Murder or Suicide - U Choose

“When I was in Paralegal school, my Criminal Law teacher (a Bronx Assistant District Attorney) gave us this story to analyze and discuss. it is one of the most bizarre things I ever have read. Well, here goes:

A true story from Associated Press, by Kurt Westervelt.

At the 1994 annual awards dinner given for Forensic Science, a past president, Dr. Don Harper Mills astounded his audience with the legal complications of a bizarre death.
Here is the story:
On March 23, 1994, the medical examiner viewed the body of Ronald Opus and concluded that he died from a shotgun wound to the head.
The decedent had jumped from the top of a ten story building intending to commit suicide. He left a note to that effect indicating his despondency.
As he fell past the ninth floor, his life was interrupted by a shotgun blast passing through a window, which killed him instantly. Neither the shooter nor the decedent was aware that a safety net hadbeen installed just below at the eighth floor level to protect some building workers and that Ronald Opus would not have been able to complete his suicide the way he had planned.
Ordinarily, Dr. Mills continued, "a person who sets out to commit suicide and ultimately succeeds, even though the mechanism might not be what he intended" is still defined as committing suicide. That Mr.Opus was shot on the way to certain death nine stories below at street level, but that his suicide attempt probably would not have been successful because of the safety net, caused the medical examiner to feel that he had a homicide on his hands.
The room on the ninth floor from where the shotgun blast emanated from was occupied by an elderly man and his wife. They were arguing vigorously, and he was threatening her with a shotgun. The man was so upset that when he pulled the trigger he completely missed his wife and the pellets went through the window striking Mr. Opus.
When one intends to kill subject A, but kills subject B in the attempt, one is guilty of the murder of subject B. When confronted with the murder charge, the old man and his wife were both adamant.
They both said they thought the shotgun was unloaded. The old man said it was his long standing habit to threaten his wife with the unloaded shotgun. He had no intention to murder her. Therefore, the killing of Mr. Opus appeared to be an accident, that is, the gun had been accidentally loaded.
The continuing investigation turned up a witness who saw the old couple's son loading the shotgun about six weeks prior to the fatal accident. It transpired that the old lady had cut off her son's financial support and the son, knowing the propensity of his father to
use the shotgun threateningly, loaded the gun with the expectation that his father would shoot his mother. The case now becomes one of murder on the part of the son for the death of Ronald Opus.
Now comes the exquisite twist.
Further investigation revealed that the son was in fact Ronald Opus.
He had become increasingly despondent over the failure of his attempt
to engineer his mother's murder. This led him to jump off the ten
story building on March 23rd, only to be killed by a shotgun blast
passing through the ninth story window. The son had actually murdered himself so the medical examiner closed the case as a suicide.

Very tidy of him.”

“Whether true or urban legend, that was an exquisite piece!”

“that was in the movie Magnolia!”

“This was in the movie Magnolia.”

“LOL! Lyra, you sly fox you...”

“yeah, stop copying me. ;-)

i actually forgot all about that, until i read this. and it's a true story, too...wow.”

“unfamiliar with the movie, Lyra - I mean Rosey. I looked up this guy Kurt Westervellt on Google (I too was wondering if this was urban legend) and found the exact story from the Associated Press.”

“Involuntary manslaughter. Dad gets 20 hours of community service and whatever the penalty is for firing the shotgun within the city limits.”

“What?”

“Either way, the teacher got us in a really cool discussion about this. I must say, I learned a lot that day. My compliments to the guy on his teaching tools.”

“oh, so it's NOT true then? oh.”

“Snopes.com says NOPE”

“Again . . . what?”

“Need a q-tip?”

“newgirl, you seem a little tired. drink 15 cups of coffee and get back to us.
;-)”

“lmao!”

“As a side note about this teacher, he also gave us a copy of the words to 'Winter Wonderland'. He told us to look them over and explain all the crimes we found loosely based on the lyrics in that song. There was arson, trespassing, conspiracy, identity theft and others that escape me.”

“Law and Order did an episode on this subject.”

“I looked up this guy Kurt Westervellt on Google (I too was wondering if this was urban legend) and found the exact story from the Associated Press.

Well... not exactly from the AP: Google search”

“I am tired Lyra. I need a nap.”

“That's where I cut and pasted it from, Violin. I have the copy the teach gave me, but it was easier to get it on line this way.”

“Have some whiskey, throw up and then take a nap. You'll be fresh and ready for your date with that MT gal tonight.


j/k”

“gee treebeard i bet you say that to all the girls...”

“My point was that they are all labled "a true story from the AP" but none are actually from the AP. The first one, for instance, is from www.grex.btinternet.co.uk.”

“I see. I really don't know what to make of this. Someone I once showed this to also said it was false. But, I was neveer able to corroborate it one way or another. I just found it very interesting.”

“The link I posted to the Snopes website includes the origination of this particular tale. Some guy admitted making it up at a forensics conference in 1987.”

“Definitely interesting treebeard.

There’s a reason urban legends go round the globe. I’ve been suckered by a few of them too.”

“If someone with multiple personalities kills himself, is it murder, suicide or both?”

“I don't know, and neither do I.”

“I'll guess it's a murder/suicide.

If he beats himself up, can he call the police on himself for domestic abuse?”

“It could be considered conspiracy”

“Hre s my interpretation (from Snopes, type 'ronald opus" into snopes' search engine).

It is TRUE that a presenter at a forensic conference told this story.


The STORY itself is NOT true.


The reporter from the AP, Westervelt, reports it as a story told by a presenter at the conference and assumes it is true.


From Snopes, it is my understanding the presenter made up the fact pattern to illustrate several different points about forensics.”

“Sounds like a fair assessment, Lee”