California Criminal Lawyer Blog

A 29-year-old man was shot and killed recently when he attempted to steal marijuana plants from the backyard of a North Sacramento house, The Sacramento Bee reports.

Detectives are investigating whether to file murder charges in Sacramento against the alleged shooter.

This case is eerily similar to a situation last fall in Fresno, where a 40-year-old man was killed when he tried to steal plants from a medical-marijuana garden. The 41-year-old shooter was tried, convicted and sentenced to 28 years in prison, The Fresno Bee reported at the time.

Most states have a "castle doctrine" or "stand your ground" law that allows homeowners or others who are threatened to use deadly force. But in cases where a theft is alleged, that defense may not be possible. Forms of self-defense may apply in murder cases, but only an experienced Sacramento criminal defense lawyer can sift through the facts and provide a strategy that will bring out the truth.

According to the newspaper, the 29-year-old was killed after two residents saw him attempting to steal plants from a home on Morey Avenue. When officers arrived, they found the man dead of a gunshot wound. Police said he also had blunt trauma injuries to his upper body.

The two residents were awakened by a noise in the backyard. One of the men confronted him after seeing the man trying to steal plants. Police say they are investigating the case as a homicide, and that the alleged thief was unarmed. Detectives are trying to determine whether the residents acted in self-defense or were in fear of their safety when they spotted the man in their backyard.

This will be a difficult case for police to handle because without witnesses other than the alleged shooters, they may not be able to tell if self-defense was a factor or not. Even if the man was unarmed, being awaken in the middle of the night by someone trying to steal from you can be frightening. And if the homeowner doesn't know whether the person is armed or not, how can police say they weren't in fear?

In the aforementioned Fresno case, the facts of the case did him in. While he claimed he was acting in self-defense, evidence showed the victim was fleeing the property after the man came out of his house with a shotgun. The victim in that case was killed while in a pickup truck.

While many in California have fought for years to make and keep marijuana use for legal, medical purposes a reality, there have been many issues. Among them, legal pot-plant growers who have been victimized by people trying to steal their plants to potentially sell the weed on the black market.

But those who attempted to defend their plants through the use of guns may not always be able to use self-defense in an attempt to avoid a murder or manslaughter conviction in California. It may be possible, but it depends on the facts. Consult with an experienced Sacramento criminal defense lawyer, a former prosecutor, who knows how the laws work in order to make them work for you.