Miami-Dade judge tosses murder charge based on self-defense
Posted on Friday, 08.17.12
Miami-Dade judge tosses murder charge based on self-defense
Circuit Judge Beth Bloom believed a Little Havana man’s story that his brother was the one who attacked him with a knife in their efficiency.
By DAVID OVALLE
dovalle@MiamiHerald.com
A Little Havana man was justified in stabbing his brother to death during a May 2010 brawl, a Miami-Dade judge ruled Friday.
The judge’s ruling tossed out a second-degree murder charge against Dennis Sosa Palma, who killed his brother, Juan Alberto Hernandez-Sosa, at their efficiency at 1700 Northwest Fifth St.
Sosa-Palma, 26, claimed that his brother, drunk and belligerent, attacked him with a knife and in the struggle the defendant stabbed his sibling.
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Sosa-Palma, however, did not call police but called his pastor, claiming that his brother had committed suicide. Sosa-Palma later called 911 and reported the death as a suicide, and initially denied being in a fight, giving police various versions of his own injuries.
More:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/08/17/2956670/miami-dade-judge-tosses-murder.html#storylink=cpy
= new reply since forum marked as read
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“No other witnesses saw the altercation or could contradict the defendant’s testimony that the victim attacked him with a knife,” she wrote in granting him immunity under Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law.
It was not the first murder case Bloom has tossed out under the state’s controversial Stand Your Ground law, which gained national notoriety after the killing of Trayvon Martin, a Miami Gardens teen killed in Sanford by a self-styled neighborhood watchman.
~snip~
Bloom in March cleared Greyston Garcia, who chased down a thief who had broken into his truck and stolen his radio in Little Havana in January 2011. With one fatal knife thrust to the chest, Garcia felled Pedro Roteta.
The judge ruled that Garcia acted in self-defense because the thief swung a bag filled with heavy car radios, and a medical examiner testified that “a 4-6 pound bag of metal being swung at one’s head would lead to serious bodily injury or death,’’ her order said.
Here's the story on Garcia:
Judge Cites "Stand Your Ground" to Clear Greyston Garcia in Little Havana Stabbing
By Kyle Munzenrieder
Wed., Mar. 28 2012 at 10:50 AM
Judge Bloom
In the midst of the Trayvon Martin controversy, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Beth Bloom has cited Florida's controversial Stand Your Ground law to drop charges against Greyston Garcia after he fatally stabbed a car radio thief in Little Havana on January 25th. Though, Garcia apparently initiated the violence, never called police, hid the knife, and then later sold two of the car radios the man had stolen.
In the early hours of January 25, Garcia spotted Pedro Roteta and another man rummaging through his truck and taking off with his car radio according to the Miami Herald. Roteta and his accomplice had apparently been on a radio stealing spree, and Roteta was carrying a bag filled with three car radios.
Garcia decided to chase after Roteta with a knife, and caught up to him. Roteta swung the bag of radios at Garcia's head. Garcia blocked the bag, and then countered by lunging a knife in Roteta's chest. The stabbing killed Roteta. Garcia then took off with the radio, even those not belonging to him, and never called police. Garcia hid the knife used and sold the two car radios that did not belong to him.
When eventually contacted by police Garcia denied involvement, but eventually admitted that he was involved. He said he feared for his life because Roteta had a screwdriver in his hand, but eventually recanted that account and merely said he feared for his life because of the bag of radios.
More:
http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2012/03/judge_cites_stand_your_ground.php
Unbelievable!