Burglar's family awarded $300,000 in wrongful death suit

An El Paso County jury on Friday awarded nearly $300,000 to the daughter of a burglar who was fatally shot in 2009 while breaking into an auto lot.

Parents of the victim, Robert Johnson Fox, embraced their attorneys after a judge announced the jury’s verdict, capping a two-week-long civil trial in which business owner Jovan Milanovic and two relatives were painted as vigilantes who plotted a deadly ambush rather than let authorities deal with a string of recent burglaries.

Read more: http://www.gazette.com/articles/jury-12 ... z1WQOp8qjs

Now there is a miscarriage of justice. Where is the rope to hang a thief caught in the act of steeling? Authorities obviously were not getting the job done if there was a string of burglaries. Our society is really sick when crooks or their relatives get rewarded at the expense of an honest people.

There is more to the story and the jury heard it all and made their decision.

They fired through the door of a shed where the burglar was crouched down, hiding, killing him and hid the rifled used from police. They also shot at the second guy as he was running away, narrowly missing hitting him in the back.

I'm all for protecting your property but the punishment for burglary is not a death sentence. They could have easily held the guy at gunpoint and called the cops.

I'd have a very hard time siding with the so-called "victim."

The little tweakhead thieves got what they deserved. And although they should not have hidden the rifle (and that's probably what lost the case for them), the business owners did not. The jury followed the law, but law is a bad law in this case - specifically that Make My Day does not extend to protection of one's business.

I looked up H&K .45 rifle --- and would wager a guess that the jury considered the weapon style.

I'd point out that this case was decided as a civil case - not a criminal case.

The DA declined to file charges, and the grand jury voted NOT to indict.
(similar to the OJ wrongful death trial)

The collective voice of 2 juries (grand jury, and civil case jury) says the action - while not illegal - was unethical .

Most humorous line in the article:

Rector, of Colorado Springs, had represented Fox on traffic matters, and said his death came as a blow

Yeah - he lost a major source of revenue......

As posted elsewhere ( <!-- l --><a class="postlink-local" href=" 285bound.com/Forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=13849 " onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">viewtopic.php?f=6&t=13849<!-- l --> ), we have a legal system, not a justice system.

Anyone who breaks into another person's property should understand that getting out alive is not guaranteed.

At lease some of the award was for future earnings, right? How much could a career inmate possibly earn? Do these men get an offset from the state for saving it the future cost of incarcerating this low life thief to apply against the jury award? If not, they should. 20 years old and already supporting his drug habit by stealing from others. I would think his potential future earnings would have been $0 since a fair amount of the rest of his life would likely have been spent behind bars. I would also think that the award for loss of companionship would have been close to $0 for the same reason. How much companionship can one provide when they are locked up?

CriticalBill wrote: Anyone who breaks into another person's property should understand that getting out alive is not guaranteed.

Even if it's an outside shed and the property owner's life is not in immediate danger. :thumbsup: