Latest / Legally Brunette / “The Perfect Neighbor”
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: Hi guys, welcome to a new episode of Legally Brunette.
- 0:04Speaker 1: I will be your host today Emily Simpson with my
- 0:08Speaker 1: sidekick Shane Shane. First of all, just a reminder if
- 0:12Speaker 1: you guys have been listening to us on the two
- 0:14Speaker 1: t's network, we have now moved over to our own feed,
- 0:17Speaker 1: So if you want to continue to enjoy all of
- 0:19Speaker 1: the Legally Brunette episodes, which will be weekly, please come
- 0:23Speaker 1: and find us and follow us and leave a review
- 0:26Speaker 1: and listen to us there. Anyway, last week we went
- 0:29Speaker 1: into the murdaw murders, which I a couple of people
- 0:32Speaker 1: dm me and said that you're supposed to pronounce it
- 0:34Speaker 1: murder doc.
- 0:35Speaker 2: I was about to tell you that, yeah, like with
- 0:37Speaker 2: a c K. I thought, well, I don't know. They
- 0:40Speaker 2: said c K like Murdoc but the murdering man.
- 0:44Speaker 1: Okay, So anyway, I think down in the South they
- 0:47Speaker 1: say Murdoc just like his name was Alex with an X,
- 0:50Speaker 1: but they pronounced.
- 0:51Speaker 2: It the past other worries.
- 0:54Speaker 1: Yeah that is, But anyway, I just wanted to do
- 0:57Speaker 1: just a little bit more info on them. So the
- 1:00Speaker 1: infamous hunting lodge where Alex Murdoch murdered his wife and
- 1:04Speaker 1: son is now up for sale. It was in a
- 1:06Speaker 1: Daily Mail article the South Carolina Mozella estate that previously
- 1:11Speaker 1: belonged to Alex Murdoch is struggling to sell despite stunning
- 1:16Speaker 1: new renovations. The home was last sold for one million
- 1:20Speaker 1: in February of twenty twenty four to a businessman named
- 1:23Speaker 1: Alex Blair of Rockville, who bought the forty eight acre
- 1:27Speaker 1: property at an auction. It's actually a seventeen hundred eight
- 1:31Speaker 1: property sold out, but yeah, they've obviously He's.
- 1:35Speaker 2: Like, you can have the part with all the blood
- 1:37Speaker 2: and brain splatter, Yes, and I'll keep th rest. That's
- 1:41Speaker 2: what he did.
- 1:42Speaker 1: He has now placed it back on the market, but
- 1:45Speaker 1: it appears not even a sweeping makeover is enough to
- 1:48Speaker 1: erase the mansion's past. The approximately fifty three hundred square
- 1:52Speaker 1: foot home has now been listed for fifty days at
- 1:55Speaker 1: two point two million, but no buyers have taken the bait.
- 1:59Speaker 1: I don't know which you want to live somewhere where
- 2:00Speaker 1: someone was murdered? No?
- 2:02Speaker 2: Never, No land like that should be flattened and reconstructed.
- 2:07Speaker 1: So you think a million dollar renovation like just you're
- 2:11Speaker 1: just covering up.
- 2:12Speaker 2: Yes me, I don't know what the market says. That's me.
- 2:15Speaker 2: Maybe people down there. Maybe there's a lot of homes
- 2:18Speaker 2: there where there's hunting accidents.
- 2:20Speaker 1: A lot of hunting accidents. I don't know. I mean
- 2:23Speaker 1: it is a little creepy. I don't know if I
- 2:24Speaker 1: could live some I don't think I could ever live.
- 2:26Speaker 2: You have to legally disclose if someone died. Oh yeah,
- 2:29Speaker 2: of course in California. I don't know.
- 2:30Speaker 1: Well this property, I mean clearly everyone everyone knows. I
- 2:35Speaker 1: mean there's people taking field trips there and taking pictures
- 2:38Speaker 1: of it.
- 2:39Speaker 2: So.
- 2:40Speaker 1: Photos shared by listing agency brown Land Plantation Advisors show
- 2:46Speaker 1: the recently expanded four bedroom, five bathroom plantation style of state.
- 2:50Speaker 1: Since it sits on a whopping forty eight acres, which
- 2:53Speaker 1: is significantly smaller than its original seventeen one hundred, there's
- 2:57Speaker 1: plenty of room for riding trails. The realtor this estate
- 3:01Speaker 1: is an exceptional blend of luxury, privacy and functionality, ideal
- 3:05Speaker 1: for those seeking a country lifestyle with peak aboo views,
- 3:10Speaker 1: I mean, with space to entertain.
- 3:16Speaker 2: Please come look at as featured on snap and in
- 3:21Speaker 2: the courtrooms.
- 3:22Speaker 1: Oh yes, so what see you were making me laugh?
- 3:26Speaker 1: Space entertain or simply enjoy the stunning low country landscape.
- 3:31Speaker 1: Despite the damning evidence against Murdoch, Alex Blair came forward
- 3:35Speaker 1: last year in an attempt to clear the socialite turn
- 3:38Speaker 1: murderer's name. He told realtor dot com and back in
- 3:41Speaker 1: October of twenty twenty four that he tore down the
- 3:43Speaker 1: kennel well. The kennel was gone, that's where the murders
- 3:46Speaker 1: took place, but still possesses the kennel door and window
- 3:50Speaker 1: that contained the bullet holes from the June twenty twenty
- 3:53Speaker 1: one shooting well, so he held on to evidence. He said,
- 3:57Speaker 1: the placement of the bullet holes in the door suggests
- 3:59Speaker 1: that Murdoch did not kill them. I don't know how
- 4:02Speaker 1: that suggests that he didn't kill them. Murdoch is a
- 4:06Speaker 1: big man, he was even bigger back then, and he's
- 4:08Speaker 1: too big for the bullets to have gone through and
- 4:10Speaker 1: the way they did. He explained. Maybe it was karma
- 4:12Speaker 1: for other things that he did, but I don't think
- 4:14Speaker 1: he killed them. He added that anyone would be hard
- 4:16Speaker 1: pressed to find a property in South Carolina's low Country
- 4:19Speaker 1: without a blemish. Oh well, this is what you were saying.
- 4:21Speaker 1: There's probably a lot of hunting accidents and the property
- 4:25Speaker 1: down there, and with.
- 4:26Speaker 2: Forty eight acres, if you just flatten it the home
- 4:29Speaker 2: and then you can build anywhere. I mean to, It's
- 4:31Speaker 2: not like it's one little lot where you have to
- 4:33Speaker 2: build it the same way, same entrance, same everything. This
- 4:37Speaker 2: is forty eight acres. You could build anywhere.
- 4:39Speaker 1: You're saying, make it look completely different.
- 4:40Speaker 2: Yeah, it would be. Yeah.
- 4:41Speaker 1: Yeah. There was also one more thing about Murdoch, and
- 4:44Speaker 1: I meant to mention this when we did it in
- 4:46Speaker 1: our previous episode. You know, we were talking about motive
- 4:48Speaker 1: and why he might have killed his wife and son,
- 4:51Speaker 1: and we went into a motive a little bit, and
- 4:53Speaker 1: I forgot to mention that, allegedly, I don't know if
- 4:57Speaker 1: it's true because I don't think anyone could confirm it,
- 4:59Speaker 1: but that there were rumblings that his wife had gone
- 5:02Speaker 1: to meet with a divorce attorney. Oh and so.
- 5:05Speaker 2: So that didn't help her situation with So.
