Joe Horn Cleared by Texas Grand Jury

Joe Horn, a man who killed two men who broke into a neighbors house will not be charged despite an audio recording in which Horn disobeys a dispatcher and seems intent on killing the men. A Texas grand jury refused to indict him for the killings in November.

The Horn case has focused attention on so-called Make My Day Laws (or the Castle Doctrine). Horn expressly cited his right to shoot the men before going outside to encounter him. For a prior story, click here and here.

For the full article, click here

55 thoughts on “Joe Horn Cleared by Texas Grand Jury”

  1. Bob, Esq(isitely stupid!) You are trying (unsuccessfully) to defend criminal behavior on “social” grounds. The fact is that the perp knew exactly what he/she was doing and that it was wrong. Now you try to defend social criminal behavior? Really?!?!?!? How about looking at these types of issues OBJECTIVELY instead of SUBJECTIVELY? Honest, law-abiding people don’t steal from one another. Simple as that.

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  3. My God backasswords Texas. I dont know about Joe Horn case bit the guy who shot the teenager ans beat others for stealing snacks is flat out evil. And then he aqiuted in less then eight hours. Sounds like playing judge, jury and executioner plus God.
    I did stupid stuff when I was a kid and by Texas law should have been shot dead. Well 30 years after my broken childhood I do nothing but the lord’s work. Involved in many charities and starting my own. Well we will never know if this teenager’s potentail now.
    I was thinking of moving to Texas but not now. Not knowing how many mentally unstable people are in the world as it is. And Texas arms them and backs them when they use unjustified force.
    These are material things not life’s at risk.
    Oh not to mention the 45 year old couple who killed a 7 year old boy for treaspassing???? The end is near , ,, I hope. sick world

  4. Robert R:

    “Obviously Mr. Bob, Esq is a practicing attorney who perceives their business which is getting guilty people off the hook to be more important than the life liberty and pursuit of the American people who are tired of being victimized by criminals.”

    *********************

    Huh? Once you graduate elementary school I suspect you will realize that protecting everyone’s rights insures that your rights are also protected since we really don’t know whose guilty of what or of anything until they are tried in court. Criminals don’t wear signs and we really can’t look into their heads to determine intent or perceived circumstances. I assume you are still in grade school judging by the maturity manifest in this classic statement: “If the citizens want to survive they need to be able to defend themselves and take care of business.” Very Posse Comitatas. I bet you like Westerns and playing cowboy too. As for knowing any good lawyers, hang around here for a day or two and you’ll hear plenty of them–you should start with Bob, Esq.

  5. Obviously Mr. Bob, Esq is a practicing attorney who perceives their business which is getting guilty people off the hook to be more important than the life liberty and pursuit of the American people who are tired of being victimized by criminals. Makes no difference where the criminal comes from, whether illegal or not, it’s a criminal. The people are tired of calling the useless police departments (I can say that, spent 36 years trying to fix that mess.) and have the officer complete a pretty report and tell the victim to call his insurance company. Law enforcement in this country is by and large a joke. Most can’t catch a cold but don’t go speeding home to see what the thieves stole or you’ll get a speeding ticket by some over zealous idiot who has been brainwashed into thinking you’re a law breaker. I told many a person over the years that law enforcement writes pretty reports but we by and large are useless when a citizen is in trouble. If the citizens want to survive they need to be able to defend themselves and take care of business. We’ll still come out and do a neat little report but the end of it will state in it’s own way that justice was carried out. Case closed. Mr. Bob needs to be victimized and he’ll have a better understanding of what it feels like to come home and have your ‘property’ stolen. And the insurance companies rarely replace it with the same quality and some things simply can’t be replaced. I guess in his eyes that doesn’t matter. It’s all about not executing some thief so he can make a few grand defending them in a court room. Typical lawyer. Anybody seen a good one?

  6. Scott,

    I do understand what you said and I am glad you were not harmed in the incident you described above.

