Looks a lot like an execution to me......
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/ne...EE53778BC4F074F6862571080019EEC6?OpenDocument
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/ne...EE53778BC4F074F6862571080019EEC6?OpenDocument
Lawyers debate whether shooting was self-defense or second-degree murder
By William C. Lhotka
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
02/01/2006
CHESTERFIELD
It was self-defense, a lawyer told a jury Tuesday, when his client shot and killed a stronger, younger house boarder in Chesterfield last year. But the prosecutor called it second-degree murder.
The central issue shaped up to be whether Charles Collins, 73, had legitimate cause to fear for his life after the man he wounded, Joseph Maiorana, 63, fell to the initial three shots. It was the next two, fired as Maiorana lay on the kitchen floor of Collins' house in the 1500 block of Dresden Lake Court, that killed him, officials said.
The killing happened as the two quarreled over a $300 security deposit, according to evidence in the trial in St. Louis County Circuit Court.
Just before Collins fired, about 4:20 p.m. April 29, Maiorana had pistol-whipped him and said he was going to kill him, defense counsel Steve Sokolik said. But prosecutor Alan Key suggested the threat from Maiorana had passed before Collins walked up to him and fired two shots that lodged in the man's brain.
Prosecutors amended the initial charge of first-degree murder to second-degree, which carries a penalty of 10 years to life in prison, and armed criminal action, which has a minimum of three years and a maximum of life.
The jury watched tapes of Collins' statement to Chesterfield police Detective Rich Murphy and of a re-enactment.
On them, Collins said that Maiorana, who lived in the house for a month, announced April 27 that he was moving, demanded his $300 and threatened to harm Collins if the money wasn't ready.
Collins had a .25-caliber pistol in his pocket and a .22 hidden in the living room when they met two days later, Collins said. He said Maiorana again threatened him, but that Collins insisted on inspecting Maiorana's room before returning the deposit.
Collins said Maiorana came at him and the .25 went off twice as they struggled. He said Maiorana, wounded, took the gun away and put it to Collins' head but it didn't go off. Sokolik, the defense attorney, said experts will testify that the weapon had jammed.
Collins said he retrieved his .22, as Maiorana fiddled with the .25, and fired it.
"He went down," Collins says on the tape. "He was squirming. I shot him again."
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