- 5:07Speaker 1: That is another thing that could have been a motive,
- 5:10Speaker 1: because what it's always.
- 5:11Speaker 2: Well, then he would lose the money which is used
- 5:13Speaker 2: for his drug addiction.
- 5:14Speaker 1: Is it's normally cheaper to keep her. But I guess
- 5:17Speaker 1: in his mind it's cheaper to murder her.
- 5:20Speaker 2: I guess, so if you would like to leave me,
- 5:26Speaker 2: I will give you thirty days notice. Just go. That
- 5:28Speaker 2: is correct, Just go. Yes, no, you leave, I'm not leaving.
- 5:32Speaker 2: You leave.
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- 6:24Speaker 3: on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
- 6:27Speaker 3: your podcast.
- 6:36Speaker 1: All right, we're gonna move on to the Perfect Neighbor,
- 6:39Speaker 1: the Susan Lawrence. That's the woman that is. She called
- 6:43Speaker 1: herself the perfect neighbor. That's why they called it that.
- 6:46Speaker 2: She called herself the perfect neighbor.
- 6:48Speaker 1: Yes, she in one of the phone calls to the
- 6:51Speaker 1: police that they had recorded, and.
- 6:55Speaker 2: I thought it was this pure sarcasm from the no.
- 6:58Speaker 1: She literally said to the please, I'm the perfect neighbor.
- 7:01Speaker 1: Like I'm just this, you know kind.
- 7:05Speaker 2: She's a single. She was laughing stuck at the police
- 7:08Speaker 2: station that doesn't know thereby called all the time.
- 7:11Speaker 1: I know, all right, let's just go and go over
- 7:13Speaker 1: briefly this case. If you haven't watched it yet, it's
- 7:16Speaker 1: on Netflix. It's been out for like, I don't know,
- 7:18Speaker 1: just a week now, but everyone's talking about it. In
- 7:21Speaker 1: June of twenty twenty three, Susan Lorenz fatally shot her
- 7:25Speaker 1: neighbor A gk aj Owens and Okalla, Florida, after a
- 7:28Speaker 1: long running dispute that began over neighborhood children playing near
- 7:32Speaker 1: her home. Lorenz had repeatedly called nine one one and
- 7:36Speaker 1: filed complaints claiming the children were loud, trespassing, and threatening her.
- 7:41Speaker 1: On June second of twenty twenty three, A j Owens
- 7:44Speaker 1: went to Lawrence's locked front door to confront her. Lorenz
- 7:47Speaker 1: fired a gun through the door, striking Owens, who later
- 7:49Speaker 1: died at the hospital. Lorenz claimed self defense under Florida's
- 7:53Speaker 1: stand your ground law, saying she feared for her life.
- 7:56Speaker 1: This twenty twenty five Netflix documentary explores the events leading
- 8:00Speaker 1: up to the tragedy and its aftermath. Using body cam footage,
- 8:05Speaker 1: nine to one one recordings, security videos, and first hand interviews,
- 8:09Speaker 1: The film traces how a seemingly ordinary neighborhood feud escalated
- 8:13Speaker 1: into deadly violence. It examines the broader context of race
- 8:17Speaker 1: sphere in Florida's self defense laws, questioning how biases and
- 8:21Speaker 1: systematic issues contribute to such outcomes. The documentary also humanizes
- 8:26Speaker 1: aj Owens, a devoted mother of four, and highlights the
- 8:30Speaker 1: devastating impact her death had on her family and on
- 8:33Speaker 1: the community. And we're going to go into more detail,
- 8:36Speaker 1: but I will tell you when I watched it the most,
- 8:40Speaker 1: I think the hard Obviously, I watch true crime all
- 8:43Speaker 1: the time. I don't watch housewives, I don't watch reality TV.
- 8:46Speaker 1: I watch true crime and I've never I don't know
- 8:49Speaker 1: when you watch true crime, like you know the ending
- 8:51Speaker 1: isn't good right, well.
- 8:53Speaker 2: You typically know the ending always sometimes like nightline or
- 8:57Speaker 2: Dateline will be right. Kind of a mystery.
- 9:00Speaker 1: But the thing that was so compelling about this documentary
- 9:04Speaker 1: is that the entire story is told through real footage.
- 9:08Speaker 1: They they I don't know, and there's really nothing else
- 9:14Speaker 1: other than they put together all all of this to
- 9:18Speaker 1: tell a story. And so you're watching it and you
- 9:21Speaker 1: feel like you're in it. You feel like you live
- 9:23Speaker 1: in the neighborhood because you keep seeing the same.
- 9:25Speaker 2: Houses, the same on the same street, same kids.
- 9:28Speaker 1: Same street, the same the police officers keep coming. Like
- 9:31Speaker 1: you literally feel like you're immersed into this neighborhood and
- 9:34Speaker 1: into these families and into these children.
- 9:36Speaker 2: Which actually seemed like a pleasant neighborhood.
- 9:38Speaker 1: It actually did.
- 9:39Speaker 2: I was like always out playing. They were all neighbors,
- 9:41Speaker 2: they're all friendly, They're all playing games on each other's lawns,
- 9:44Speaker 2: running up and down the street, and.
- 9:46Speaker 1: I kept thinking about how our kids would love to
- 9:48Speaker 1: live in a neighborhood, like that they would have so
- 9:50Speaker 1: much fun. They'd be outside all the time and like
- 9:52Speaker 1: playing with all the other kids. All right, let's go
- 9:55Speaker 1: into I. You know, after I watched it, I wanted
- 9:57Speaker 1: to find out more about Susan Larenz because there was
- 9:59Speaker 1: a part, do you remember. There was a part when
- 10:01Speaker 1: the police came and she came to the door and
- 10:04Speaker 1: they were like, is your name Susan Lorenz or something
- 10:06Speaker 1: like that, and she was like yes, and then she
- 10:08Speaker 1: said it's doctor Susan Lawrence. And I'm like, a doctor.
- 10:11Speaker 1: This woman's a doctor.
- 10:12Speaker 2: Doctor crazy.
- 10:13Speaker 1: So I googled trying to find because I was like,
- 10:18Speaker 1: there's no way this woman is a doctor. There is
- 10:20Speaker 1: nothing about her being a doctor. I don't know why
- 10:23Speaker 1: she said that. I think it just lends to like
- 10:25Speaker 1: that's clear.
- 10:25Speaker 2: She said that.
- 10:26Speaker 1: She said it, Yeah, she said it. She said she
- 10:29Speaker 1: said like he like she was correct him. She was
- 10:32Speaker 1: correcting it, like she was offended that he didn't call
- 10:35Speaker 1: her doctor Susan Lorenz. But the only thing I could
- 10:38Speaker 1: find was that in her trial, people testified, you know,
- 10:42Speaker 1: and it just came up that she'd had different jobs.
- 10:45Speaker 1: And I think currently because she said she worked from home.
- 10:48Speaker 1: She was doing some kind of insurance work. I don't know.
- 10:50Speaker 1: I think she had a license, maybe an insurance license.
- 10:53Speaker 1: Maybe she was a claims adjuster or something something you
- 10:55Speaker 1: can do from home, right from a phone and a computer.
- 10:58Speaker 1: And then I guess previously she'd worked as a chef
- 11:02Speaker 1: for something and that was really it. So it's she's
- 11:07Speaker 1: not a doctor. So I don't know why she said that,
- 11:09Speaker 1: other than it just lends to her delusional state of mind.
- 11:14Speaker 2: So it's kind of self centered, kind of I think
- 11:17Speaker 2: she's all knowing or whatever, right, self righteous.
