man chases down home invader in car, shoots kills

[RACER X]

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/loc...ry/905371.html

Legal experts say the decision of whether to charge a 76-year-old man who allegedly shot and killed a 15-year-old robbery suspect will hinge on many factors, primarily whether the man thought his life was in danger.

The issue is complicated by the fact that the shooting happened away from the house, after the robbers had left.

In 29 years as a criminal defense lawyer in Charlotte, George Laughrun said he's never seen a case with so many “twists and turns.”

The son of the alleged shooter said his father feared for his life. The mother of the dead teen said the man should have just called police.

Police still hadn't named the shooter as of Sunday night. But the son of C.L. McClure said his father chased down four teenagers who broke into his house Saturday afternoon and robbed him and his wife in the Newell community off East W.T. Harris Boulevard in northeast Charlotte.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police say the robbery victim shot and killed one of the teens, 15-year-old Marcus Antonio Steven Fluker. The son, Larry, confirmed it was his father who fired the shots.

The robbery victim was tied up as the teens ransacked the house, police said. At least one of the robbers had a gun, police said. A police report said the teenagers took jewelry, a black wallet, cash, a .38 revolver and a gold Masonic ring.

The teenagers ran from the house on Grier Road, police said. The man freed himself, had his wife call 911, and drove after them, police said.

When he caught up with them on Ginger Lane, about two-tenths of a mile from the house, police say he shot and killed Fluker.

His mother, Felicia Fluker, said Sunday her son was not a bad kid........LOL

“Marcus is not that type of person,” she said. “He just got caught up that day with the wrong crowd.”

On Sunday a group of family and friends gathered to remember Marcus, a freshman at Independence High School.

“I hate what happened,” his mother said. The man “could've just called police.”

Charlotte criminal attorney Bob Trobich said District Attorney Peter Gilchrist has the discretion to file a wide range of charges – from no charges to homicide.

“The devil is in the details,” Trobich said.

For C.L. McClure, there's the issue that his home was invaded, and he and his wife were robbed.

“You've got the old adage, ‘A man's home is his castle,'” said Laughrun, a former prosecutor. “But you've got a cooling-off period in this case. Even if they were threatened, or felt threatened, you still can't walk down the street like in the Old West and take care of justice yourself.”

There are the ages of the dead teenager and the alleged assailant. The jury could be sympathetic to either.

“This man would probably be 78 before he went to trial. Is that someone 12 citizens of Mecklenburg County would want to send to prison?” Laughrun said.

Yet the robbery was over when the teenager was shot.

“A jury would have to decide, ‘Did he deserve to be shot for that?' And did someone have the right to be judge, jury and executioner?” Laughrun said.

There are also issues of whether the evidence will show the robbery victim shot in self-defense, and whether he reasonably feared he was going to be shot or harmed.

“From a prosecutor's standpoint, you got to ask, ‘If you were so afraid of this guy, why were you going after him?'” Laughrun said.

“It's going to be a tough call for a prosecutor to make.”

Tony Scheer, a Charlotte criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor, says the case will hinge on whether the man thought he was in imminent danger.

“Bottom line, if the evidence supports his belief that the young man was wheeling on him, he likely won't be charged,” said Scheer, who prosecuted homicide and violent crime cases for Gilchrist in the mid-1990s.

Larry McClure told the Observer on Saturday that his father told him he thought one of the robbers had a gun when he caught up with them, and he fired when the suspect turned towards him. Larry McClure could not be reached for comment Sunday.

The three other teens were arrested and charged with second-degree burglary, robbery with a dangerous weapon and conspiracy to commit robbery.

Police have identified them as Joseph Graves, 17, Matthew Everett Morgan, 17, and Tahjaue Wiley, 18. Morgan has been convicted of having a weapon on school property and is awaiting trial on an unrelated charge of armed robbery.

Fluker's mother said her son had not been arrested or jailed before. The Observer could not check criminal records for him because he was a minor.