Florida
Appeal court sides with self-defense claim
MIAMI (AP) — A Miami-Dade appeals court has agreed with a man’s claim of immunity under Florida’s “stand your ground” law in the 2008 shooting deaths of two men outside a restaurant.
In a decision Thursday, the court ordered that murder charges against Gabriel Mobley be dismissed. Third District Court of Appeals Judge Linda Ann Wells wrote in the 2-1 opinion that Mobley acted reasonably because the slain men were the aggressors even though they were unarmed.
“The shooting at issue did not occur in a vacuum,” Wells wrote. “Mobley did not shoot two innocent bystanders who just happened upon him on a sidewalk.”
The shootings happened after an argument in which one of Mobley’s friends was punched. Mobley, who had a concealed weapons permit, testified that he thought one man had a weapon and that he was frightened.
Miami-Dade prosecutors tell The Miami Herald that they will appeal the decision..
Prosecutors charged Mobley months after reviewing surveillance footage that captured the altercation.
Mobley’s defense attorneys hailed the ruling, saying Jason Jesus Gonzalez and Rolando Carrazana were the aggressors.
“Anyone who says that Mr. Mobley had other options or time to make a long, thought-out decision before using force, has never been in that unthinkable situation — where the possibility of never again seeing your family hinges on your split-second reaction to two violent attackers,” said attorney Eduardo Pereira.
The “stand your ground” law came under intense scrutiny in the 2012 shooting death of teenager Trayvon Martin. A jury acquitted George Zimmerman in that case.
Mobley’s case is the first time a Miami-Dade appeals court has overruled a lower court judge and extended immunity.
Last year, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Thomas Rebull refused to dismiss the murder charges, saying that Mobley’s testimony was not credible and that his use of deadly force was “neither reasonable nor necessary.” In a dissent Thursday, appeals court judge Vance E. Salter defended Rebull’s decision.
New Jersey
State opts not to defend tough gun law in suit
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Gov. Chris Christie’s administration is having a county prosecutor’s office rather than the state attorney general defend the state’s anti-handgun laws in a case before the state Supreme Court.
A spokesman for the Republican governor, along with the Monmouth County prosecutor’s office and attorney general’s office all say it is not unusual for a prosecutor’s office to defend a law in court.
But Bryan Miller, executive director of the anti-gun violence group Heeding God’s Call, tells The Record the decision to hand off the case shows Christie, a possible 2016 presidential candidate, does not want to call attention to the state’s restrictive gun controls.
“It’s against all constitutional principle for chief executives to pick and choose which laws they like and which laws they don’t like,” he said. “With this particular lack of public safety action, he’s made clear that he’s much more interested in making the right wing of the Republican Party and the Tea Party happy than he is in protecting public safety.”
Christie spokesman Michael Drewniak says the governor supports the state’s gun restrictions.
Christie signed some new gun control measures last year but not one that would have banned .50-caliber rifles. He had said he supported a ban on the high-caliber rifles but said the version sent to him by lawmakers went too far.
The case being handed off was filed by Richard Pantano, the owner of a landscaping business, who is challenging a provision that people must have a “justifiable need” to get a permit for a handgun.
The state Supreme Court has accepted the case but has not set a date for oral arguments.
Iowa
Company claims arbitrator didn’t hear, dozed off
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A company is trying to get out of paying an Iowa utility millions in a construction dispute by claiming that a retired judge who oversaw the arbitration proceedings had serious hearing problems and napped during the case.
Dustex Corp. asked a federal court in Iowa this week to vacate a $3.4 million arbitration award in favor of the municipal utility in Cedar Falls.
Kennesaw, Ga.-based Dustex argues that it didn’t receive a fair hearing due to the behavior of 76-year-old arbitrator Marshall Young, a retired state and federal judge in South Dakota.
Young chaired a three-member panel that heard a dispute over pollution-reducing equipment installed at a Cedar Falls power plant in 2007, which didn’t work as intended.
The panel ordered Dustex and two other companies to pay $3.4 million.
Missouri
Man pleads not guilty to 1984 Joplin homicide
JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) — A man who was a fugitive for almost 30 years until his arrest last year in California has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the 1984 death of a woman.
Paul A. Moses, 65, entered the plea in Jasper County Circuit Court Thursday via a video feed. He is charged with killing 62-year-old Frances Ramsey in a duplex near her home. Moses was captured Aug. 30 in San Diego, where he was found after he applied for Social Security benefits.
After his arrest, Jasper County prosecutors filed a new count of forcible rape against Moses, saying his DNA matched evidence obtained from the victim’s body. He pleaded not guilty to that charge during a separate hearing Monday in Jasper County, The Joplin Globe reported.
Ramsey’s body was discovered the morning of Aug. 11, 1984, in the unoccupied half of a duplex about 14 blocks from her home. She died of blunt-force trauma to the head, and investigators recovered a bloody object at the scene that they believe was used to kill her.
Moses was seen leaving a bar with Ramsey the night before her death but police were not able to find him for questioning. A woman who lived in the duplex reported a burglary at her home and an officer responding to that call found Ramsey’s body in the unoccupied unit, police said. It’s still unclear if the burglary was related to Ramsey’s death.
Joplin police said Moses used his real name and Social Security number when applying for benefits last summer, tripping an alert in an FBI database that he was wanted for unlawful flight to avoid arrest.
Joplin police Detective Larry Swinehart learned Moses had been frequenting a community outreach center for seniors in San Diego, which eventually led to his arrest.