- 11:20Speaker 1: So this begins back in January of twenty twenty one,
- 11:23Speaker 1: Susan Lorenz, who was a fifty eight year old white woman,
- 11:26Speaker 1: made half a dozen calls to nine to one to
- 11:27Speaker 1: one complaining about the children in her neighborhood, sometimes concerning
- 11:32Speaker 1: aj Owens, four young children who are black. As Lorenz
- 11:36Speaker 1: got more irritated with the children, she'd place no trespassing
- 11:40Speaker 1: signs in an open field located near her rental apartment,
- 11:43Speaker 1: file police reports about them, and yell racial slurs at them.
- 11:48Speaker 1: Lorenz even allegedly waived guns at them, according to NBC News,
- 11:52Speaker 1: and this is also according to the kids. I know
- 11:54Speaker 1: in interviews they would say that witnesses reported, and Lorenz
- 11:57Speaker 1: also acknowledged that she assaulted the children with racial insults,
- 12:01Speaker 1: called Owen's children the N word. I can't even it's
- 12:04Speaker 1: even hard for me to even say that. I can't
- 12:06Speaker 1: imagine a I just it's so disturbing to me. One,
- 12:12Speaker 1: the woman clearly hates children.
- 12:14Speaker 2: Well, people in general, or people.
- 12:17Speaker 1: She's clearly racist. I mean, she's clearly a menace to society.
- 12:21Speaker 1: But my question is, I don't understand why this woman
- 12:24Speaker 1: moved into that neighborhood in the first place.
- 12:26Speaker 2: Probably no matter where she's lived most of her life,
- 12:29Speaker 2: this is how she is. Yeah, it's like she can't
- 12:31Speaker 2: get away from people, so she's just gonna complain no
- 12:34Speaker 2: matter what neighborhood she's in.
- 12:35Speaker 1: Right. So, on June second of twenty twenty three, an
- 12:39Speaker 1: argument breaks out after Lorenz allegedly throws a pair of
- 12:42Speaker 1: roller skates and swings an umbrella at two of Owen's
- 12:45Speaker 1: children who are playing in the field near her apartment. Okay,
- 12:48Speaker 1: let's just break down this field a little bit. Because
- 12:51Speaker 1: she rents her space, and her rental unit does not
- 12:55Speaker 1: have a yard attached to it.
- 12:57Speaker 2: Now it's all common kind of areas.
- 12:59Speaker 1: It's common area, but then this grassy area is not
- 13:04Speaker 1: attached to any of the apartment.
- 13:05Speaker 2: No, that's why if you look at the apartment, there's
- 13:07Speaker 2: like a little kind of closed off area to walk
- 13:11Speaker 2: to the patio in the front door. I figured that
- 13:13Speaker 2: was kind of a way of saying, this is belongs
- 13:15Speaker 2: to this house, so people wouldn't walk into that area.
- 13:18Speaker 2: But you're walking in the common grass and the quote
- 13:20Speaker 2: unquote front yard area. But then it has this kind
- 13:22Speaker 2: of bordered off, half closed area, which I figured was
- 13:27Speaker 2: the only way to distinguish that's her property, like stay
- 13:30Speaker 2: off that.
- 13:31Speaker 1: Lot, right, but this open area that's on the outside
- 13:35Speaker 1: of her first game is a common area game.
- 13:38Speaker 2: That's what I'm saying. Yeah, the way it was done
- 13:41Speaker 2: was there's all this open field grass area in front
- 13:44Speaker 2: of all these structures, and if you looked, each structure
- 13:47Speaker 2: had like we out of four walls. Yeah, so you
- 13:50Speaker 2: could walk through a little narrow strip to get into
- 13:53Speaker 2: the patio. And that's the way they designated like personal property.
- 13:57Speaker 1: Right exactly. But this open space area, the way I
- 13:59Speaker 1: understand it, the person that actually owns the open space area,
- 14:03Speaker 1: the landlord of whatever that land is gave the children
- 14:06Speaker 1: permission to play there, and so the problem is is
- 14:10Speaker 1: that she's mad that these kids are playing in this
- 14:12Speaker 1: open space area even though they've been given permission to
- 14:14Speaker 1: play there, and then she takes it upon herself to put.
- 14:20Speaker 2: And she would have complained.
- 14:21Speaker 1: That is true. Yes, I just find it interesting that
- 14:24Speaker 1: she takes it upon herself to put no trespassing signs
- 14:26Speaker 1: on an area that does not even belong to her,
- 14:30Speaker 1: that she doesn't have any ownership or or title to,
- 14:33Speaker 1: and she still is like putting trust no trespassing signs
- 14:36Speaker 1: out there. Let's go back to what we were talking about.
- 14:39Speaker 1: So the children are playing in the field near her apartment.
- 14:42Speaker 1: Allegedly she took some roller skates and threw some roller
- 14:45Speaker 1: skates and swings an umbrella, and I don't know, there's
- 14:49Speaker 1: all kinds of craziness going on. They also keep saying,
- 14:52Speaker 1: and this doesn't show up in some of the articles
- 14:54Speaker 1: I read. But there's also the issue of she allegedly
- 14:58Speaker 1: stole like a like an iPad tablet from one of
- 15:00Speaker 1: the kids.
- 15:01Speaker 2: I had a neighbor similar. He was crazy anything, you
- 15:05Speaker 2: couldn't do anything. We were hanging Christmas lights, and he
- 15:08Speaker 2: called the police to complain.
- 15:10Speaker 1: Wait, what neighborhood was this?
- 15:11Speaker 2: This is my parents' neighborhood. It's actually neighborhood we lived
- 15:14Speaker 2: right now. Yeah, this is in the nineties. Yeah, and
- 15:17Speaker 2: he did everything he could.
- 15:19Speaker 1: Wait, he called the police because you were hiding.
- 15:21Speaker 2: Parks on the curb side in front of his house.
- 15:25Speaker 2: And he called the police, and he called a tow truck.
- 15:28Speaker 2: And I was parked on open area like it was legal.
- 15:32Speaker 2: Wasn't public, but yeah, oh yeah yeah. So then I
- 15:36Speaker 2: got really upset. I never told you this, I don't know.
- 15:38Speaker 2: So I took my truck and I parked it on
- 15:40Speaker 2: his lawn. I said, okay, fine, I'll move it. And
- 15:43Speaker 2: I grabbed my truck and I drove it up onto
- 15:46Speaker 2: his lawn and my lights were shining into his front
- 15:50Speaker 2: windows and the look on his face was priceless. And
- 15:55Speaker 2: I parked it and I left. Yeah, and then he
- 15:57Speaker 2: called the tow truck. Yeah, and then I moved it, okay,
- 16:01Speaker 2: and he called for everything. So he's like a Susan
- 16:03Speaker 2: lawn everything. Yeah, my friend's left late at night. Then
- 16:06Speaker 2: they came back running in the house saying he's shooting
- 16:07Speaker 2: a bb gun at us.
- 16:08Speaker 1: He shot a BB gun a friend.
- 16:10Speaker 2: Yeah, and then I went out and he was shooting
- 16:11Speaker 2: a BB gun. So we called the police. This guy
- 16:14Speaker 2: was you couldn't when he moved, everyone celebrated. There was
- 16:17Speaker 2: a block party. Oh really, yes, he was terrible. So anyway,
- 16:20Speaker 2: the point is there are some people that no matter
- 16:22Speaker 2: what you do, yeah, everything, they will complain out.
