Bizarre, Criminal law

Florida Man Arrested After Allegedly Trying To Electrocute His Estranged Wife

1514568154344Michael Wilson, 32, is accused of an extraordinary crime in rigging his front door to electrocute his estranged, pregnant wife.  Police found the booby trap and arrested Wilson, who is now charged with attempted aggravated battery on a pregnant person and theft of a firearm. (The gun charge is related to his taking his father-in-law’s gun from his wife’s house).

 

The father-in-law called police to report suspicious statements from Wilson. When they checked it out, they found this:

 

door1

 

The booby trap was constructed with chairs, tape, a shower-type rod, electrical cords, wiring cut from a bedroom lamp and a battery source.  Police spotted burn marks near the door handle and, when they kicked the door, there was a large spark.

Wilson was recently admitted to a mental hospital and accused his wife of cheating on him.  He obtained a gun and wired up the house. She later got an alert that the smart cameras at the house had been disconnected.  Wilson told her to be sure to enter the home through the front door because the garage door was broken.  He also told her not to open the door with their daughter present because he did not want her hurt.  That is when her stepfather checked the home.  When the father-in-law, Jon Flositz, went to the house with his wife, they found the word “Hi” and a drawing of two eyes written in lipstick on the home’s sliding glass door.

Wilson’s facebook page could present an interesting evidentiary issue for trial.  His page shows him gripping two handguns, and he boasts that he “is the guy that your father warned you about.”  He also describes himself as “widowed.”

Most prosecutors would dearly love that little evidentiary item at trial though it sounds like Wilson’s best bet is a classic insanity defense.

 

30 thoughts on “Florida Man Arrested After Allegedly Trying To Electrocute His Estranged Wife”

  1. Just proves you don’t need much brain power to be very dangerous. Glad his wife is okay and she has parents that care about her and her daughter.

  2. That poor woman. She’s so lucky he was so clumsy and gave advance warning. She could have lost her baby, even if she survived the shock.

  6. Dude is insane.

    OT – while making my daily “media rounds” I was most amused to see Prof Turley featured on both Breitbart and Julian Assange’s twitter.

  8. The “battery source” makes me wonder how much voltage he thought would be enough to electrocute somebody. Were the batteries powering an inverter or something?

  9. He’s obviously mentally ill. Kind of sad the facility let him leave. A simpleton like that could hurt someone unless, like here, he warns in advance. Use the front door and don’t bring the daughter cause she might get hurt? He’s no Macgyver.

  13. Can I guess the marriage was not going well? Does he think he not the father of the pregnancy??? Even Rube Goldburg could put together a better system.

    I do appreciate his shot across the bows with the “I am the guy your father warned you about” pic.

    1. The ““I am the guy your father warned you about” pic.” and the reference he made on social media as being now single just shows how easy these guys are to convict given their stupidity.

      One disappointment on TV is that so many shows and dramas focus solely on murders. Frankly it becomes boring after a while being the same type of crime depicted every time. For me the only police show worth watching is The First 48 because though it is always about murder, occasionally one can find some remarkable detective work. But the suspects they profile are nearly all boneheads. I’d much rather, if I must, watch crime shows why not have an intricate money laundering case or securities fraud scheme. It’s far more interesting.

      1. Darren Smith – well, someone is going to have to try it out and see if it has enough current to do any significant damage. I wonder who in the CSI lab will get that job?

      2. Try out CNBC’s “American Greed” series – while these are more like docu – dramas than scripted crime shows, they are all very interesting and never fail to highlight the hubris of the perpetrators, and the stupidity or blind trust, of the victims.

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    1. Wonder if those weird fish are mutated due to radiation. Lots of radiation leaks in Russia, and that’s only the ones we know about.

  16. Isn’t criminal “insanity” in Florida knowing right from wrong? I don’t see how that defense will work here.

    1. The defense counsel would have to hire a psychiatrist to examine the guy and render an opinion on his mental illness. If the defendant is said to be psychotic, perhaps paranoid schizophrenia, with delusions and lack of coherence, then a judge may assign him to a mental hospital for treatment prior to a trial. At a trial the defense of not guilty by reason of insanity could be raised and the shrink could testify as to his diagnosis. The behavior could be described by eyewitnesses.

      He is not a good criminal. His mechanical work on the door is a bit obvious.

  17. Not guilty by reason of wackoness. We used to call it “insanity”. The question is: how long will he spend in a mental hospital? I would guess about 25 years. As a former lawyer who represented mental patients I would also say that there is no cure.

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