Georgia pushing the limit with egging murder charges

[Jimmy Higgins]

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We've all been there. A lover's quarrel leading to a few people arming themselves with fragile embryo filled ovaloids, going to a home to make it messy. People are confronted by someone at the house... and then one of the vandals pulls a gun and murders them. In America, this is really just a stepping stone to maturity these days. Who hasn't experienced this?

What is different, however, is that the State of Georgia apparently wants to bring up all three people on "malice murder" charges. And in doing so, they are in the need of exaggerating their initial crime that is being used to umbrella two other people with murder. Note, I am unaware that there was any coordination between the vandals regarding shooting the person.

In addition to malice murder — the most serious murder charge in Georgia — the three teens are also charged with battery and criminal trespassing. Maughon — who is accused of shooting Gilbert — and Munson have also been charged with murder, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime.

This is the crucial part of the article, the battery and criminal trespassing. They were committing an act of vandalism (and yes, that is a crime), however, if one person goes out of their mind Boogie Nights style during a house egging, should the other two (if they were not complicit with a "Plan B" alternative) be legally responsible for the killing?

Clearly, the person who pulled the trigger is guilty of murder. The other two, that needs a good deal of evidence.

Trying to pin a life sentence on two accomplices to a house egging, when one of the others goes nuts doesn't seem remotely justified without demonstrating they were accomplices to murder, not merely there to egg a house.

 

[Gospel]

Let me look up the race of the individuals involved before I share my opinion.

 

[southernhybrid]

Let me look up the race of the individuals involved before I share my opinion.

All three are white. I saw their photos in the AJC. Can you believe it?

 

[ZiprHead]

This sort of thing goes back aways. The getaway driver who isn't even present at the murder done during a robbery gets charged along with the murderer.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

This sort of thing goes back aways. The getaway driver who isn't even present at the murder done during a robbery gets charged along with the murderer.

But that involves an actual felony, and generally an egregious one. These people were egging a house. Yes, vandalism, but I don't think it is considered a felony anywhere.

 

[Derec]

But that involves an actual felony, and generally an egregious one. These people were egging a house. Yes, vandalism, but I don't think it is considered a felony anywhere.

Which is why the prosecutors will have to prove some sort of collusion beyond just vandalism.

 

[Derec]

Let me look up the race of the individuals involved before I share my opinion.

All three are white. I saw their photos in the AJC. Can you believe it?

I guess Gospel will not support their asses now ....

Btw, this happened in Spalding County. Isn't that your neck of the woods?

 

[Gospel]

I guess Gospel will not support their asses now ....

The was indicative that I hold the opposite disposition to the comment it succeeded . I have expressed support for individuals on numerous occasions & not all of them have been black.

Anyhow, I don't believe they should all go down for murder if it is found that one of them decided on their own to take things too far.

 

[Derec]

The was indicative that I hold the opposite disposition to the comment it succeeded .

Just teasing ya. I guess I should have included or something ...

Anyhow, I don't believe they should all go down for murder if it is found that one of them decided on their own to take things too far.

Right. This is different than people who agree to participate in an inherently dangerous felony like e.g. armed robbery.

 

[Gospel]

Right. This is different than people who agree to participate in an inherently dangerous felony like e.g. armed robbery.

Agreed, This situation is also distinctly separate from voluntarily donning a police officer's badge, only to become complicit in the violation of human rights that leads to a loss of life.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

But that involves an actual felony, and generally an egregious one. These people were egging a house. Yes, vandalism, but I don't think it is considered a felony anywhere.

Which is why the prosecutors will have to prove some sort of collusion beyond just vandalism.

Actually, I believe that is why they are charging the other two with battery and criminal trespass, to justify the malice murder charge. Based on the statements from them, they are trying to wrap the act of egging the house and murder all together.

 

[southernhybrid]

I don't have enough details to have an opinion, but I do know that it's not uncommon to charge more than one suspect with murder if several were in it together when the murder was committed.

I read the AJC article again. It said the person who's home they were targeting, came out of the house, unarmed to tell them to leave. They went to their car, took out a gun and killed the unarmed man. They left him in the road dead and there was enough evidence from witnesses, that the three suspects were involved.

I forgot about the WaPo article, which is a bit different from the AJC. The AJC said their were witnesses to the crime. Perhaps the charges will be lowered or the suspects will be permitted to plea bargain. Or maybe they are malicious murderers who enjoyed killing the person. I don't think we really know.

