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Defendant denied self defense, instruction on Castle Doctrine allowed new trial
Felipe De La Hoz fired Oscar Ruiz Friday, February 21, 2003 from a feed store in Hialeah. Felipe believed Ruiz had stolen a gun from his truck. On the day Ruiz was fired he returned back to work at about 6 at night. However, Ruiz did not go to work he went to fight Felipe. Ruiz attacked Felipe in the parking lot and then ran to his car. Felipe followed Ruiz to the car. Felipe thought Ruiz was reaching for a gun so he shot Ruiz.
Felipe was charged with second-degree murder and convicted after a jury trial. During the trial Felipe claimed he killed Ruiz in self-defense. If self-defense is proven in a case, the defendant is not guilty of the charges against him. In order to justify the use of deadly force in self-defense, a person must feel they are going to be killed or seriously injured.
However, the instruction read by the court, the independent felony rule. The independent felony rule is given when a person is committing a felony and then is confronted with either non-deadly or deadly force. This instruction that in essence told the jury that if Felipe defended himself during the fight, the defense was improper and Felipe could not use a gun to end the fight. This was clearly an erroneous instruction by the court because Felipe was attacked and clearly had a right to defend himself from the attack. The question for the jury was Felipe's fear of deadly force being used against him valid.
The second problem with the trial was that the court refused to read the "Castle Doctrine." The Castle Doctrine is where an owner or employee of a business does not need to retreat or run away from someone who is attacking them on the business land. The owner or an employee is able to use deadly force to protect himself or herself, or to stop someone from committing a deadly crime. The court determined this error also was enough to allow Felipe a second trial.
A link to the entire opinion on this murder case can be found here.
