DENVER – A Colorado prosecutor says he’s frustrated the state’s self-defense laws prevent him from charging a man who fatally shot an acquaintance in a drunken brawl.
Mesa County District Attorney Pete Hautzinger says he can’t charge Joseph Hoskins in the New Year’s Day shooting of Randy Cook inside Hoskins’ house. He says he’s hamstrung by the state’s “Make My Day” law, which protects homeowners from prosecution for using deadly force when someone illegally enters their home and there’s reason to believe that person will commit a crime.
I read this and I initially was mad but not surprised. I have been posting from time to time about Prosecutors that feel they are feel the laws should be tailored to what they feel is true justice. I searched more info on this case and came up with a more complete narrative:
After a night of drinking at a party in the western Colorado city of Grand Junction, Cook and another man went to fight Hoskins outside his house. The fight moved inside and to Hoskins’ bedroom, where the homeowner said Cook tried to snatch away his shotgun. Hoskins tackled Cook and shot him, according to Hoskins’ account of the night, which was relayed to investigators through an attorney.
Deadly Brawl Is Latest Test of Self-Defense Laws
So it is established that the “victim” went to the defendant’s property to fight, that the fight moved to inside the house and ended up in the bedroom. But the prosecutor feels that the defendant is at fault because….?
I see a dangerous trend beginning to bud all over the place. Under the excuse of “Bad Stand Your Ground is Bad” prosecutors and lawmakers want to eliminate not only SYG but the very basic Castle Doctrine to institute Duty To Retreat anywhere including in the sanctity of your home. Goes without saying that those elected officials who spouse this view have to be removed at the next election from office and people who really understand the letter of the law and the true exercise of justice must be elected to represent The People and make sure Justice is served, not to develop a track record for convictions.
Hey Pete Hautzinger, go back to California where you belong, you piece of trash!
First, they would have to understand justice, and I can assure you that the legal system has nothing to do with justice, in fact it has very little to do with law, and is based primarily on precedent.
One man’s opinion.
Dammit the box ate my first comment, so let me try and re do it.
This is local news to me, ok, and your articles are cherry picking quotes and leaving out details to make it look like Mr. Hautzinger is against the Castle Doctrine law, and believe me, he wouldn’t still be the DA after 3 terms if he were that kind of guy (we ARE NOT Denver over here, 300 miles west).
Mr. Hautzinger is not frustrated with the law, he’s frustrated with three grown men who acted like high school girls, which consequently got one of them killed, where the man who did the shooting moved out of state and is belligerent towards the investigators, where the shot man’s family is now raising up a big stink, and where the focus of the national media is trying to come in and change what the whole investigation was about.
I was confused when I read this post, thanks for providing a bit more context. Being from the eastern part of the state (no, not Denver), I wondering how a seemingly “left of center” DA got elected in the, what I had always assumed to be, traditionally conservative Western Slope.
How in the world would you know that the shooter is belligerent towards investigators? Are you an investigator??? It says it took him a long time to make his statement so it sounds like the guy wasn’t speaking to no one. Did he make any public statements? it seems as if all his correspondence were through his attorneys since I can’t find any public statements from him like i have with some of the others.
I’m just going off of the local news coverage, which said that he wasn’t cooperating with investigators, and indeed, moved out of the area. However, Hautzinger’s past performance has given me no reason to doubt or attack him, but I can’t say the same for the national media.
Doesn’t sound like ground was stood to me. It sounds like throughout the fight Hoskins retreated all the way to his bedroom.
The other part of this story that is being left out here is the video evidence that indicates that the shooter taunted the deceased before the fight moved into the house.
This has always been the concern of mine with SYG. Basically it gives a-holes the right to say or do just about anything they want and when they finally get a reaction…hey, I was just protecting myself, officer.
Let’s be honest. We all know those guys and it’s a real problem for the prosecution in a situation like the one in Colorado.
The counter argument to that and well established by many prosecutions & convictions before is that no matter how much taunting and name calling you can be subjected to, it does not give you the right to engage in physical force against the “taunter.” I think that is the reason why this prosecutor ignored that video. A judge would simply tell him that he cannot bake the cake, eat it and go get a slice of pie from the cupboard too.
I believe the story stated that the intruders entered twice, the second time is when Cook was shot. The video shows a homeowner that was pissed off (probably because a group of people broke in to his house attacking him and destroying his things) follows the intruders outside with a video tape and according to witnesses slipped on his front steps and fell on the ground where Cook then took a cowardly opportunity to attack him a 2nd time while he was down. Seems pretty cut and dry to me. The video is easy to misinterpret if you haven’t read the report but for gods sakes it sounds like Hoskins escapes to the room for a good 10 seconds, you hear a women scream as if she’s being attacked, u hear the door bust open, it sounds like Hoskins attempts to warn Cook verball, then a rustling and a shot followed by the female entering the room in hysterics saying she was slammed and punched by the guy. A real low life