- 16:25Speaker 1: When Owens heard what Lorenz had done, so this is
- 16:28Speaker 1: the mom she and her ten year old son walked
- 16:30Speaker 1: to Lorenz's apartment and knocked on the door. Lorenz did
- 16:33Speaker 1: not open the door, but argued with Owens through the door. Instead,
- 16:37Speaker 1: Lorenz called nine one one at eight fifty four pm
- 16:40Speaker 1: and claimed the neighborhood children were trespassing on her property
- 16:43Speaker 1: and threatening her. Minutes later, without waiting for police to arrive,
- 16:48Speaker 1: Lorenz aimed her thirty eight caliber handgun through her locked
- 16:52Speaker 1: and dead bolted door and shot Owen's in the chest.
- 16:55Speaker 1: According to law enforcement, Owens was unarmed and her son
- 16:58Speaker 1: stood right next to her as she collapsed onto the floor.
- 17:02Speaker 1: She later died at the hospital. See this is where
- 17:06Speaker 1: this is where I and you can there's the real
- 17:11Speaker 1: footage of it. You can see the sun. I think
- 17:14Speaker 1: he's liked ten. He's reacting and he's yelling call nine
- 17:17Speaker 1: one one, and his mom's on the ground. The door's
- 17:21Speaker 1: bolted and locked. It's also I believe a steel door.
- 17:25Speaker 2: Well, she's inside, she laid outside. The lady is not
- 17:30Speaker 2: trying to get inside. Knocking, is not trying to break
- 17:33Speaker 2: down a door. There's no history of violence, there's no history.
- 17:36Speaker 2: The only history is she calls the cops and they say,
- 17:38Speaker 2: we didn't do anything, and then that's it. Yeah.
- 17:40Speaker 1: The only hit the history right, and the little bit
- 17:42Speaker 1: of history they do show is just the one incident
- 17:45Speaker 1: where a j Owens the mother had.
- 17:48Speaker 2: Some words with her sign.
- 17:50Speaker 1: Well, she said she threw a sign at her, But
- 17:52Speaker 1: the way the neighbors described it that actually witnessed it
- 17:56Speaker 1: was she just she pulled the no trespassing sign out
- 17:59Speaker 1: of the.
- 18:00Speaker 2: And slammed it, tossed it behind her.
- 18:03Speaker 1: She didn't aim at it.
- 18:05Speaker 2: Was more of this trustedising sign does nothing and.
- 18:08Speaker 1: Like like flippantly just threw it behind her. And actually
- 18:12Speaker 1: I was actually very impressed with her. When the police
- 18:15Speaker 1: came and they interviewed her and they were speaking to her,
- 18:18Speaker 1: she was very calm and like de escalated, you know
- 18:23Speaker 1: what I mean, Like she wasn't she wasn't acting aggressive.
- 18:26Speaker 2: She wasn't she she she was like.
- 18:30Speaker 1: She was like, you know, yeah, I did. I threw
- 18:32Speaker 1: it down, but I didn't throw it at her. And
- 18:35Speaker 1: she was like I understand, and you know, I mean
- 18:37Speaker 1: you could tell that she didn't. She wasn't a violent,
- 18:41Speaker 1: aggressive person.
- 18:42Speaker 2: But it wasn't even the land because then I'm thinking, well,
- 18:44Speaker 2: then I would just tell my kids at that point,
- 18:46Speaker 2: you know what she's wrong, but just stay off her
- 18:49Speaker 2: grass that grass and play elsewhere, because it was there
- 18:53Speaker 2: was a lot of area. But it wasn't that it
- 18:55Speaker 2: was just noises or anything they were doing.
- 18:56Speaker 1: It was anything. She even would She even claimed one
- 18:59Speaker 1: of the calls, she claim that they were trying to
- 19:00Speaker 1: put a dog in the back of her truck. Did
- 19:02Speaker 1: you remember that?
- 19:03Speaker 2: And then the neighbors like, he can't even pick up
- 19:04Speaker 2: that dog.
- 19:06Speaker 1: I saw the dogs. It's like a poodle, but it's
- 19:09Speaker 1: one of those huge ones, like a standard poodle or whatever,
- 19:12Speaker 1: like those big dogs. And she claimed that one of
- 19:15Speaker 1: the kids was trying to pick it up and put
- 19:16Speaker 1: it in the back of her truck. I think she
- 19:18Speaker 1: just made I mean she just made things up. When
- 19:22Speaker 1: Susan Lorenz was first questioned by investigators, Lorenz said she
- 19:25Speaker 1: thought she was in mortal danger. She claimed she heard
- 19:28Speaker 1: a j Owens yelling that she was going to kill her,
- 19:32Speaker 1: even though Owens was unarmed. Based on these statements, Lorenz
- 19:35Speaker 1: was released without charges. Okay, let's go back to stand
- 19:41Speaker 1: your ground law. We have to do a little bit.
- 19:42Speaker 1: Let's get into this lall a little bit so we
- 19:45Speaker 1: can have a discussion of this. So Florida enacted in
- 19:49Speaker 1: two thousand and five a stand your ground law, which
- 19:53Speaker 1: comes from the common law castle doctrine, which is the
- 19:57Speaker 1: right to defend your home, your property without fear of prosecution, right.
- 20:03Speaker 2: Well without having to retreat, without having to run away.
- 20:06Speaker 2: My understanding is castle doctrine is it's your it has
- 20:09Speaker 2: to be your home, whether it's rented or own, doesn't matter,
- 20:12Speaker 2: if it's your residence. And then if you do not
- 20:16Speaker 2: have a duty to run away if someone comes in
- 20:19Speaker 2: your home, and if someone comes in your home, it's
- 20:22Speaker 2: presumed to be kind of a lethal threat, free to
- 20:25Speaker 2: use lethal force.
- 20:26Speaker 1: So Florida's stand your Ground law expands on this. So
- 20:30Speaker 1: the stand your Ground law allows a person to use
- 20:32Speaker 1: deadly force for self defense in any place where they
- 20:34Speaker 1: have a legal right to be. So that's the expansion
- 20:37Speaker 1: of the castle doctrine. It's not just your own personal
- 20:40Speaker 1: dwelling now, it's if you're anywhere.
- 20:42Speaker 2: We're I'm in my car, in my office at the
- 20:45Speaker 2: building or something.
- 20:47Speaker 1: And also it's eliminated the duty to retreat. Florida was
- 20:51Speaker 1: first in the nation to adopt the law in two
- 20:52Speaker 1: thousand and five. So some of the key provisions of
- 20:55Speaker 1: the law is a person is justified in using deadly
- 20:58Speaker 1: force if they reason to believe it is necessary to
- 21:02Speaker 1: prevent eminent death or great bodily harm to themselves or another,
- 21:06Speaker 1: or to prevent the eminent commission of a forcible felony.
- 21:11Speaker 1: And there's no duty to retreat. So Susan Lorenz is
- 21:14Speaker 1: enacting the standard ground law immediately as a defense. Now
- 21:19Speaker 1: here's where it fails.
- 21:21Speaker 2: It feels in lots of play.
