Local news reports
Jurors have found the parents of a toddler killed by her young brother not guilty of criminally negligent homicide.
The verdict comes after a two-day trial for Thomas Wallace, 25, and his wife, Samantha Wallace, in the 2010 death of 2-year-old Camron Wallace.
The pair could have faced one to six years if convicted.
Within hours of her death Chattanooga police Det. James Tate interviewed Samantha Wallace. She described the scene and seemed shocked at what happened.
The older children each had .22 caliber rifles, she said. She and Thomas had explained to all three children that they should not touch a gun unless mommy or daddy was around.
Defense attorneys Dan Ripper and Steve Brown explained to jurors during opening statements that just days before Camron's death, a group of men came knocking on the couple's front door at 2 a.m., and there had been reports of home invasions.
Tinsley Place is considered a low-income, high-crime area, Tate testified.
After the incident, Thomas Wallace had taken the .45 caliber revolver from its storage place high in a closet and put it in his nightstand, wrapped in a towel.
Photographs the jury saw showed the fully loaded handgun, still holding the empty shell casing, that had fired the bullet that struck Camron in the chest.
"The only reason we're here today is because the state wants you to hold these parents criminally responsible for the death of their child," Brown told the jury in opening statements.
Guilty with a suspended prison sentance and strict probation would have been the right call. Often jurors feel so sorry for the irresponsible gun owners who lose children and they let that cloud their judgment.
What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.
Mike,
ReplyDeleteI know that's your opinion and that's how you would have voted, but this jury saw this situation differently, for whatever reason, and that's their prerogative under our system.
Frankly, I prefer putting decisions in the hands of a jury of peers rather than in the hands of a wealthy and powerful judge. We may not like such decisions in many cases (you especially in cases where a gun is involved), but it beats a system where the poor get crapped on because a strict "law and order" type refuses to hear their pleas either of innocence or for clemency depending on the case.