OH - Allen Davis for shooting that left girl paralyzed, Worthington, 2006

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."

I don't really think these girls were picking on this man--he clearly had some mental issues--you don't just shoot someone because they stepped on the side of your lawn and then are trying to drive away!
When I was a teenager, a group of us girls would go visit a woman known as "the witch". She was clearly schizophrenic, and I have to admit, initially the visits were out of curiosity and wanting to do something scary. She was actually very nice, but would tell us that evil spirits were plaguing the items in her home, and that the man on TV was talking to her. After a few visits, we actually felt a genuine attachment for the well-being of this lady. She was skin and bones because she thought all the food in her house was infected with evil spirits and she wouldn't eat. So the group of us teenagers rounded up all the money we could find and went to the supermarket so she could have food that she would eat. We probably should have called a social worker, but we were only 16-17 years old, so we tried to help in our own way. The visits ended abruptly when a trashy neighbor came outside and threatened to shoot us if he ever saw us back at her home again. We tried to tell him that she was starving and that we were trying to help her, but apparently he had had enough of teenagers loitering around her house.
Even if these girls were trespassing, being shot at & paralyzed is hardly a fair punishment. Like me and my friends, they probably just thought it would be fun/scary--just being teenagers.

kaybee said:

So the group of us teenagers rounded up all the money we could find and went to the supermarket so she could have food that she would eat. We probably should have called a social worker, but we were only 16-17 years old, so we tried to help in our own way.

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You guys did way, WAY more than the average adult twice your age would have done! Kudos to you for being a light in the darkness