In Franklin County, Tennessee, children may want to avoid the house of Dale Bryant Farris, 65, this Halloween . . . or houses near him. Bryant was arrested after shooting a 15-year-old boy who was with kids toilet-papering their principal’s front yard. Bryant came out of his house a couple of houses down from the home of Principal Ken Bishop and allegedly fired at least two blasts — one hitting a 15-year-old boy in the right foot, inner left knee, right palm, right thigh and right side of his torso above the waistline.
Tennessee is a Castle Doctrine state and we have seen past cases like the notorious Tom Horn case in Texas where homeowners claimed the right to shoot intruders on the property of their neighbors. I have long been a critic of such laws because the common law already afforded ample protections and the laws appear to encourage some people to use potentially lethal force. It is not clear if Bryant will argue that he was trying to stop intruders under the law, but it does not appear a good fit with the purpose or language of the law. The law speaks of breaking into a residence:
(c) Any person using force intended or likely to cause death or serious bodily injury within a residence, business, dwelling or vehicle is presumed to have held a reasonable belief of imminent death or serious bodily injury to self, family, a member of the household or a person visiting as an invited guest, when that force is used against another person, who unlawfully and forcibly enters or has unlawfully and forcibly entered the residence, business, dwelling or vehicle, and the person using defensive force knew or had reason to believe that an unlawful and forcible entry occurred.
The law does have a curtilage provision extending the range of a home: “Curtilage means the area surrounding a dwelling that is necessary, convenient and habitually used for family purposes and for those activities associated with the sanctity of a person’s home.” However, residence is narrowed to mean “a dwelling in which a person resides, either temporarily or permanently, or is visiting as an invited guest, or any dwelling, building or other appurtenance within the curtilage of the residence.”
Franklin County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Sgt. Chris Guess seemed to have such a defense in mind when he said “The problem is they were not on his property and they were not doing anything to his property. Some kids got out at a residence over there to roll it with toilet paper and this gentleman came out of his residence a couple of houses over and shot one of the teenagers who was rolling this other guy’s yard.”
Farris faces a charge of aggravated assault and another of reckless endangerment. He could also face civil liability from the boy’s family. This would include assault and battery. There is a privilege of both self-defense and defense of others. This privilege included reasonable mistaken self-defense or defense of others. This would not fit such a claim since he effectively pursued the boys by going to a neighbor’s property and there was no appearance of a threat or weapon since they were only armed with toilet paper.
As for more carnage, well its anyone’s guess according to Sgt. Guess: “Don’t do anything that would cause anybody distress or make them think you might do them harm.”
So much for the trick in trick and treating. That leaves threatening to read bad poetry or play Barry Manilow tunes on Halloween. (Actually, even I would be pushed to violence with the Manilow trick and no jury outside of Vegas would convict me). The good news is that Farris can now go to Halloween dressed as himself . . . once he posts bail.
Source: Times Free Press
Mike,
I agree with Blouise. Halloween is fun when you celebrate it without guns! 🙂
That should be “dislike” not dislinke.
I love the “eye for an eye” mentality. Shoot him with buckshot at the same distance and see how he likes it.
I really dislinke folks who do dumb things and hurt others unnecessarily.
Mike, Mike, Mike … you’re bringing me down!
“Mike, Mike, Mike … you’re bringing me down!”
Blouise,
With the lovely picture you’ve shown me I doubt I have the capacity to bring you down today. I’ve got my curmudgeonly side, but I don’t complain when kids run across my yard. 🙂
“Castle doctrine”? It’s more like cast lead doctrine. You shoot first and expect to be asked no questions later.
anarmyofficer –
“This man is just plain nuts. Take his guns away, and put him in prison, or a rest home for the senile and dangerous.”
You can bet the farm that the idiots who blather “an eye for an eye” will display their usual hypocrisy by keeping their mouths shut.
I’d have to agree that this has zero to do with castle doctrine. This man is just plain nuts. Take his guns away, and put him in prison, or a rest home for the senile and dangerous.
I’d have just called the cops and come out and yelled. That would have been more than enough to scare off some pranksters.
Either that, or some out with a jersey on and start throwing haymakers at the woman in the group. Seems that tactic works nowadays…. unless you put it on youtube.
DavidM:
it certainly wasnt buck shot or turkey shot. A 20 gage is enough to kill a man with either, birdshot at close range would do considerable damage.
The guy was aming low although that depends on how far away he was, shot drops off pretty quickly.
In any event I am not condoning shooting a kid with anything for spreading TP. I got TP’d when my kids were in high school, I told both children to tell their friends they didnt know how to TP, that it was the lamest thing I had ever seen [it didnt come anywhere near what me and my friends used to do] and that they needed to use more rolls if they wanted to do a good job. I told them to tell them to come over and I would show them how to do it the right way but they had to buy the TP. They never showed up.
I was never TP’d again. I guess when some pranksters cant stand the pressure of being graded on their work.
