges against the boy, whose name was not released because of his age, were filed before Munter died late Tuesday morning.

Comments

[dilickjm.livejournal.com]

Wow.

Assuming that is the whole story, I'm conflicted.

On the one hand, teen dude killed a guy. On the other, the victim had just tried to commit vehicular assault. I'd file this under "Justifiable Manslaughter", I guess.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Assuming that's the whole story, after trying to get away and running to avoid the problem, the old guy *attacked him with a deadly weapon* in *a blatant case of attempted murder* - and after doing everything he could to avoid the situation and surviving the murder attempt, he defended himself and punched the guy JUST TWICE, incapacitating him, and then left the scene to call the cops and an ambulance - and the guy died.

I can't imagine a more clear-cut case of self-defense using all reasonable means to avoid the situation and then solely reasonable force in immediate defense of your own life.

Assuming this is the whole story, the kid should get a whole stackload of "You did exactly the right thing" and "It's not your fault" counselling, at the expense of the old guy's estate.

[dilickjm.livejournal.com]

See, I can't call it attempted murder, for I don't know how fast he was driving -- 10MPH is way more than enough to roll a guy onto the hood of a car, but extremely unlikely to kill. I don't know where he punched the guy ('in the head' is annoyingly vague). I'm inclined to believe that he acted properly in self-defense, but I don't *know*.

Which is why I'd file this under "Justifiable Mansluaghter". He was justified, IMHO, and he killed a man.

[corruptedjasper.livejournal.com]

10 mph is more than enough to prove intent to kill, though. It was, I would assume, more than the kid was able to easily avoid.

Exactly where he punched is irrelevant unless the kid was either an accomplished martial artist or a medstudent -- the kind of person who knows exactly where to hit and where not to hit to kill people.

[dolston.livejournal.com]

Hell, in some places in the States you could kill someone for tresspassing. Assuming there is nothing else here this is a very clear case of self-defense. There is an eye witness and a cell call that can verify the situation. Bruises from being struck by a vehicle will prove that he was hit and the relatively little trauma to the head would show very few strikes. And an immediate call to 911 would be logged. If the details from that call don't change over time then the person is likely telling the truth.

[sivi-volk.livejournal.com]

However, according to precedents we learned about in law, the teen is very, very liable to a civil suit.

[corruptedjasper.livejournal.com]

The estate of the old man ought to be liable for an even larger suit, IMHO -- again assuming that this is the whole story.

[catlin.livejournal.com]

My problem is, that the kid had the choice instead of walking around the car to the window to get off the street, and run to his house. He made a conscious choice to turn and attack in return instead. I can see this playing out in court very easily either direction, for or against him based on that.