A case of life or self-defense

Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Dec 21, 2005 by DENNIS HUSPENI THE GAZETTE

When Gary Lee Hill stood on the porch with a loaded rifle, he was afraid the people outside his home would attack him again, the jury in his murder trial was told.

That left them no choice, the jury foreman said in an e-mail defending last week's harshly criticized verdict, but to find Hill not guilty of murder under Colorado's Make My Day law.

"The fact that the group was not leaving and continued to engage Mr. Hill," the foreman wrote in an e-mail to The Gazette, "led us to determine that it was reasonable for Mr. Hill to believe that the group of assailants might use physical force against him."

Hill, 24, was found not guilty in a Colorado Springs courtroom Dec. 14 of first-degree murder in the shooting death of John David Knott, 19. Knott was shot in the back while sitting in a car outside Hill's home.

The foreman, who asked not to be identified because he feared for his family's safety, said the way the Make My Day law is written made a guilty verdict impossible.

"All four criteria for the use of deadly force against an intruder were met," he wrote.

Not everyone sees it that way: The legislator who helped write the Make My Day law called the jury's decision a miscarriage of justice, and in the days after the verdict there were calls to rewrite the law to require "imminent" danger before deadly force is justified.

Leaving the courthouse after the verdict last week, Knott's sister, Tina, who gave only her first name, said Hill "got away with murder."

"I hope those jurors all rot in hell," Knott's mother, Sally Knott, said Friday.

Others say the law worked exactly as it was supposed to. Hill's family believes he was the victim and should never have been put on trial.

The verdict brought down a firestorm of criticism. Colorado's Homeowners Protection Act, which allows people in their homes to defend themselves against an intruder with deadly force, was debated on national news programs.

"I'm shocked at the verdict on this case," wrote Russ Nickerson of Colorado Springs on an online Gazette forum. "What kind of message are we sending to the people of Colorado Springs?"

"Trust me," wrote Bill Major of Colorado Springs on the same forum, "this will open the door for assaults and murders by those who will now accept this as an interpretation of the Make My Day law."

Bernie Herpin, president of the Pikes Peak Firearms Coalition, said the jury "incorrectly" used the Homeowner's Protection Act. The Make My Day law "only applies if the intruder is in the dwelling," Herpin said.

He and others said they are worried the verdict will create a backlash against the law.

"They might try to weaken what is a good law," Herpin said. "It's difficult to justify, in my mind, shooting someone if they're leaving. You call the cops, get a gun and sit inside the house.

"If he had shot inside the house, he would not have even been on trial," Herpin said of Hill.

But the foreman warned that "the media and the public should remember that they do not have all the evidence. The jury did."

According to testimony during the two-week trial:

On Sept. 5, 2004, Hill got into a fight with Knott's girlfriend, Amanda Padilla, over a missing purse during a party at his house in the 500 block of Potter Circle. Padilla admitted punching Hill before he got a rifle and ordered Padilla and her friend Alessandra Ash out of the house.

The women returned with Knott and Ash's boyfriend, Anthony Padilla. The four went to Hill's basement room, where he was asleep, and Amanda Padilla admitting punching him again. She also admitted using brass knuckles, opening a gash in Hill's head.

Amanda Padilla, who received limited immunity in exchange for her testimony, faces a charge of second-degree assault with a deadly weapon. Anthony Padilla faces a conspiracy charge after he allegedly gave Amanda Padilla the brass knuckles.

When they left Hill's house, Hill got a rifle, loaded it and fired once from the porch at the car Knott was sitting in. Knott crashed the car into a house and died of a gunshot wound to the back.

The foreman said those facts fit the Make My Day defense.

"Although Mr. Knott was in his vehicle, there was no credible evidence that Mr. Knott was leaving," the foreman wrote, adding that testimony showed some of the people were still outside a car yelling at Hill.

In an interview after the verdict, the foreman said the law offers no clear "line" where an intruder must be before deadly force can be used.

A legislator who helped write the law, former state Sen. Jim Brandon, criticized the jury's decision, saying the law applies to people inside a home defending themselves against intruders.

"In our mind, the door is the threshold -- an illegal entry," Brandon said last week.

"With all due respect to Mr. Brandon," the foreman responded, "if that is what lawmakers intended then that is what they should have written into the law."

Chief Deputy District Attorney Elizabeth Kirkman said District Attorney John Newsome's office supports the Make My Day law and respects the jury's decision.