Bron, I wonder if Dale Farris is going to use the Biden defense. Remember how Biden said that he had advised his wife that if there was any problem, just walk outside and shoot the shotgun? Two people are mentioned in the following article for using that defense:
http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/washington-whispers/2013/07/19/bidens-shotgun-advice-invoked-as-defense-by-man-arrested-for-shooting-gun-in-air
Bron –
You make me wonder what kind of shot was used in the small 20 gauge shotgun. At the most it must have been birdshot. The teen would found by police in the back of a truck, and “he insisted he wasn’t bleeding and would have his parents deal with his wounds.”
http://www.newser.com/story/176812/teen-shot-by-neighbor-while-tping-principals-yard.html
“when I was a kid, fathers walked around the neighborhood with shotguns filled with rock salt. and I knew of more than one kid who had had his hind end filled with it going over a fence after stealing fruit out of a yard or some other “prank”.”
Bron,
When you were a kid Halloween hadn’t been turned into some sort of national holiday by businesses who wanted the Christmas buying season to start earlier. When I was a kid, some years before you Halloween wasn’t much of a big deal and a paper bag with eyeslits was an acceptable “costume”. Hate to sound like an Old Fart, but I never much liked Halloween back then and I hate it now. Unfortunately, my kids grew up as Halloween was becoming a big deal and my wife and I had to aid and abet them. In my various necks of the woods there wasn’t much tricking, it was all about the treats.
As for this incident I agree with DavidM, what was this man thinking and how does he justify this act which should get him a whole lot of negative consequences?
One more person who should not be allowed to have a gun. Of course, I would assume that guns are not allowed in Tenn. prisons.
when I was a kid, fathers walked around the neighborhood with shotguns filled with rock salt. and I knew of more than one kid who had had his hind end filled with it going over a fence after stealing fruit out of a yard or some other “prank”.
I guess the guy is living in the past.
It is a matter of principle. The guy was defending a principal. That is a word with Pal on the end and everyone knows that the head of a school is your pal. So, this is the “Tennessee Pal Defense” as outlined in the case of State v. Wally case, SupCt of Tennessee (1876). You can get a copy off of Pacer if you have PayPal. The article here on the blog left something out that was reported in local newspapers in Memphis. The kids were TPing the house with “used toilet paper”. Now, I don’t know if that means that the paper was second hand, had handwriting on it, or had been bought at Salvation Army. But one of the people who wrote a letter to the Editor of that Memphis Daily Chronicle said that something smelled about the case. It very well may be a defense in that state to assert that you shot in defense of others when itShay happens.
Should have brought him some moonshine….. Get him all likkered up and then they’d had no problem…. Other than that the guy needs anger management…
Isaac: Tell me what regulation would have prevented this man from getting a gun.
“Forget it Jake, it’s Tenn.”
The civil suit should leave this crazed gunman living in a refrigerator box, under a freeway overpass, unarmed.
This is another example of the need for stricter gun regulation. This unfortunate being should never be allowed near a weapon. He is obviously not in complete control of his faculties and presents a danger to society. We are, however, an oligarchy and the NRA is a special interest group that controls enough of the government to prevent this unfortunate being’s being refused the right to shoot whomever he pleases.
I don’t know why the Castle Doctrine is used as an example in the Don Horn case in Houston. While Horn cited that law as a reason, he was wrong in that it had no bearing on his right to use deadly force against the two burglars who were illegal immigrants. In fact, the statute on deadly force is the relevant law which gave Horn the right to shoot and kill them. Had the crooks dropped the loot they had, Horn would have gone to prison since the law only allows the use of deadly force to prevent the crooks getting away with their loot. Horn actually went FAR beyond what the law called for since he gave them the chance to surrender their loot before he shot them. The crooks decided that the loot was worth dying for, or they thought they were still in California.
Unfortunately, in Texas that same law allows for the use of deadly force if some teens decide to TP your house too. It was originally designed with a good purpose in mind, to allow a homeowner to shoot the KKK if they came at night to burn a cross on your front lawn. I am all for shooting KKKers in such situations. I am not in favor of shooting pranksters TPing a house. But given the low level of Texas legislators legal intellect, they could not figure out a way to allow for killing KKKers, and not shooting kids. In fact, the GOPers are so stupid, that when they passed a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, and any other form of marriage, they banned ALL marriages if you read the law as it is written. They thought that they were banning the possibility of civil unions,but thanks to their poor wording have legally banned ALL marriages. Of course, rather than going by the law as actually written, they show their contempt for their own laws by ignoring it and going by the intent. To hell with the written law is their motto. WE KNOW what we really meant.
The new age “Good Samaritan.”
I don’t see where the Castle Doctrine has much to do with this. The man was charged with aggravated assault and reckless endangerment, so the Castle Doctrine laws are fine. Sure would like to hear from Farris what was in his mind for why he assaulted this teen.