Local news reports further to our earlier report on the arrest.
A judge Thursday found 20-year-old Cody Delacruz guilty of a felony charge of Involuntary Manslaughter during what's termed a stipulated bench trial in Knox County Circuit Court. A stipulated bench trial essentially means that both sides agree that evidence presented by the state would be the same as presented at a trial, then a judge renders a verdict.
Delacruz was arrested March 14th, when police were called to a home in the four-hundred block of Olive Street. Prosecutors say Delacruz had been drinking and previously smoked marijuana when he showed a rifle he owns to friends. The gun was loaded and it went off, hitting 18-year-old Isaiah Stevenson in the chest. Stevenson, died at a hospital a short time later.
I don't think education is that answer to this problem. That's what some of our pro-gun friends say. My opinion is that guys like young Cody are too stupid and reckless to respond to the education about firearms safety that they've already received.
Most of these guys come from homes in which their fathers and uncles and older brothers used guns. They've been instructed all their lives about the basic common sense ways to avoid accidents, yet, here they are in the news day in and day out.
The answer is a strict one-strike-you're-out policy. Dangerous guys like this have to be disarmed early on, in as many cases as possible, BEFORE they kill someone.
What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.
This guy is a criminal. He will now be a prohibited person. Sadly, he likely will get some chickenshit sentence and be free to circulate in public soon. The origin of his failures isn't clear, but the reality of life is that some people simply won't be good.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds to me like this guy grew up in an environment of alcohol and drug use instead of around guns. Education is everything, and if your taught to use drugs and alcohol to the point of abuse, this is what you get.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, it sounds like our criminal justice system worked properly in this case.
ReplyDeleteSecond of all, education is extremely important. And if all of the friends had gun handling and safety education, any or all of them would have jumped on Mr. Delacruz' ass when he started pulling out a rifle and handling it without (a) keeping the muzzle pointed in a safe direction and (b) clearing the action to show everyone that there was no ammunition in the rifle. You never show a firearm to friends without first showing everyone that the action is clear (the firearm is unloaded) -- all the while keeping the muzzle pointed in a safe direction.
I recently got on my dad's case when he had his finger on the trigger of a handgun when he wasn't ready to shoot at a safe target. He was a little angry at me at first (not sure why). In spite of his anger, I did not apologize and simply re-iterated what he was doing wrong. A short time later he apologized for being angry at me and admitted his mistake. That was education in action. He knew better and made a mistake. I knew better and promptly pointed it out. No one was harmed (except for my dad's pride) and now he doesn't make that mistake any more.
And before you scream and yell, "See, I told you that armed citizens are dangerous!", please tell me how you plan to ban driving because drivers are dangerous -- they cause horrific accidents every day when a driver takes their eyes of the road to change a radio station or drives too fast for road conditions.
- TruthBeTold
Many gun owners cannot be educated. You don't think the ones doing all this negligent shit have had no education ever, do you? We're talking tens of thousands of negligent incidents each year - 600 dead, thousands wounded, and countless numbers of fuck-ups in which no one's the wiser.
DeleteWho among them has had zero education, training or instruction?
I personally know Cody and he is not the monster that everybody is making him out to be.He didn't grow up in an alcohol or drug environment..that was his own doing.He made bad decisions and that has cost him n his mother a lot of pain.This was far the worst and he will have to live with the guilt of killing his own friend.My husband and I don't judge him because we know who he truly is.It breaks our hearts to write him a letter because thats all we can do for him.It was an accident plain and simple.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry for you sadness, but if you'd read a bit of my blog, you'll see that I don't believe there's any such thing as "an accident plain and simple." There's negligence. That's what causes problems with guns especially when people drink and get high when handling them.
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