Mr. Trevor Bone was charged with three very serious felony offenses: Agg. Domestic Battery, Agg. Unlawful Discharge of a Weapon, and Reckless Discharge of a Weapon. The most serious would make mandatory prison time if convicted. He pushed forward towards his jury trial. We told the State that he would not accept a guilty plea to any charge, even a misdemeanor charge. We selected a jury and began presenting evidence after the State finished theirs. Their evidence was very weak and they actually had two witnesses plead the 5th on the stand. They granted the younger son immunity and he backed up his father's version of what happened. The second witness was my client's wife and she was not granted immunity so she didn't testify. Mr. Bone's position was that his mentally disturbed son in an aggressive rage threatened to kill him. Mr. Bone is about 150 lbs and his son is 6'3" and 360 pounds. It seemed common sense that a person who is that much larger than the client could easily cause him serious bodily harm. I advised Mr. Bone to present a self-defense theory (justification) that would instruct the jury that force can be used, even if deadly, should the defendant reasonably believe that his safety was at issue. The jury agreed and came back with my quickest jury trial verdict - 25 minutes.