- 21:22Speaker 1: It fails in lots of ways. It fails because one,
- 21:26Speaker 1: there is no your neighbor has to be allowed to
- 21:29Speaker 1: come over and knock on your door. I knocked on
- 21:32Speaker 1: the neighbor's door across the street. Remember what you used
- 21:34Speaker 1: to have issues with our neighbor across the street, and
- 21:36Speaker 1: we had to go over and knock on the door
- 21:39Speaker 1: because they were out of line and they were like
- 21:41Speaker 1: yelling things and they were But I would never in
- 21:44Speaker 1: a million years think that when I go over there
- 21:45Speaker 1: and knock on the door because I have an issue
- 21:47Speaker 1: with a neighbor, that they're going to shoot me through
- 21:49Speaker 1: the door. And this mother who was going over to
- 21:53Speaker 1: talk to this woman about the issues with the children
- 21:56Speaker 1: and whether she took this tablet and the roller skate
- 21:58Speaker 1: and all those things that went down, she has every
- 22:00Speaker 1: right to knock on the woman's door and say did
- 22:03Speaker 1: you throw a roller skate and hit my kid? And
- 22:06Speaker 1: did you take his tablet away from him? That's a normal.
- 22:09Speaker 2: Well, she's not trying to get inside. That's one problem.
- 22:13Speaker 2: You get to try to get inside that someone has
- 22:14Speaker 2: to be coming into your space, and Susan's not doing that.
- 22:18Speaker 1: She knocking the door, she banged aggressively on the door.
- 22:21Speaker 1: Even if she did bang aggressively, I don't know. You
- 22:25Speaker 1: can't really hear it. That's the part that's not on
- 22:29Speaker 1: really on camera, so you don't see or hear like what.
- 22:32Speaker 2: Actually that's still banging aggressively.
- 22:34Speaker 1: But even coming over and knocking on the door.
- 22:36Speaker 2: The only time I aggressively would make sense to assert
- 22:41Speaker 2: that stand your ground is it's some guy that's been
- 22:45Speaker 2: there multiple times and has beaten you in the past,
- 22:48Speaker 2: you know, like a boyfriend. So it's like, I have
- 22:50Speaker 2: every reason to believe he is trying to get inside
- 22:52Speaker 2: and beat me. This is like a neighbor. We just said, quick,
- 22:55Speaker 2: leave my kids alone. She's been saying that for however
- 22:58Speaker 2: long this has been going on. Right, they're allowed to play,
- 23:01Speaker 2: They're allowed to play. She never once was violent.
- 23:04Speaker 1: No, she never distributed any violence. We know that she
- 23:07Speaker 1: doesn't have a firearm or anything as far as I know,
- 23:10Speaker 1: not no reason to believe.
- 23:11Speaker 2: So.
- 23:12Speaker 1: Also, the door is steel, I believe it's not a
- 23:15Speaker 1: wooden door. It's also dead bolted. So the fact that
- 23:19Speaker 1: she felt the need to pick up a firearm and
- 23:22Speaker 1: shoot through the door, and you know the son standing
- 23:25Speaker 1: right there, oh was there? She was right next to
- 23:28Speaker 1: his mother.
- 23:29Speaker 2: Mom.
- 23:29Speaker 1: Yes, she could have ended up shooting him just as
- 23:33Speaker 1: easily as she shot the mother.
- 23:36Speaker 2: Yeah, both would be bad either.
- 23:39Speaker 1: So in the standard ground law, the law provides immunity
- 23:41Speaker 1: from criminal prosecution and civil lawsuits for individuals who use
- 23:45Speaker 1: force and justifiable self defense. This includes a pre trial
- 23:49Speaker 1: hearing where prosecutors must prove by clear and convincing evidence
- 23:53Speaker 1: that the defendant's use of force was not lawful. Now,
- 23:57Speaker 1: I know that the community was up in arms that
- 23:59Speaker 1: she was not arrested immediately. And I did watch a
- 24:04Speaker 1: video an interview with the I guess chief of police
- 24:08Speaker 1: I think I forget his name, the sheriff after this
- 24:12Speaker 1: documentary came out, and he said, and it made sense,
- 24:16Speaker 1: according to this new standard ground law, that the burden
- 24:20Speaker 1: has shifted. So the person who claims self defense, the
- 24:23Speaker 1: burden isn't on them to prove that they were in
- 24:28Speaker 1: fear the probably the burden is on the prosecution and
- 24:32Speaker 1: the investigators to prove that the Standiard ground law doesn't apply.
- 24:37Speaker 1: So that's why he said they had to make sure
- 24:40Speaker 1: before making an arrest of this woman that because the
- 24:43Speaker 1: burden is on them to prove that that wasn't justifiable,
- 24:46Speaker 1: they had to do their due diligence and they had
- 24:48Speaker 1: to do their investigating and they had to dot their
- 24:50Speaker 1: i's and cross their t's and make sure everything was
- 24:53Speaker 1: in check before they arrested her and so that's why.
- 24:58Speaker 2: I think I saw an interview with him not long
- 25:00Speaker 2: ago popped up and he was saying that we knew
- 25:05Speaker 2: from the beginning we wanted to arrest her. We knew
- 25:08Speaker 2: from the beginning there was no standyard ground defense, but
- 25:12Speaker 2: we had to do her homework to present it to
- 25:14Speaker 2: the prosecutor, you know, and all that. So he was like, no,
- 25:19Speaker 2: we knew we were meaning, we weren't doubting it. We
- 25:22Speaker 2: weren't skeptical, we weren't swaying one way or another. We knew.
- 25:26Speaker 2: We just had to do our homework exactly.
- 25:29Speaker 1: And you know, it's good that they did, because if
- 25:31Speaker 1: they would have arrested her immediately without doing their due diligence,
- 25:35Speaker 1: you never know, a good defense attorney could have gotten
- 25:38Speaker 1: her all technical a technicality or something. So I know
- 25:42Speaker 1: that the community was very no.
- 25:43Speaker 3: Yea.
- 25:43Speaker 2: I took it like, no, we wanted to take her down.
- 25:46Speaker 2: So we spent four days preparing right exactly.
- 25:51Speaker 1: Since Florida enacted the stand your ground law in two
- 25:53Speaker 1: thousand and five, there's been close to I think it's
- 25:56Speaker 1: thirty states to have passed similar standyard ground laws. Now,
- 26:02Speaker 1: these obviously come with controversies and impacts, So the law
- 26:06Speaker 1: has been the subject of ongoing debate and controversies since
- 26:09Speaker 1: its passage. There's been a lot of lobbying efforts. The
- 26:13Speaker 1: National Rifle Association heavily lobbied for the law, which has
- 26:16Speaker 1: since been adopted in various forms by many other states. However,
- 26:20Speaker 1: there has been an increase in homicide rates. Some studies
- 26:23Speaker 1: have linked to and your Ground laws to an increase
- 26:25Speaker 1: in homicides, particularly firearm related ones. And I did read
- 26:30Speaker 1: I read a couple examples, and this made sense to
- 26:32Speaker 1: me because it eliminated the duty to retreat. There wasn't
- 26:37Speaker 1: that element of having to de escalate. And there was
- 26:40Speaker 1: an example because.
- 26:41Speaker 2: It used to be like if it could de escalate
- 26:44Speaker 2: by you leaving, but now it's more.
- 26:47Speaker 1: Like you don't have to.
- 26:48Speaker 2: No, well, that's the whole point of duty, right, There
- 26:50Speaker 2: is no duty. You just have to take care of yourself.
- 26:53Speaker 2: So if someone's posing a threat to you, that's lethal.
