First and foremost, I ask that you don't try and debate the outcome of the case with me as the decision has been made and while I stand by that decision, it is still a very heavy thing.The charges were aggravated assault, simple assault, property damage, and disorderly conduct. The incident, as told to us by different testimonies, was that the defendant pulled into a gas station and stopped behind a parked truck to wait for a pump to open up. The truck driver (who had a passenger) was contracted snow removal and wanted to continue clearing the parking lot so he honked at the defendant to move his vehicle. The defendant moved his vehicle to a pump, parked, and then approached the still parked snow removal truck to confront the driver. They argued and the defendant ended up striking the side view mirror and cracking the glass.The defendant then went back to his vehicle to pump gas while the truck driver went inside to ask the manager to turn off the defendant gas pump and to call the police so he could get a police report for insurance. The pump got shot off, the defendant entered the store to investigate and proceeded to argue with the truck driver and cause a scene. The manager at the station separated them to wait for police.During this time, the contracting company owner arrived in his own truck (had his brother as a passenger) to salt the lot and parked next to the snow plow truck. After chatting with the snow plow driver he proceeded to salt the lot. While he was salting the lot the defendant went outside to take photos of not only the snow plow truck but also the contracting company owner's truck. The owner, upon seeing the defendant taking photos of his truck, approached him at the driver's side of his truck between the two trucks.There was some discrepancy between testimonies as to the location of the plow truck driver, his passenger, and the owner's brother. The only consistent thing was that the owner was in front of the defendant and at least one person was behind the defendant. The defendant and owner proceeded to argue. During this argument the owner said something to the effect of "If you want to do this then lets do this!" and proceeded to open his truck driver's door and grab something from the door and palm it so that the defendant could not see what it was.At this point, the defendant proceeded to draw his firearm and point it at the owner and commanded him to get on the ground. The owner declined to get on the ground and disclosed at that point that he had a screwdriver. The defendant then re-holstered his weapon and they all re-entered the gas station to call the police and report the drawn weapon.After 2 hours of deliberation we came to the conclusion that he was guilty of all four counts. Thankfully the jury does not decide on the sentence and the court handles that.So as far as my observations, I don't think the defendant was a bad person, just got mad and made some bad decisions. Also, I was SHOCKED that aggravated assault and simple assault do not actually need to include any physical contact. The defendant, beyond striking the mirror, did not lay a hand on either the truck driver or the owner. Just the threat of harm qualifies as assault. Keep that in mind.The big thing for us as a jury that pushed us over to guilty of assault and not just self defense was that the defendant instigated the situation and had MULTIPLE opportunities to not continue to engage and leave the situation or de-escalate and chose not to. Also, for self defense to be valid, according to the law, is his response would have had to have been a reasonable response to the ACTUAL threat, not the defendant's PERCEIVED threat. I personally don't like how the law stipulates this as I wouldn't want to bet my life on someone having a screwdriver vs a gun. However, I also would NEVER willingly put myself into that situation. To be clear, the jury did not dismiss that the defendant was threatened.I think that is it, sorry for the wall of text but wanted to spell out the relevant details and some warnings about things I wasn't aware of. via /r/CCW http://ift.tt/2jbSuT2
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