mgs
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: Was some legal mumbo jumbo but is now "Most Bizarre Suicide"

To: peloquin@mamba.bio.uci.edu
Subject: Re: Was some legal mumbo jumbo but is now "Most Bizarre Suicide"
From: mgbob@juno.com (ROBERT G. HOWARD)
Date: Mon, 09 Feb 1998 20:02:08 EST
We thought it was the true story of an MGB that was saved from a certain
crushing, thanks to a well-placed window-washer safety net.
Bob

On Mon, 9 Feb 1998 11:17:14 -0800 (PST) "John J. Peloquin"
<peloquin@mamba.bio.uci.edu> writes:
>Dear Netters,
>
>The veracity of this story is, IMHO, open to question, as it is the 
>plot
>of a recent episode of my favorite television show, "Homicide" from a 
>few
>weeks back.
>
> Mon, 9 Feb 1998, doug russell wrote:
>
>=%O
>=%OTry this true lagal story on for size ... it's long but worth it.
>=%O
>=%ODr. Doug 
>=%O
>=%O<Old Stuff>
>=%OKnowing this is way off topic, I will consider myself flamed in 
>advance. 
>=%OWould appreciate the assistance of those with a more scientific 
>mind than
>=%Omy own:
>=%O
>=%OAm working on a project for school (an Evidence course).  Scenario: 
>
>=%O
>=%O<Major Snip of remaining old stuff>
>=%O
>=%O<New Stuff>
>=%O
>=%OAt the 1994 annual awards dinner given by the American Association 
>for
>=%OForensic Science, AAFS President Don Harper Mills astounded his 
>audience
>=%Oin San Diego with the legal complications of a bizarre death.  Here 
>is
>=%Othe story:
>=%O
>=%O"On 23 March 1994, the medical examiner viewed the body of Ronald 
>Opus
>=%Oand concluded that he died from a shotgun wound of the head.  The 
>decedent
>=%Ohad jumped from the top of a ten-story building intending to commit 
>suicide
>=%O(he left a note indicating his despondency).  As he fell past the 
>ninth
>=%Ofloor, his life was interrupted by a shotgun blast through a 
>window, which
>=%Okilled him instantly.  Neither the shooter nor the decedent was 
>aware that
>=%Oa safety net had been erected at the eighth floor level to protect 
>some
>=%Owindow washers and that Opus would not have been able to complete 
>his
>=%Osuicide anyway because of this.
>=%O
>=%O"Ordinarily," Dr. Mills continued, "a person who sets out to commit
>=%Osuicide ultimately succeeds, even though the mechanism might not be 
>what
>=%Ohe intended. That Opus was shot on the way to certain death nine 
>stories
>=%Obelow probably would not have changed his mode of death from 
>suicide to
>=%Ohomicide."  But the fact that his suicidal intent would not have 
>been
>=%Osuccessful caused the medical examiner to feel that he had a 
>homicide
>=%Oon his hands.
>=%O
>=%OThe room on the ninth floor whence the shotgun blast emanated was
>=%Ooccupied by an elderly man and his wife.  They were arguing and he 
>was
>=%Othreatening her with the shotgun.  He was so upset that, when he 
>pulled
>=%Othe trigger, he completely missed his wife and the pellets went 
>through
>=%Othe window striking Opus.
>=%O
>=%OWhen one intends to kill subject A but kills subject B in the 
>attempt,
>=%Oone is guilty of the murder of subject B.  When confronted with 
>this
>=%Ocharge, the old man and his wife were both adamant that neither 
>knew
>=%Othat the shotgun was loaded.  The old man said it was his 
>long-standing
>=%Ohabit to threaten his wife with the unloaded shotgun.  He had no
>=%Ointention to murder her. Therefore, the killing of Opus appeared to 
>be
>=%Oan accident.  That is, the gun had been accidentally loaded.
>=%O
>=%OThe continuing investigation turned up a witness who saw the old
>=%Ocouple's son loading the shotgun approximately six weeks prior to 
>the
>=%Ofatal incident.  It transpired that the old lady had cut off her 
>son's
>=%Ofinancial support and the son, knowing the propensity of his father 
>to
>=%Ouse the shotgun threateningly, loaded the gun with the expectation 
>that
>=%Ohis father would shoot his mother.  The case now becomes one of 
>murder
>=%Oon the part of the son for the death of Ronald Opus.
>=%O
>=%OThere was an exquisite twist.  Further investigation revealed that 
>the
>=%Oson [Ronald Opus] had become increasingly despondent over the 
>failure of his
>=%Oattempt to engineer his mother's murder.  This led him to jump off 
>the
>=%Oten-story building on March 23, only to be killed by a shotgun 
>blast through
>=%Oa ninth-story window.
>=%O
>=%OThe medical examiner closed the case as a suicide.
>=%O
>
>"Never ascribe to Malice that which can be explained by Ignorance"
>
>John J. Peloquin
>Molecular Biology &
>  Biochemistry
>3205 BioSciences II
>UC IRVINE
>Irvine, CA 92697-3900
>jpeloqui@uci.edu
>
>

_____________________________________________________________________
You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail.
Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com
Or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]


<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>