- 26:57Speaker 1: Right. But I think the problem is and this is
- 26:59Speaker 1: where it's It looks good on paper or in you know,
- 27:02Speaker 1: in a statue, but then in practicality, I just I
- 27:06Speaker 1: read an example of like two people in a parking
- 27:08Speaker 1: lot who are both legally. There, they get in a
- 27:10Speaker 1: fight over some loud music, and they have the opportunity
- 27:15Speaker 1: to leave. You could if you're annoyed by the music,
- 27:18Speaker 1: you could just leave. There's a duty to but there's
- 27:21Speaker 1: no duty to retreat. So then they get in this
- 27:22Speaker 1: heated argument and someone pulls a gun.
- 27:24Speaker 2: Well, then it's someone then instigator. If you're an instigator
- 27:28Speaker 2: in the incident, then you can't claim stand your ground.
- 27:31Speaker 2: I can't go punch someone in the face, right and
- 27:34Speaker 2: initiate an argument and a physical altercation, and then they
- 27:39Speaker 2: come after me and then I kill them. And I said, oh,
- 27:42Speaker 2: I was standing my ground. It's like, well, you initiated
- 27:44Speaker 2: the altercation. That's that destroys or eliminates the standard ground defense, right,
- 27:52Speaker 2: and that applied in this perfect neighbor scenario, because it
- 27:57Speaker 2: was arguable, and I think they succeeded in saying she
- 27:59Speaker 2: was an instigator. She was constantly calling the police, she
- 28:02Speaker 2: was constantly yelling at the kids, so she was inviting
- 28:05Speaker 2: this behavior.
- 28:07Speaker 1: Well also, I believe I think I read in an
- 28:09Speaker 1: article that she had done research on stand your ground
- 28:13Speaker 1: prior to the Well, that's.
- 28:16Speaker 2: The part She's like, let me see what my options are.
- 28:20Speaker 1: When I was saying that in practicality on a piece
- 28:23Speaker 1: of paper, it sounds good, but when you actually put
- 28:28Speaker 1: it into practice, the problem is is that if people
- 28:31Speaker 1: are aware of the stand your ground law, then the
- 28:34Speaker 1: defense can always be I felt imminent fear. I'm just
- 28:38Speaker 1: saying she did research on the law. I think she
- 28:40Speaker 1: was looking it up. She terms to you, I was
- 28:42Speaker 1: fearful of my life. I thought she was going to
- 28:45Speaker 1: kill me.
- 28:46Speaker 2: I thought she was going to She was looking at
- 28:49Speaker 2: what her options were to commit a crime against this lady.
- 28:52Speaker 1: I mean, I mean, you could, at the end of
- 28:54Speaker 1: the day, you could even argue it was premeditated. She
- 28:57Speaker 1: had a gun close by, she stole the kid's tablet.
- 29:00Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean maybe she wanted it to
- 29:02Speaker 1: escalate to that point. I mean never, I would never
- 29:04Speaker 1: prosecute her as premeditated because you probably couldn't get a
- 29:07Speaker 1: jury to convict on premeditated. She was convicted on manslaughter.
- 29:12Speaker 1: But all right, So, four days after the shooting, deputies
- 29:16Speaker 1: conducted a second interview with Lorenz, during which she admitted
- 29:19Speaker 1: to researching sanyar ground and self defense laws in the
- 29:22Speaker 1: recent past. The Sheriff's office determined Lorenz's killing of a
- 29:25Speaker 1: j Owens was not justified under the law, and they
- 29:28Speaker 1: arrested her. Lorenz was charged with manslaughter with a firearm,
- 29:32Speaker 1: culpable negligence, battery, and two counts of assault. On July
- 29:36Speaker 1: tenth of twenty twenty three, Lorenz pleads not guilty to
- 29:39Speaker 1: all charges. She goes to trial, and then in August
- 29:43Speaker 1: sixteenth of twenty twenty four, a six person jury convicts
- 29:47Speaker 1: Susan Lorenz of manslaughter with a firearm after a week
- 29:51Speaker 1: long trial. Evidence includes her nine to one one calls,
- 29:54Speaker 1: witness accounts, and ballistics proving she fired through a closed,
- 29:58Speaker 1: locked door. I do also know during the trial. I mean,
- 30:03Speaker 1: there were character witnesses on her behalf, and there were
- 30:05Speaker 1: so many people that came forward and said they couldn't
- 30:07Speaker 1: see her being like that, and she was like heavily
- 30:09Speaker 1: involved in her church and very helpful.
- 30:12Speaker 2: But yeah, well there's hours of bodycam footage that show otherwise,
- 30:16Speaker 2: right exactly, And I'll go with that.
- 30:18Speaker 1: And you know what my other question was, And I
- 30:20Speaker 1: could not find this, and I don't know why I
- 30:22Speaker 1: couldn't find it. I wanted to know if she had
- 30:24Speaker 1: any children. My assumption would be no, or if she
- 30:28Speaker 1: was ever married, and I couldn't find anything. So I'm
- 30:33Speaker 1: just going to assume, based upon her actions and the
- 30:35Speaker 1: way she that she that she's very likable, that she's
- 30:39Speaker 1: never been married, and that she's never had any children.
- 30:42Speaker 2: Or on the other hand, she might have been married
- 30:43Speaker 2: like three or four times and they've all had a
- 30:45Speaker 2: mysterious death.
- 30:47Speaker 1: No, maybe all right. So then in November twenty fifth
- 30:50Speaker 1: of twenty twenty four, Lorenzo's sentenced to twenty five years
- 30:53Speaker 1: in prison. The judge deemed the shooting quote completely unnecessary
- 30:59Speaker 1: end quote, adding in this case, Miss Lorenz was behind
- 31:02Speaker 1: the door, the door was locked. She had already called
- 31:06Speaker 1: law enforcement. They were en route. She knew they were
- 31:09Speaker 1: en route. She was in a relatively safe position. For
- 31:12Speaker 1: some reason, she went into her room and found a gun.
- 31:15Speaker 1: She could have stayed in the room and put another
- 31:17Speaker 1: locked door between her and Miss Owens, but she came
- 31:20Speaker 1: back out, put herself in front of the door, and
- 31:23Speaker 1: at the time she fired the gun through the door,
- 31:25Speaker 1: she was safe. That was a good way, just to
- 31:27Speaker 1: break it down and make it very simple.
- 31:29Speaker 2: She could have also returned the tablet.
- 31:31Speaker 1: She could have answered the door and apologized.
- 31:34Speaker 2: Yeah, that would have been a most person.
- 31:38Speaker 1: Lorenz is serving her prison sentence at Homestead Correctional Institute
- 31:42Speaker 1: in South Florida, with a release date set for April
- 31:45Speaker 1: eighth of twenty forty eight. You know, there's one other thing.
- 31:48Speaker 2: Old.
- 31:48Speaker 1: Was she fifty eight fifty eight when I think when
- 31:52Speaker 1: the shooting occurred, So probably fifty nine to sixty by
- 31:55Speaker 1: the time there.
- 31:57Speaker 2: For how many years she going to be in there?
- 31:59Speaker 1: Well, we have to do math. Twenty forty eight, how
- 32:01Speaker 1: long is that from now? Twenty three years?
- 32:03Speaker 2: Yeah, but you said twenty five years, So I just
- 32:05Speaker 2: didn't know if there was like twenty five years but eligible.
- 32:08Speaker 1: For it, I mean, I guess she could still it.
- 32:09Speaker 1: She'd be like around eighty three or something. I don't
- 32:11Speaker 1: know if she'll be eligible.
- 32:12Speaker 2: Let's see her stay in her ground, in her cell, right,
- 32:15Speaker 2: Let's see how well that goes exactly. She's going to
- 32:18Speaker 2: complain about the noise and the jail.
