Rather than getting ready for church early Sunday morning, a 30-year-old Indiana man decided to try his hand at home invasion in Terre Haute. He probably thought he could pull off an easy score, but he forgot the homeowner had a say in the matter.
In the end, Michael Bell, 30, of Clay City, Indiana died of homeowner-administered gunshot wounds on scene. Another individual who was with him fled. Cops eventually found that person hiding next door, but later released him without charges.
Police indicated in a Facebook post that upon further investigation, no charges would be sought against the homeowner as they were acting in self-defense.
WTWO has the story:
Update: A Clay City man is dead after police say he was shot and killed in an attempted home intrusion over the weekend.
Monday, THPD identified the individual killed as Michael Bell, 30, of Clay City.
Police say the person who was alleged to be with Bell during the incident has not been charged with a crime at this time and has since been released…
According to the Terre Haute Police Department, officers were sent to the 200 block of N. Fruitridge Ave. around 5:30 a.m. on Sunday after a call about a homeowner shooting an intruder in their home.
The call to dispatch also mentioned a second person with the intruder who had ran away from the area.
Officers secured the scene and found the alleged intruder dead. The second person was found hiding in a neighboring back yard and was taken into custody.
We trust the homeowner won’t have too many post-defense difficulties related to this self-defense shooting from the dead perp’s friends or family. And hopefully the victims here won’t have too many psychological problems from confronting and dealing with a nightmare situation in real life.
I’d like to know how the accompling hiding perp explained his way out of being arrested and charged as an accomplice?
Felony Murder Doctrine.
“Recently, the Indiana Supreme Court has narrowed the felony murder doctrine in Indiana, stating that in order to prove felony murder, the State must prove the defendant engaged in “dangerously violent and threatening conduct” during the commission of the felony in which the person was killed.”
https://banksbrower.com/2020/01/31/felony-murder-how-it-is-possible-to-be-convicted-of-murder-without-killing-anyone/
Home invasion wouldn’t qualify?
if the accomplice
was just standing next to or behind the deceased
if he never broke a window
or kicked in a door
or hollered any violent threats against the homeowner
or anything like that
then he didnt engage in any “dangerously violent and threatening conduct during the commission of the felony…”
so the police let him go
they probably did so also based on a witness statement from the homeowner
Let him explain his involvement to a jury
maybe he was an unwitting accomplice
Unwitting people don’t hide in a backyard. Whether he was willing or not when there is a deceased involved his willingness would be determined in a court following advising rights and arrest…something is not adding up.
If he was indeed an unwitting accomplice, and a friend to Mr. Dead Invader but unaware of any intention to commit a burglary, he may have been freaked out by the surprise actions by his former friend, and further freaked by the sights & sounds of his former friend being sent to the Hereafter. If he was hiding nearby, he may have been genuinely fearing for his own life from the homeowner, and gladly cooperated with the responding LE for his own safety.
I wasn’t there and can only posit a theory based upon the limited info from this article above, but I imagine he did a pretty good job of ‘splaining to the cops.
It’s a possibility that the homeowner reported to the cops that – in his opinion – the friend appeared to be genuinely surprised by Mr. Dead Invader’s intentions and wasn’t part of the plan.
They might once the gunfire starts. Any port in a storm and all that.
In my youth I had an experience that wised me up about stupid people and stupid places.
A buddy was going to pick me up and we were going to hang with some friends. Buddy told me had bought a car. I got into his ‘new’ car when he pulled up out front. It was only after we pulled away that I realized that his car had a screw driver sticking out of the place that was supposed to have an ignition switch.
He was evasive about my questions concerning his new car. It was a short trip to the bowling alley to meet up with the others. I put some distance between us and passed the word quietly that riding with him may not be the best idea.
Turns out that if it looks like a duck. Quacks like a duck. Has feathers like a duck there’s a good chance it is a duck.
The judge gave him a choice. The army, which meant Viet Nam or state prison. He took Viet Nam.
I’ve always been happy that the police didn’t pull us over before I got out.
