Don't shoot at the horse!

[draggonlaady]

The trial has begun of a Texas Department of Criminal Justice offender charged with murdering a Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) Officer during an attempted escape in September 2007.

Jerry Duane Martin, 39, will be tried in Leon County in the death of Susan Canfield, a TDCJ officer who was killed during the escape attempt of Martin and fellow inmate John Ray Falk Jr., 41.

Walker County District Attorney David Weeks said Martin’s trial is being held in Leon County due to complications involving other sites.

State District Judge Kenneth Keeling of the 278th Judicial District will try the case.

Falk’s trial has not been scheduled.

Weeks said that although all charges against Martin will be considered in the punishment phase of the trial, most of the trial is likely to focus on Canfield’s murder.

“The case in chief will be primarily on the escape and the death of Susan Canfield,” Weeks said.

Weeks said that due to the large number of witnesses and personnel involved, the trial is likely to last for several weeks, with the principal question being whether or not Canfield’s death qualifies as capital murder.

“This is a difficult case,” Weeks said. “The situation is very unique because Ms. Canfield died as the result of being thrown off a horse, so there are issues there that are different than most. I feel very confident, but it’s going to be up to the jury. I believe it’s capital murder, but the jury’s going to have the final word on that.”

Weeks said that if Martin is found guilty, jurors will have the option of recommending the death penalty.

On Sept. 24, 2007, Martin and Falk were working outside the Wynne Unit when Martin approached an officer and asked him to hold his broken watch. As the officer reached for the watch, Falk distracted him with a sound, allowing Martin to grab the officer’s weapon.

Using the weapon to hold off nearby officers, the two offenders were able to scale a barbed-wire fence. After stealing a second weapon at gunpoint and exchanging fire with several nearby officers, they were able to commandeer a City of Huntsville truck. While escaping, they rammed TDCJ Officer Susan Canfield.

Canfield, who was on horseback, was thrown from her horse and was killed due to head injuries sustained when she struck the windshield of the truck and the ground. Her horse was later euthanized due to wounds from the collision and gunfire.

According to TDCJ reports following the incident, Martin was the driver of the vehicle when it struck Canfield.

Martin and Falk later dumped the truck a mile away and hijacked a local motorist who was in line at a nearby bank drive-thru.

Officers from several local agencies were able to shoot out on of the tires in the hijacked vehicle, leading Martin and Falk to continue to flee on foot.

Falk was apprehended within an hour after the escape, while Martin was found hiding in a tree approximately three and a half hours later. At the time of their escape, Martin was in the tenth year of a 50-year term for attempted murder, while Falk was serving a life sentence for a 1986 murder.

In March of 2008 both men were indicted for the murder of Canfield. The charge was elevated to capital murder due to provisions in the Texas State Penal Code that allow a murder to be upgraded to capital if it occurs during an attempted escape from a penal institution.

Charges against both men also include attempted capital murder, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated robbery and aggravated assault, all felonies stemming from hijacking the second vehicle and returning fire on local police.

Both were also charged with interfering with a police service animal, a third degree felony stemming from the death of Canfield’s horse.

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“This is a difficult case,” Weeks said. “The situation is very unique because Ms. Canfield died as the result of being thrown off a horse, so there are issues there that are different than most."

Really? I totally fail to see how the part where they shot the horse and hit it with a truck which resulted in the rider falling from the horse and sustaining fatal head injury on the windshield of the truck makes this unclear on the intentional assault/murder vs accidental fall from horse front. But maybe I'm missing something?

Comments

[cheshirecatco.livejournal.com]

For legal purposes, they used gravity and the conservation of momentum to actually perform the kill. See, the laws of physics are responsible.

[draggonlaady.livejournal.com]

Bullshit. By that logic, it's not my fault that I pulled the trigger, it's all physics and chemistry causing the explosion and the movement of the bullet.

[cheshirecatco.livejournal.com]

Exactly! No one is responsible for anything!

[draggonlaady.livejournal.com]

For crap's sake don't tell the lawyers that!!

[sphynx-again.livejournal.com]

Why would they consider that any different than a vehicular murder? If the officer was inside a police car, and you rammed your truck into the other vehicle, killing the officer, is that not capital murder under these circumstances? I think it's even more clear in this case, because had she been in a patrol car, it's unlikely her head would have made contact with the trucks windshield. Or ok, lets take a scene out of Happy Gilmore. If the officer is sitting on a scaffolding, and you ram your truck into the scaffolding, causing someone to crack their skull on your windshield, did you not just kill them?

So yeah, I'm with you on this one.

[draggonlaady.livejournal.com]

I have no idea why they'd consider it differently... other than to tack on the charges of interfering with a service animal, and animal cruelty.

[kresentia.livejournal.com]

I'm with you - especially since they actually hit the horse enough to effectively kill it too. I can see where it might be a question if they shot near the horse or scared it enough that it threw her or something like that but really - hitting the horse is just like hitting her directly in this case. Stupid people...

[draggonlaady.livejournal.com]

Bullet into the abdomen. Shitty shot if you're hunting, but effective enough to kill him later. Gruesomely. Sometimes euthanasia really IS the good death.

[kresentia.livejournal.com]

Poor horse... I vote we try the guy on behalf of the poor horse too!

[draggonlaady.livejournal.com]

He's being charged with a couple things involving the horse. There are many charges listed for the whole incident.

[kresentia.livejournal.com]

Oh good. Here's hoping he stays away for a long time.. (can't really say hope he goes away since that's sort of what started the problem...)

[interactiveleaf.livejournal.com]

Maybe the issue is that they're anticipating having a difficult time convincing a non-horsy jury of just how dangerous the action was?

[draggonlaady.livejournal.com]

I don't know. I don't see how anybody could possibly be convinced it was less dangerous than ramming a truck into a cop on a motorcycle, and that'd be vehicular homicide with not questions. They didn't just spook the horse here, they both shot it and hit it with a truck. I can see how you might argue that lighting off fireworks on a beach, which spooks a horse and causes a rider to fall and break their neck would be accidental, and a risk the rider took by getting on, but that is patently not the case here.

[interactiveleaf.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was grasping at straws there. It seems pretty clear cut to me too.

[(Anonymous)]

If you know anything at all about Leon County then you know there is no such thing as a "non-horsy" jury. This county is all small towns filled with ranches. I wouldn't be suprised if every jury member has owned a horse at one time or another.

[draggonlaady.livejournal.com]

Don't know a think about the area, live thousands of miles away. But I know horses, and have a basic grasp of physics... and killing a rider by hitting the horse they're on with a truck does not, in my mind, count as "being thrown from a horse".