What Is "selfdefense" in our country?

M y son, friday evening january 10,2006 came home from work to find, again Jake in his home. Jeff was tired and wanted to lay down and rest. Jake told him it was his birthday. So jeff asked him if he wanted to go to an oyster bar down the street from his house, and he would treat him to dinner, hoping afterwards he could take him home and go back to his house and relax.

During dinner, Jeff received a call from a female friend, asking him if he wanted to go her company party at a club in a town about an hour away. Jeff said yes, and explained to her, he was with Jake. She had met jake once or twice, and wasn't thrilled about him joining. jeff explained it was jakes birthday, so she agreed.

Soon after dinner, Erika and her d.d. arrived. Jeff and Jake got in the car and headed towards the companies party destination. After arriving Jeff, Erika and Crystal went to the area where the company party members were at. Jake went to the bar area.

Jeff and Erika danced, shot pool, and had a few drinks. After an hour or two, they [Jeff, Erika and crystal], wanted to leave. they were hungry. Jeff went to the bathroom and the girls looked for jake, he was outside the club with the bouncers. They had thrown him out for throwing ashtrays at the bartender and slapping women on the butt. Erika seen a look on Jakes face that scared the hell out of her.

Jeff came out, and they left. Jake soon fell asleep. They stopped at a fast food drive thru and they could'nt wake jake, so they ordered and left. They arrived at jeff's home approximately 1 a.m. Jeff and erika got out of Crystals car. They asked Jake if he wanted Crystal to take him home. He said he could walk home. He lived only one block from Jeff's home.

Crystal left, and Jake headed towards his home. Jeff and Erika went into Jeffs home. Erika sat on Jeffs bed, jeffs roommates were asleep. Jeff went into his master bathroom and took his belt and shirt off. He had the door to the bathroom closed and was brushing his teeth. While Erika was sitting on Jeffs bed, jake came storming into Jeffs bedroom. telling Erika that he was sorry, he had to wrestle with Jeff. Erika being tired, left and went to the living room and fell asleep on the couch.

Jeff, not knowing Jake was in in his bedroom, came out and seen Erika gone, and Jake satnding in his room. Jeff asked Jake to leave. jake said "no" I want to wrestle. Jeff replied he was tired and wanted to go to bed. Jeff had a bad knee, and had just had a new tatoo on the back of his neck. Jake slammed Jeff against his dresser, nocking his dresser over! Jeff said quietly, trying not to distrurb his rommates, "why are you doing this Jake"? Jake then pushed Jeff to the floor. Jake put his forearm over Jeffs throat and was choking him. Jeff pushed Jake off and got up on his feet and pushed jake out of his bedroom.

Jeff told jake to leave and go home, but Jake came barging into jeffs room again, and pushing Jeff to the floor again. Jake started choking Jeff again with his arm over jeffs throat. Jeff couldn't breathe. He looked up and saw his pistol on his computer desk, and the last thing he remembered was reaching for it. He balcked out from being choked.

All of a sudden Jeff and Jake were struggling with the gun and Jeff pushed Jake with all he had, and the gun went off! Jake fell back, and Jeff got up and seen Jake was bleeding. He started screaming, Erika awoke and went to Jeffs roommates doors and screamed, Jake has been shot. PLEASE HELP!

Erika called 911 @1:22:17 a.m. on 02/11/2006. Since she called from her cell phone she was rerouted to the the Matthews 911 dispatch @1:22:48. Erika was doing CPR when the first detective arrived @1:22:53. Sgt. B. price arrived @ )1:30 a.m. Jeff was on his back porch, which was his where everyone entered his home. He [Jeff] held his hands up and said " I shot him, he's inside, please help"! The detective went inside, seeing Erika and Jeffs roommate doing cpr, and ordered them out! He didn't continue cpr, and made Erika hang up on the 911 dispatch. He then saw Jeff's roommates, and ordered them out of the home.

Jeff was put in handcuffs and placed into a police car, and sat in there untill the warrent to search his home came @ 5:53 a.m. That was approximatley 4 1/2 hours later. Jeff tried repeatedly to explain to the officers and detectives what had happened. They refused to listen.

Jeff's bond hearing was kinda of comical. the Judge came out and, seriously, sat in his chair and put his feet on his desk, and said lets get this over, this seems to be self defense, and this young man needs to go home! He gave jeff a $15,000.00 bond. All we had to do to get Jeff Home was to find a bondsman and pay the 10%, $150.00! Awsome! Little did we know the worst was yet to come.

Jeff's trial came with a 2 week notice. In N.C. we had a hard time finding gasoline for our vehicles, and the prices were extremely high! Almost $5.00 a gallon. And very hard to find.

The trial was set for Sept. 22, 2008. We all felt possitive that the jury would find Jeff not guilty. Little did we know the D.A. had a very different plan. They put the coroner on the stand first. They had him on the stand for the whole day! The D.A. showed pictures of Jakes body with bags on his hands and asked the coroner, what did these pictures show? He said they showed that lavidity was set into jakes body. They then asked, when were these pictures taken. The coroner said "he didn't know".

The D.A. then called the detectives to the the stand. The detectives, didn't know also when the pictures were taken. We were screwed! The D.A. convinced the jury that Jeff and his roommates waited several hours to call 911, so they could come together with a plan.

Jeff was offered many plea bargains by the D.A., but refused all of them. He said he would rather serve time for fighting for his defense than take a plea bargain and give up to the D.A. He knew he was innocent of "first degree murder". He told me [I'm his mother] many times he "wished he would have let jake choke him to death". As a mother, how would you respond to that?

The trial was over, we waited, and waited. We were called back to the court house. We entered the court room. The judge asked the jury "have you come to a verdict"? They said "no". The Judge, then said "I know you have families, so would you like to decide through the weekend, or do you think you can come to a decision tonight"? One of the jurors said she could'nt return or stay. So they decided they would make a decision soon.

We were called back within an hour. We entered the courtroom, and the jurors said they came to a decision. They entered a verict of voluntary manslaughter! The judge gave my son a sentence of 8.5-9.5 years! Where has our judicial system gone? What would have happened had my son just given up, and let Jake choke him to death? Would Jake have been given a harsher punishment, or been ste free!

I am 48 yrs. old and, and now have 2 grandchildren who cannot understand why their daddy is in prison! Our counrty is screwed up.

Anything anyone can do to help me, will be greatly appreciated!

Thank you,

helplessmominnc