Thread: Joe Horn cleared by grand jury in Pasadena shootings

Joe Horn cleared by grand jury in Pasadena shootings

Panel issues no-bill after two weeks of testimony

By BRIAN ROGERS and RUTH RENDON
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
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The shooting of two burglary suspects has sparked heated debate about property rights, gun control and other issues.

A Harris County grand jury decided today that Joe Horn should not be charged with a crime for fatally shooting two suspected burglars he confronted outside his neighbor's home in Pasadena last fall.

The decision to clear Horn of wrongdoing came two weeks after the grand jury began considering evidence in the case, including Horn's testimony last week.

Horn, a 62-year-old retiree, became the focus of an intense public debate after the Nov. 14 shootings. Many supporters praised him as a hero for using deadly force to protect property, while others dismissed him as a killer who should have heeded a 911 operator's instructions to stay in his house and wait for police.

Horn called authorities after hearing breaking glass and seeing two men climb through a window into his next-door neighbor's home in the 7400 block of Timberline.

The 911 operator urged Horn to remain inside, but he went outside with his 12-gauge shotgun and came face-to-face with Diego Ortiz, 30, and Hernando Riascos Torres, 38.

According to a transcript of Horn's 911 call, which he made about 2 p.m., the operator repeatedly urged Horn to stay in his house, but Horn said he did not believe it would be right to let the burglars get away.

"Well, here it goes, buddy," Horn can be heard telling the operator. "You hear the shotgun clicking and I'm going."

The operator replies: "Don't go outside."

Then the tape records Horn warning someone: "Move and you're dead!" Two quick shots can be heard, followed by a pause and then a third shot.

Pasadena police Capt. A.H. "Bud" Corbett said a few weeks after the shooting that a plainclothes detective had parked in front of Horn's house in response to the 911 call. He said the detective saw the men between Horn's house and his neighbor's before they crossed into Horn's front yard.

It appeared that neither Horn nor the men knew a police officer was present, Corbett said.

"It was over within seconds. The detective never had time to say anything before the shots were fired," Corbett said. "At first, the officer was assessing the situation. Then he was worried Horn might mistake him for the 'wheel man' (getaway driver). He ducked at one point."

When Horn confronted the suspects in his yard, he raised his shotgun to his shoulder, Corbett said. However the men ignored his order to freeze.

Corbett said one man ran toward Horn, but had angled away from him toward the street when he was shot in the back just before reaching the curb.

"The detective confirmed that this suspect was actually closer to Horn after he initiated his run than at the time when first confronted," said Corbett. "Horn said he felt in jeopardy."

Ortiz and Torres died a short distance from Horn's house, both shot in the back.

As the grand jury began hearing evidence in the case this month, Horn's attorney, Tom Lambright, said recently that Horn regrets his decision to confront the men.

"Was it a mistake from a legal standpoint? No. But a mistake in his life? Yes," Lambright said. "Because it's affected him terribly. And if he had it to do over again, he would stay inside.

"I don't think anybody can really appreciate the magnitude that something like this has on a person's personality."

Lambright said Horn didn't expect to be involved in a shooting, but rather expected to see the two men running or driving away.

"He thought he was gathering evidence for the police department," Lambright said.

The shooting brought hundreds of protesters to the Village Grove East subdivision where Horn lives with his daughter and her family. One protest included supporters of Houston activist Quanell X and motorcyclists countering his remarks. The protest which brought hundreds to the neighborhood led to the Pasadena City Council to approve a city ordinance banning protests in front of a residential home.

Aside from the shooting itself, the national debate revolved around the fact that Ortiz and Torres were illegal immigrants from Colombia. Torres had been sent to prison for dealing cocaine and was deported in 1999.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hot ... 64151.html

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

JOE Come be My neighbor

I just read about it. That great! Everyone should be able to protect their life and their property without being charged with anything. Especially when the criminals are illegal aliens. Crimes committed by illegal aliens WOULD NEVER HAPPEN IF THE ILLEGAL ALIEN WASNT IN OUR COUNTRY IN THE 1ST PLACE!

A common tactic used by criminals, split up and attack the victim from both sides. They thought he could only shoot at one, that was one of their mistakes. I'm glad there was a witness to this and am glad Joe Horn was not prosecuted for protecting himself.

I must admit, I'm pleasantly surprised at this judgement.

Sometimes justice is served.

Rarely anymore is a burglary or home invasion carried out by a single individual making them all the more dangerous.

Way to go Joe!!! Anyone else notice the fact that the two criminals were also illegal, and it didn't come up until the next to the last sentence??

This is a great day for LAW ABIDING AMERICANS! Look out criminals, you could be next.

Hell yeah this is good news.

but the racist in houston named quannell X is probably already organizing some sort of protest. i betcha

just went to Chron.com... over 1800 replies to this story as of 11pm


EDITED to include other posts on this story

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-121491.html

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-121517.html

July 01, 2008
Identifying perps as illegal immigrants (updated)
Thomas Lifson
It is almost an iron law of the MSM that the race and immigration status of criminals will not be identified if they are members of racial minorities or not in the country legally. Sometimes this aversion is almost comic, as when the subject of a manhunt's race is not included in a description alerting the public.

It would seem the self-appointed guardians of race relations consider America so racist that mere mention of a miscreant's race or flouting of immigration laws would trigger race riots.

But Adam B. Ellick of the New York Times today demonstrates that this "don't ask, don't tell" rule can be suspended when an evil white man can be blamed for something:

HOUSTON - A grand jury on Monday refused to indict a 62-year-old man who fatally shot two burglars last November as they fled his neighbor's house.

In a case that raised questions of ethnic bias, self-defense and property rights, the jury rejected charges against the man, Joe Horn, who is white. Both victims were illegal immigrants from Colombia.

"Joe is not some wild cowboy," Mr. Horn's lawyer, Charles T. Lambright, said at a news conference on Monday. "He was put in a place where he didn't have any other choice."

But others reacted angrily to the decision. "There is not a snowflake's chance in hell that an African-American man could do what Joe Horn did and get away with it," said Quanell X, a local black activist. "The message that Harris County sent to the entire world is that Houston, Tex., is God's city. There is no longer a need for the criminal justice system, police, judge or jury. You can be all of that on your own."


Hat tip: David Paulin

Update - -David Paulin adds:

You still have to read quite away down in this AP version of the story to read:

The two suspected burglars, Hernando Riascos Torres, 38, and Diego Ortiz, 30, were unemployed illegal immigrants from Colombia. Torres was deported to Colombia in 1999 after a 1994 cocaine-related conviction.


If you read the AP piece from the Austin, TX newspaper, be sure you read some of the reader's comments, below the article. Frankly, I'm sort of surprised about the Grand Jury's decision, but then I'm not from Texas originally. I wonder what a Grand Jury in the Bay Area would have done?

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/200 ... gal_i.html