- 32:20Speaker 1: You know, I'll tell you again when I was rude
- 32:23Speaker 1: awakening when I watched True crime. Obviously there's never a
- 32:26Speaker 1: happy ending in true crime, but this documentary really affected me,
- 32:31Speaker 1: like I sobbed.
- 32:32Speaker 2: I couldn't finish it once the police were called for
- 32:35Speaker 2: the murder, you know, and then they had to tell
- 32:38Speaker 2: the dad that, you know, the mother of his children died,
- 32:42Speaker 2: and he you know, almost fell down in tears. I mean,
- 32:45Speaker 2: I didn't I don't know. I just didn't feel there
- 32:47Speaker 2: was much for me to learn, and watching the rest
- 32:49Speaker 2: of that and it was kind of heartbreaking.
- 32:51Speaker 1: So it was really heartbreaking.
- 32:52Speaker 2: It was really emotional, and I was as mad at
- 32:55Speaker 2: the neighbor.
- 32:56Speaker 1: Yeah, so you just this is mad at her. Yeah,
- 32:59Speaker 1: I will. You should be, as anyone should be. But
- 33:02Speaker 1: the part that was just so heartbreaking was that this
- 33:04Speaker 1: documentary gives you I realized that I've never seen a real,
- 33:12Speaker 1: a real scenario where exactly unfolding in real time, where
- 33:20Speaker 1: she's shot, they're trying to revive her, they're doing everything
- 33:25Speaker 1: possible they can. Before the ambulance arrives. The children are there,
- 33:30Speaker 1: this Izzy is at the neighbor's house, and he's an
- 33:35Speaker 1: emotional mess. And I kept thinking about my boys because
- 33:39Speaker 1: he's like, he's like ten or eleven, he's like around
- 33:42Speaker 1: the same age as our boys. And then the dad
- 33:45Speaker 1: shows up quickly.
- 33:47Speaker 2: And then immediately comes to learn and then she didn't survive.
- 33:51Speaker 2: Now he has to deal with all this and try
- 33:54Speaker 2: to comfort the children, right, So then he.
- 33:56Speaker 1: Has to find all four of the children and he
- 33:58Speaker 1: pulls all four over to the side, and this dad
- 34:01Speaker 1: has to tell his for children.
- 34:03Speaker 2: In the show, that's all.
- 34:04Speaker 1: There, all of it. It's all on bodycam footage. And
- 34:08Speaker 1: he pulls all four children in and has to tell
- 34:11Speaker 1: them that their mother did not survive. And it was
- 34:14Speaker 1: the most heartbreaking.
- 34:18Speaker 2: I basically gave because of the scenario, not because of
- 34:21Speaker 2: the dad. There was no hope because if it's like
- 34:24Speaker 2: she's going to hospital or do everything we can, then
- 34:26Speaker 2: at least the kids can hold on to something. But
- 34:28Speaker 2: it was like, no, there's not even anything to hope
- 34:30Speaker 2: for now it's over.
- 34:31Speaker 1: No, it was just it was it was heartbreaking. It
- 34:33Speaker 1: was I was sobbing.
- 34:35Speaker 2: Well, now I think about it. Then they had to
- 34:37Speaker 2: live with the neighbors still for four days. I mean,
- 34:39Speaker 2: I'm sure they went to the dad's house and all lot,
- 34:41Speaker 2: but I mean, like that then knowing for however many
- 34:43Speaker 2: days that then all the neighbors know that she's still there.
- 34:46Speaker 2: Why isn't she arrested even though we know they were
- 34:48Speaker 2: doing their homework.
- 34:49Speaker 1: I don't think she went back to that apartment though.
- 34:50Speaker 1: I don't know where she went after the.
- 34:51Speaker 2: Sh Karen or the Karen.
- 34:53Speaker 1: Yeah, her name was Susan, but the kids called her
- 34:56Speaker 1: the Karen. Yeah. Anyway, I was just that was so
- 35:01Speaker 1: just raw and emotional for me to watch those children.
- 35:05Speaker 1: I realize I've never seen anything like that in real
- 35:07Speaker 1: time and not like a depiction or someoney acting. It
- 35:13Speaker 1: was like those children really learned that right then. So
- 35:24Speaker 1: what other national cases have used the Stanyard ground law. Well,
- 35:27Speaker 1: when we were doing a little research on this, we
- 35:29Speaker 1: realized that Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman. Do you remember
- 35:32Speaker 1: that case from back in twenty twelve.
- 35:34Speaker 2: Yeah, that was like an hoa security guarden, Yeah, security
- 35:37Speaker 2: guard or.
- 35:37Speaker 1: Something unlike Susan Lorenz. George Zimmerman was not charged for
- 35:41Speaker 1: the death of Trayvon Martin because investigators found that he
- 35:44Speaker 1: was within the bounds of the Stanyard Ground Law when
- 35:47Speaker 1: he shot Trayvon Martin in twenty twelve. So, in February
- 35:51Speaker 1: twenty twelve, Trayvon Martin was a seventeen year old black
- 35:54Speaker 1: teenager and he was visiting his father, Tracy Martin, in Stanford, Florida,
- 35:58Speaker 1: after receiving a ten day suspension and from Crop Senior
- 36:01Speaker 1: High School. George Zimmerman was a twenty eight year old
- 36:05Speaker 1: volunteer neighborhood Watch captain for the retreat at Twin Lakes
- 36:09Speaker 1: Gated community in Sanford, Florida, and this was at the
- 36:12Speaker 1: time of the shooting. Trayvon was walking home from a
- 36:15Speaker 1: convenience store when Zimmerman, who claimed he looked suspicious, followed
- 36:20Speaker 1: him and called nine one one. Despite being told by
- 36:23Speaker 1: dispatchers not to pursue, Zimmerman went ahead and confronted Martin.
- 36:28Speaker 1: A struggle ensued, and Zimmerman shot Martin once in the chest,
- 36:33Speaker 1: killing him.
- 36:33Speaker 2: So he approached.
- 36:34Speaker 1: He approached after being told not.
- 36:37Speaker 2: I forgot about that part.
- 36:40Speaker 1: Zimmerman claimed self defense, saying Martin attacked him and that
- 36:43Speaker 1: he feared for his life. Florida's Staniard Ground law became
- 36:47Speaker 1: central to both the legal proceedings and the national debate.
- 36:50Speaker 1: Although Zimmerman didn't formally invoke the law during trial, it
- 36:54Speaker 1: influenced the police's initial decision not to arrest him for
- 36:58Speaker 1: several weeks as they accepted his self defense claim under
- 37:01Speaker 1: its protection. The case sparked massive public outrage and protests
- 37:06Speaker 1: across the country, leading to renewed scrutiny of stanyard ground
- 37:09Speaker 1: laws and their disproportionate impact on racial minorities. In July
- 37:14Speaker 1: of twenty thirteen, George Zimmerman was acquitted of second degree
- 37:18Speaker 1: murder and manslaughter, with jurors concluding the prosecution hadn't disproven
- 37:24Speaker 1: his self defense claim because remember, the prosecution has the
- 37:27Speaker 1: burden and the standiard ground to prove that it wasn't
- 37:30Speaker 1: a standard ground. But there was no reasonable you know, fear.
- 37:34Speaker 2: Yeah, once you claim the defense, the burden shifts to
- 37:38Speaker 2: the prosecutor to show otherwise. Right when you told me
- 37:41Speaker 2: how the police instructed him to stay away, yeah, and
- 37:47Speaker 2: then and then he didn't.
- 37:48Speaker 1: Right.
