dont mess with texas.

[minionofmidas]

I'm all for the right to defend your property, but the boy here posed no threat.  1st degree murder with the death penalty is what I'd push for as a prosecutor.

This is clearly not first-degree murder; there's no indication of premeditation. Second-degree murder, though, definitely.

They claim they thought the kid was trespassing - they would've then had to go back to wherever the gun was in the house and get it.  It was premeditated, not a crime of passion.

They brought a gun to the place where they committed the crime.

In a robbery that turns fatal due to being disturbed by someone, that counts as premeditation. I don't see why it wouldn't here.

[minionofmidas]

Ah, Liberty County.  Not that far away from home either.  Been there a number of times and I would describe it as being "kind" of backwoods.  A lot of northeast Harris County is similar, frankly, though there has been a bit of development there in recent years.

They won't get away with it because it was a child.  Now, if it was a black man, might be a different story.

So ageism beats racism these days?
Or was I drawing wrong conclusions from the surname Coffey and the girl's name Destiny?

(Their chances would also be better if they could afford to hire good lawyers and looked it, but that's not specific to Texas or the US, of course.)

[minionofmidas]

Even in Texas you can't off people for trespassing in plain daylight, absent a reasonable fear for your physical safety. The free fire zone is offing intruders at night who reasonably seem intent or have broken into your home.  At least I think Texas law is something along those lines. And even in Texas a jury would bag this charming couple (jury nullification of attempts to prosecute trigger happy folks is a big problem in Texas), given the age of the corpse. The couple is very fortunate that I will not be on their jury.

What evidence is there of jury nullification in Texas, let alone it being a big problem?

An example of what he's talking about.

I came across that yesterday looking for pictures of the victims in this case, actually.

Of course, the real problem is not juries' attitudes but the insane all-or-nothing "logic" of your typical jury trial - as should be obvious from this article on the same case. If judge or jury had the right to say, this wasn't murder and doesn't deserve life without parole (the sentence sought for Gonzalez), but it's still a dreadful crime and he ought to go to jail, they probably would have done so here.

[minionofmidas]

So what are you going to convict him of?

Me? Murder, of course.

But I wasn't raised in a culture of insanity the Castle Doctrine.

[minionofmidas]

So what crime should the jury have convicted him of?

Still the wrong question.