Site icon JONATHAN TURLEY

High School Teen Charged With Manslaughter After Strangling His Mother’s Abusive Ex-Boyfriend To Death

choke16n-1-webThere is a tragedy unfolding in the Bronx where Luis Moux, 18, a football high school player is facing manslaughter charges.  He allegedly choked his mother’s ex-boyfriend to death Monday after discovering his mother’s abusive ex-boyfriend beating her. It is the prototypical heat of passion case and the prosecutor elected to charge for manslaughter rather than a high class of homicide. However, there remains the question of whether he should be convicted for killing the man and whether this might be a case of jury nullification where jurors simply refuse to convict on these facts.

 

The problem for the prosecutors may be the manner of death. It took two minutes for Moux to strangle the life out of Stanley Washington, 43.  However, Moux also received injuries including bite marks on this forearm and knee.

His mother passed out during the attack.

Washington had 26 prior arrests, two for domestic violence against the teenager’s mother.

The penal law expressly anticipates killing under “extreme emotional disturbance”:

A person is guilty of manslaughter in the first degree when:

1. With intent to cause serious physical injury to another person, he causes the death of such person or of a third person;  or

2. With intent to cause the death of another person, he causes the death of such person or of a third person under circumstances which do not constitute murder because he acts under the influence of extreme emotional disturbance, as defined in paragraph (a) of subdivision one of section 125.25.  The fact that homicide was committed under the influence of extreme emotional disturbance constitutes a mitigating circumstance reducing murder to manslaughter in the first degree and need not be proved in any prosecution initiated under this subdivision;  or

3. He commits upon a female pregnant for more than twenty-four weeks an abortional act which causes her death, unless such abortional act is justifiable pursuant to subdivision three of section 125.05;  or

4. Being eighteen years old or more and with intent to cause physical injury to a person less than eleven years old, the defendant recklessly engages in conduct which creates a grave risk of serious physical injury to such person and thereby causes the death of such person.

Manslaughter in the first degree is a class B felony.

Moux’s coach and principal and teammates joined family members in the courtroom for Moux’s arraignment to support him.

What do you think should be done in such a case?

Exit mobile version