- 37:49Speaker 2: So now I'm thinking, well, because I know in Florida
- 37:51Speaker 2: that's one of the things is you can't be an
- 37:53Speaker 2: instigator like he went and asked for trouble.
- 37:56Speaker 1: Right. And it also makes me wonder because also part
- 37:59Speaker 1: of the law is that you have to legally be
- 38:01Speaker 1: allowed to be where you are.
- 38:03Speaker 2: Was he on duty security guard?
- 38:05Speaker 1: He was. He was like a volunteer, like a neighborhood
- 38:08Speaker 1: watch volunteer type of security.
- 38:10Speaker 2: So some organized way, but I was there, right.
- 38:12Speaker 1: But I'm saying I'm saying you can make the argument
- 38:16Speaker 1: because the police or because he was warned not to
- 38:20Speaker 1: coach him that that I don't know.
- 38:23Speaker 2: Maybe I want to feel the need to approach him
- 38:25Speaker 2: though if the cops are on their way.
- 38:27Speaker 1: I don't know. It's the same thing with the susan lawrence.
- 38:30Speaker 2: If someone's trying to break into my home or something,
- 38:32Speaker 2: or I'm seeing him down the street and I call
- 38:34Speaker 2: and report it and say you need to come there's
- 38:37Speaker 2: someone breaking into his home, and then they're like, Okay, yeah,
- 38:40Speaker 2: stay where you are, don't go there, we have someone reporting.
- 38:45Speaker 2: Why would I feel the need to like approach the suspect.
- 38:50Speaker 2: I'm at most I would want to just kind of
- 38:52Speaker 2: keep tabs on where they are once they don't approach me,
- 38:55Speaker 2: or I can tell the police when they get here
- 38:57Speaker 2: that he moved over there. But I wouldn't feel the need.
- 38:59Speaker 2: Some people, well, I don't know.
- 39:01Speaker 1: Well, that was my point in the whole when they
- 39:02Speaker 1: how they stand your ground walls have eliminated the duty
- 39:06Speaker 1: to retreat part. I feel like it's led to more violence.
- 39:10Speaker 1: Instead of having the mindset that if you can de escalate,
- 39:14Speaker 1: you have a duty to de escalate. He he had time,
- 39:18Speaker 1: the ability to de escalate. He just didn't.
- 39:21Speaker 2: He called yes, way, nothing even happened. He could have
- 39:23Speaker 2: state where he was.
- 39:24Speaker 1: That's what I'm saying.
- 39:25Speaker 2: And so I wasn't even to de escalate. It was
- 39:27Speaker 2: a keep it as a non criminal scenario.
- 39:30Speaker 1: That's my point. Yeah, just let the police come and yeah,
- 39:35Speaker 1: question him and then he would still be alive.
- 39:38Speaker 2: And yeah, here we are. That was a big deal.
- 39:41Speaker 2: I remember on that that was out.
- 39:44Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that was huge. I remember it too, back
- 39:46Speaker 1: in twenty twelve.
- 39:46Speaker 2: Because you had minors, uh, you had someone that was
- 39:51Speaker 2: playing cop, you had a race in there. It was
- 39:56Speaker 2: just a lot of things profiling right.
- 39:59Speaker 1: What does the public have to say about stand your
- 40:02Speaker 1: ground laws? So, gun right supporters argue people should not
- 40:05Speaker 1: have to try and retreat before defending themselves.
- 40:07Speaker 2: Gun right supporters support shooting a gun.
- 40:10Speaker 1: This was said by Alan Gottlieb, who is the founder
- 40:13Speaker 1: of the Second Amendment Foundation. He pointed to a Florida
- 40:16Speaker 1: homeowner who recently shot and killed a man suspected of
- 40:18Speaker 1: shooting a police officer as the man tried to break
- 40:21Speaker 1: into his house. While that case could have been covered
- 40:24Speaker 1: by other self defense laws. Gottlieb said, stand your ground
- 40:27Speaker 1: laws offer reassurance. It's made a very big difference in
- 40:31Speaker 1: self defense situations, he said. Gun control activists say the
- 40:35Speaker 1: increasing presence of guns and laws like stanyard ground are
- 40:39Speaker 1: a deadly combination. Representative Lucy Macbeth, who entered politics after
- 40:44Speaker 1: her son was slain at a Florida gas station in
- 40:46Speaker 1: twenty twelve by a white man who was angry over
- 40:49Speaker 1: the loud music playing in the black teenager's car. This
- 40:52Speaker 1: is the case I was telling you about. Said, laws
- 40:55Speaker 1: like stanyard ground or shoot first laws give people like
- 40:58Speaker 1: Jordan's killer, my Son's hill, or the idea that you
- 41:01Speaker 1: can shoot first and ask questions later. Michael Dunn used
- 41:05Speaker 1: to stand your ground law and his defense, but was
- 41:07Speaker 1: convicted and is serving a life sentence. So Michael Dunn
- 41:11Speaker 1: is the one that shot the teenager. And that's what
- 41:12Speaker 1: I was talking about earlier when I was saying I
- 41:14Speaker 1: read about a case, it was this one. It was
- 41:15Speaker 1: where you can de escalate the situation by leaving. If
- 41:19Speaker 1: his music is bothering you, you can get in your
- 41:22Speaker 1: car and you can drive away. It doesn't have to
- 41:25Speaker 1: get to the point of a stand your ground defense
- 41:28Speaker 1: if you can de escalate, And the problem is is
- 41:31Speaker 1: that it took away that duty to retreat that you're just.
- 41:34Speaker 2: Yeah, I just don't know if that's what popped in
- 41:35Speaker 2: this person's head.
- 41:37Speaker 1: I don't know what popped into their head, but it didn't.
- 41:40Speaker 1: In his case, it didn't work. He was convicted and
- 41:43Speaker 1: is serving a life sentence. So I mean, that's a
- 41:45Speaker 1: scenario where it doesn't work.
- 41:46Speaker 2: It.
- 41:46Speaker 1: I mean it it's beneficial in cases where it's very
- 41:52Speaker 1: clear cut that your life is in jeopardy and you
- 41:55Speaker 1: have the right to defend yourself. But in so many
- 41:57Speaker 1: other cases where it's like they're in a parking lot
- 41:59Speaker 1: and he's playing loud music and there's an altercation, or
- 42:02Speaker 1: the Susan Lorenz case or the Trayvon Martin, it's not
- 42:05Speaker 1: that clear cut. There's other ways to de escalate. There's
- 42:09Speaker 1: ways that it could have been handled differently.
- 42:12Speaker 2: I think that the standard ground do you retreating? All that,
- 42:14Speaker 2: only it correctly applies when someone's really just reacting properly,
- 42:18Speaker 2: like someone's busting in my home, so I applot it
- 42:21Speaker 2: again and I shoot them, not when they think.
- 42:24Speaker 1: All right, Thanks guys for listening again, let me know
- 42:28Speaker 1: your opinions on stand your Ground or any of these
- 42:30Speaker 1: cases that we discuss. Also if there's any other cases
- 42:33Speaker 1: that you would like us to discuss. I love it
- 42:35Speaker 1: when you guys always have recommendations. I truly appreciate it,
- 42:38Speaker 1: so please feel free to DM me and again, make
- 42:40Speaker 1: sure you follow us on our own feed legally Brunette,
- 42:43Speaker 1: make sure you leave a review and make sure you're
- 42:45Speaker 1: following because that's where all of our episodes will be
- 42:47Speaker 1: going forward. So thanks so much, guys, Thank you,