Dimwitting Accomplice
I can paint scenarios all day long, Debbie. “Me ‘n muh Bro, we was walkin’ along, toward my place, ‘n he sez, “Wait a sec, Bro, dude stays hear owes me some money, I be right back!” So, my bro walks up to the house, and a few seconds later, I hear “BANG BANG BANG BANG!” so I knows somethin’s wrong. So, I hid here, a coupld doors away, so’s I don’ git shot too!”
If suspect #2 never entered the home, it’s hard to prove that he did anything wrong at all. It’s his word against nothing. And, his word may even be true and accurate!
and all the anti-gun go “Nah, this is fake news. A person using a gun for self-defense is a myth. And even if they did they would be killed.”
Whatever, one more outta the gene pool!!👍
And tax dollars saved…
big(smile)
Another happy ending!
The police released the accomplice so that he could exact revenge on the homeowner. I mean the least he should have gotten was trespassing. I thought Indiana was tougher on crime than Illinois?
dead guy must’a had the car keys?
How the New Pistol Brace Rule Suddenly Makes Gun Trusts Much More Valuable.
With a load of iron or twenty-six thousand tons more
Then the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty
Ore
Ore wut?
Who’s on first?
Irons…
My mom has two hatch covers from the Edmund Fitzgerald. Heavy heavy heavy!
That may have been what sank the Fitz. Those hatch covers were supposed to keep the ship from taking on water. 🙂
because ONE is just not enough
euphemistically?
pops left me an oak marlin spike from the constitution. (the dakota was drydock).
Shame on my mom. I can’t believe she would do such a thing! 😂
highest number of unregulated (rr signs only) crossings in the country.
met billy carter at a yard bbq.
tony hulman classic every spring at the action track.
“met billy carter at a yard bbq.”
Didn’t he keel over from a heart attack in his early 50s?
dead at 51 in ’88.
chucker would park on the tracks and kill the motor with a freight (slowly) approaching. not too hairy with the (’70) caddy top down, more unsettling in the back seat of the straight six ‘stang. wild child, became very successful building motors for group44 (first british leyland, switched to quattros).
one time we caught air in the caddy jumping some tracks, every bottle cap in the case on the rear seat floor blew off. back to the shit n git, drive through shopping.
shit-n- git! 🤣 haven’t heard that in forever! thanks for the laugh!
“who had ran away”
This passes for grammar from a news organization?
Journalists no longer consider their craft to be an art form. Regurgitating the party line is what pays them. Damn shame.
Right? He runned away! In his pants I bet.
Bled the scene
it’s all the same to a program.
1 less suspect to waste tax payers money on prosecuting.. good riddance another p.o.s. of the streets.
he DSAF:
Did
Society
A
Favor
give that homeowner a good citizenship award
and one year free of property tax payments
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0YuSXEKgUmI
RIP Dean Taylor
I guess Indiana didnt want him?
ROBBERIES BY APPOINTMENT ONLY
Closed Sundays
i can’t go back there.
As long as police/prosecution rules it was self defense, it is against indiana law to file lawsuit against a person who uses a gun in self defense. That is why I tell my friends and family that those local elections are more likely to have a direct impact on your life vs federal elections.
Well the resident “TROLLs” on this site are now crying cause they lost another one of their “HEROES” and “ALLIES”!!!!
The opening comment fails to indicate if the intruder was armed or was a direct and immediate threat.
Well Albeet LJ Hall, just to make you happy. –
No the guy breaking into the house was Not an immediate threat nor did he have mischievous deeds on his mind. He just broke into the home to drop off the cookies he had baked.
The home owner just up and shot him for no reason whatsoever, because that’s what us Americans do.
I’m blaming England for Americas violence, had not the British lost the war America would be a nice place.
possum:
“I’m blaming England for Americas violence, had not the British lost the war America would be a nice place.”
ILMAO when I read that! You win the Internet for today.
Nobody can be as stupid as you claim to be, albert, and remember to breath without a reminder.
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