    Jill

  7. I would not have any regrets in shooting/killing someone who broke into my house to steal and or do me harm.Is it on the top of the list of things to do before I die? Absolutely not….. when I was younger and had moved into a new apartment someone came looking for the old tennant one morning @ 3am beating on my door so hard it left dents in the aluminum skin on the door. He persisted to kick on my door so hard, I could see light from the hallway with each kick..I called the police. I explained to them the situation. I informed them I had a gun. I told the guy on the other side of the door that the police were on the way and that I had a gun. Had the door been on a regular wood frame it would have come down, thankfully it was built on a steel door frame and it held. When the police arrived 14 minutes later it took 3 officers to arrest him, the guy was drunk and had a box cutter on him……. Would I have had time to explain to the guy I wasnt the person who he was looking for? Could I have hoped he would have recognized I wasnt the person he was looking for? Absolutely not. He was there to confront his ex’s new boyfriend….a man he had never met and had no idea what he looked like.
    Had he been successful in bringing down my door I would have not hesitated in using my gun.

    Was I scared? Absolutely….Did my gun make me feel safe? Absolutely not. What it did do was assured me that if that door had come down that night I could have defended my self and stopped this person from ever making it more than 2 feet into my residence. Again its not on the top of the list of things I want to do before I die…….but neither is being cut up by some love sick deranged psycho who wanted to kill his girlfriend and a man that he had never met before.

  8. Scott,

    I don’t think you really read what I was trying to say to you. I was asking you to think about the consequences to you, not the person who broke in. I know soldiers who had to kill to survive. There is nothing about that experience that added to their life quality. They live with that pain every day.
    Jill

  9. Flee my house? Wake my family and make a break for it? Absolutely not….
    Thats just nuts…….

    No need to be a Marksman with a 12 gauge shotgun with double ought buckshot, it fires 9 .33″ pellets in a tight 12-14 inch pattern @ 8-15 meters and it will be followed by 3 more rounds….. but i will warn him, when I chamber the first round if he doesent turn tale and run thats his own damn fault….

    If you are having a “I’m stupid” day and ended up at my house and broke a window or kicked down a door to get in …..tough break stupid….

    Criminals, drunkards and kids looking for a cheap thrill by breaking into someones house in Texas need to realize that you could end up dead if you break into the wrong one…. especially at night

  10. Scott,

    I am not anti-gun and not against self-protection. If someone is breaking into your house IF it’s possible why not get out to safety? In martial arts the point is to escape and survive and only as a last resort, fight. There is no sense in harming or killing anyone unless it is necessary. Even a good marksman misses or may be faced with an equally skilled marksman. The intruder may be a neighbor child on a drunken or “I’m stupid” day. Precisely because we do not know who is breaking in; getting out, WHEN POSSIBLE, could save our life and keep us from a world of regret should we wound/kill someone who was in the “I’m stupid” mode.

    You’re assuming everyone who breaks in is a drug addict. I suspect if you checked your neighborhood carefully you would find many people stuggling with addiction to alcohol or other drugs, legal and illegal. It sounds like you feel a lot of hatred for drug addicts and certainly if you lived with one, I understand your feeling. If that happened to you I’m glad you got out. Every drug addict is not violent. Some are, some aren’t. So I’m just asking you to consider the rammifications of staying and trying to shoot another person. If you have the option of escape, it’s not shameful to take that route.

    Jill

  11. mespo727272—

    if you are willing/crazy enough to break in my house than you are willing/crazy enough to do me harm…..should I ask what their intentions are and direct them on how to get help?…Fuck no I will shoot them and find out what their intentions are later….No one cleans up after me I dont make a mess……maybe you have drug addicts and criminals in your family and dread to think that one day their lifestyle will lead them to my house looking for an easy score… I wouldnt shoot a guy thats in my front/back yard or tool shed stealing petty things but you can bet i am gonna keep him in my crosshairs and when he steps foot in my house he will get shot….

  12. Exactly. Vivid indeed.

    The worst argument I’ve heard in favor of this law, so far, is to expect even slower response times associated with looming cutbacks due to increasing gas prices!

    Perhaps we can find some solace in knowing George Bush won’t have to look too far to see the whole unholy mess back in Texas.

    Or maybe the Dixie Chicks will write another song!

  13. Patty C:

    “The problem with this case and with this law is that it requires an assessment of the gravity of individual situations and then a judgment call.”
    ***********
    That is precisely the point, and even more so in the case of untrained, upset landowners firing in close proximity to neighbors. Even trained troops and their commanders have this problem. I give you the Boston Massacre and Kent State as just two vivid examples from our history of gun play gone awry.

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