A Texas man, Ezekiel Gilbert, has been acquitted of murder after shooting and killing a 23 year old escort he found on craigslist because she would not have sex with him even after paying her $150 fee.
Gilbert was acquitted under a Texas law that allows you to use deadly force to protect your property during a nighttime theft. In this case, the property was either the $150 or the use-rights to the body of 23 year old Lenora Ivie Frago. Frago said she couldn’t give back the money because she had to give it to the driver who was waiting for her.
Gilbert’s lawyers conceded that he shot Frago but insisted he was not actually trying to kill her. Frago was initialized paralyzed due to a gunshot wound to the neck and later died due to her injury.
I’ve been trying to find the exact statute under which he was acquitted. Not just the concept but the actual statute so I could read the whole thing. At first I thought it was Texas’s ‘Castle Doctrine’ law passed in 2007. But that law doesn’t appear to contain the language in question. If anyone knows can you email me?
Late Update: It appears to be this part of the Texas penal code. The relevant clauses being these circumstances, under which you can use deadly force: “(A) to prevent the other’s imminent commission of arson, burglary, robbery, aggravated robbery, theft during the nighttime, or criminal mischief during the nighttime; or (B) to prevent the other who is fleeing immediately after committing burglary, robbery, aggravated robbery, or theft during the nighttime from escaping with the property …”
Here’s a more readable version of the section in question.
