angelwngs
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Aug 23, 2004
- Messages
- 5,038
- Reaction score
- 482
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,294113,00.html
WORTHINGTON, Ohio It has come to be known as the Spooky House Incident: A group of teenagers in this quaint older suburb who tried to scare themselves on a "ghost hunt" and a recluse who responded with gunfire, leaving two lives wrecked.
A pretty blonde high school cheerleader, Rachel Barezinsky, is crippled for life. Allen S. Davis, roused from an eccentric but otherwise unoffending existence, was sentenced last month to 19 years in prison for what he describes as defending his home.
A year after the shots were fired, the bizarre case has left residents around Columbus torn. While plenty of people felt Davis got what he deserved for overreacting to teenager antics, many others saw the girls as picking on Davis and facing no legal consequences for trespassing.
~snip~(Much more information at link above)
The Davis family's history with police includes an account from the 1980s of them living with the body of Allen Davis' grandmother for two days for fear the woman might wake up and be scared. The older woman had been declared mentally and physically incompetent, and neighbors occasionally heard her screaming.
Police Lt. Doug Francis said there is no record of the Davises being repeatedly harassed, but he acknowledged that the family stopped calling his department 27 years ago after losing faith in police services.
Davis' mother had once reported that a space alien sexually molested her after entering the house through the duct work, he said.
The strange tales emanating from the Davis home prompted many observers to surmise that Davis was mentally ill.
Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Julie Lynch said Davis opted against using an insanity defense and passed two mental competency examinations.
"I think those high school kids shouldn't have been on his property," Lynch said. "But in this country, life is valued over property, and if someone is fleeing your property or on your property but not threatening you, you're not allowed to just shoot them."
WORTHINGTON, Ohio It has come to be known as the Spooky House Incident: A group of teenagers in this quaint older suburb who tried to scare themselves on a "ghost hunt" and a recluse who responded with gunfire, leaving two lives wrecked.
A pretty blonde high school cheerleader, Rachel Barezinsky, is crippled for life. Allen S. Davis, roused from an eccentric but otherwise unoffending existence, was sentenced last month to 19 years in prison for what he describes as defending his home.
A year after the shots were fired, the bizarre case has left residents around Columbus torn. While plenty of people felt Davis got what he deserved for overreacting to teenager antics, many others saw the girls as picking on Davis and facing no legal consequences for trespassing.
~snip~(Much more information at link above)
The Davis family's history with police includes an account from the 1980s of them living with the body of Allen Davis' grandmother for two days for fear the woman might wake up and be scared. The older woman had been declared mentally and physically incompetent, and neighbors occasionally heard her screaming.
Police Lt. Doug Francis said there is no record of the Davises being repeatedly harassed, but he acknowledged that the family stopped calling his department 27 years ago after losing faith in police services.
Davis' mother had once reported that a space alien sexually molested her after entering the house through the duct work, he said.
The strange tales emanating from the Davis home prompted many observers to surmise that Davis was mentally ill.
Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Julie Lynch said Davis opted against using an insanity defense and passed two mental competency examinations.
"I think those high school kids shouldn't have been on his property," Lynch said. "But in this country, life is valued over property, and if someone is fleeing your property or on your property but not threatening you, you're not allowed to just shoot them."