 

[Elixir]

"Your honor, we call for the death penalty for all three defendants! The victims of this crime were struck by tiny lead eggs thrown in their direction - no different from the eggs the other were throwing, really."

 

[Gospel]

I don't have enough details to have an opinion, but I do know that it's not uncommon to charge more than one suspect with murder if several were in it together when the murder was committed.

Initiating a felony murder charge in connection to a crime typically classified as a misdemeanor is indeed atypical. It's debatable if the law's explicit provisions even encompass misdemeanors. In such a scenario, the state might need to employ a more strategic maneuver, possibly levying a different charge, such as obstruction of justice. This could be due to the act of fleeing the scene and failing to report the crime within an acceptable timeframe, a delay which, tragically, resulted in the victim's death.

 

[southernhybrid]

I don't have enough details to have an opinion, but I do know that it's not uncommon to charge more than one suspect with murder if several were in it together when the murder was committed.

Initiating a felony murder charge in connection to a crime typically classified as a misdemeanor is indeed atypical. It's debatable if the law's explicit provisions even encompass misdemeanors. In such a scenario, the state might need to employ a more strategic maneuver, possibly levying a different charge, such as obstruction of justice. This could be due to the act of fleeing the scene and failing to report the crime within an acceptable timeframe, a delay which, tragically, resulted in the victim's death.

You could be correct, but I don't know enough about the laws regarding crimes like this one. I also don't have any idea what the witnesses told the police. I just don't think we know what really happened, regardless of why they originally went to the person's house. I seriously doubt they will get either the death penalty or a life without parole sentence, but at least in the past, Spalding County could be pretty harsh when it came to prison sentences.

I hope there will be more information in the Atlanta paper soon, so we have some idea of what really happened that night. I don't like making judgments without knowing more information. Either way, it's very sad for both the victim, his family and these foolish teens who should have stayed home that night. If I see anything new in the AJC, I'll add it.

 

[southernhybrid]

I found out a little bit more. Two of the teens were denied bail and the female was the shooter. They also killed the young man while they were inside the car and preparing to get away, leaving his body in the road.

Here's a yahoo link:

https://news.yahoo.com/3-georgia-teens-charged-murder-123146208.html

I read somewhere else, that the house that the victim was in, wasn't his residency. It sounds to me, as if there is a lot more to this story than 3 fun loving innocent kids just wanting to egg someone's house due to a "lover's quarrel. You don't shoot and kill an unarmed person from inside your car multiple times and then drive away, unless you wanted to kill the person. I have a feeling that perhaps the egging was used as a way to get the victim to come out of the house. It very well could be that the murder was planned prior to going to the house.

But, as I said in earlier posts, we don't have enough details to understand why the three were charged with malice murder.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

This sort of thing goes back aways. The getaway driver who isn't even present at the murder done during a robbery gets charged along with the murderer.

But that involves an actual felony, and generally an egregious one. These people were egging a house. Yes, vandalism, but I don't think it is considered a felony anywhere.

I've read some other discussion on this--Georgia has a ridiculously low threshold for felony in this case, the line very well might have been crossed.

A bigger issue to me is that they had run--the egging was over. The dead guy attacked them--this very well might actually be self defense.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

I read somewhere else, that the house that the victim was in, wasn't his residency. It sounds to me, as if there is a lot more to this story than 3 fun loving innocent kids just wanting to egg someone's house due to a "lover's quarrel. You don't shoot and kill an unarmed person from inside your car multiple times and then drive away, unless you wanted to kill the person. I have a feeling that perhaps the egging was used as a way to get the victim to come out of the house. It very well could be that the murder was planned prior to going to the house.

Ok, if it was a ruse that makes much more sense. The charges utterly do not make sense if it was just an egging.

 

[Bronzeage]

The first story is rarely the true story and never the whole story. If this goes to pattern, the teen not driving the car will turn witness, which explains the preliminary harshness of the charges. A murder charge is a lot of motivation.

One curious detail, the Atlanta paper said the victim was also known by an alias.

 

[southernhybrid]

The first story is rarely the true story and never the whole story. If this goes to pattern, the teen not driving the car will turn witness, which explains the preliminary harshness of the charges. A murder charge is a lot of motivation.

One curious detail, the Atlanta paper said the victim was also known by an alias.

I don't know about the alias part, but I was thinking the same thing as you. Only one got bail, and that one might end up being a witness against the other two.

It's very sad that mindless gun killings keep happening in our country and know a lot of teenagers are either the murderers or the victims.