FL: Gun wielding man man found not guilty of assault in domestic dispute: "A jury this week found a 39-year-old man not guilty after he was charged with aggravated assault with a firearm stemming from a January domestic incident involving his son-in-law and daughter, according to his defense attorney Charlie Britt. Christopher M. Phillips was arrested Jan. 9 after a visit to see his 16-year-old pregnant daughter and 19-year-old son-in-law turned violent. The son-in-law told the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office that Phillips held a gun to his head. Phillips told a jury that his son-in-law was the aggressor and pulled a knife first, and that the son-in-law’s brother pulled a baseball bat and cracked Phillips over the head. In self-defense, Phillips said he pulled his gun. During the struggle, Phillips’ son-in-law managed to discharge the gun, shooting off a couple of Phillips’ fingers. Phillips won via Florida’s Stand Your Ground Law"


NM: Jury Finds gang-banger Rocky Dixon Not Guilty of Murder: "At 9 p.m. Oct. 15, after a three-and-a-half hour deliberation, a jury found the 22-year-old Española man not guilty of both the first-degree murder charge in the Aug. 22, 2009 shooting death of Ivan Garcia and a felony tampering with evidence charge for allegedly hiding a 9 mm handgun used in the killing. The jury was given instructions on guilty verdicts for lesser charges— second-degree murder, voluntary homicide and involuntary homicide. Their verdict meant Dixon walked on those charges as well. That ended a four-day trial that delved into Española’s gang culture. Prosecuting attorneys had to fight against witnesses who snitched to police and later recanted in trial. Other witnesses couldn’t place the location of the shooter. No witness testified to seeing Dixon hit Garcia. Dixon, who testified on the final day of the trial, had an alibi in which he said he was running from a skinny “Streeter” with a knife when he heard the shots that presumably killed Garcia."


PA: Robber and store owner both die: "Police have released a picture of a man wanted for a botched jewelry store robbery in Northeast Philadelphia that left his accomplice and the store owner dead. Deputy Commissioner William Blackburn on Friday identified the dead suspect as 22-year-old Kevin Turner. Police say Turner was fatally shot in a gun battle with the store owner, 67-year-old William Glatz, who also died. Police added that Turner was the one who fired the shot that killed Glatz, but they were still trying to deteremine who fired the shot that killed Turner: Glatz, another worker, or both."


CA: Self defense shooting gets light sentence: "The son of a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy was sentenced Friday to three years of probation in the shooting death of an acquaintance during a robbery in Muscoy more than three years ago. Johnathan Andrew McZeal, 28, stood in San Bernardino Superior Court next to his lawyer, Deputy Public Defender Erin Alexander, as Judge Duke Rouse sentenced him for the death of Juan Albert Reyes on June 25, 2007. Juan Albert Reyes was shot and killed in 2007 by McZeal while riding a bicycle through the intersection of Duffy and Blake streets in Muscoy, according to authorities. The two men were acquaintances. Alexander, McZeal's lawyer, has said Juan Reyes, an active gang member, was robbing her client when the shooting occurred. She said Friday that probation was a fair sentence for her client and she is pleased with the outcome. The defense says McZeal only shot Reyes after his own life was threatened. Reyes was reaching for a bulge in his waistband that turned out to be a woman's purse."