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NC man convicted of sawed-off shotgun killing entitled to new trial, appellate court rules
[FoxNews] Insufficient instruction of potential self-defense argument was given during Ronald Vaughn's original trial, judges determined.A man convicted of killing his landlord's adult son with a sawed-off shotgun is entitled to a new trial because the presiding judge failed to instruct jurors about a possible self-defense argument, the state Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday. A three-judge panel vacated the first-degree murder conviction of Ronald Wayne Vaughn Jr. in the 2017 shooting death of Gary Somerset. Vaughn was on the porch of the Lincoln County trailer he was renting and had the weapon when Somerset yelled "Let's end this" and rushed at him, according to Tuesday's opinion. The two and Somerset's mother had been in a heated argument. Vaughn was sentenced in part to life in prison without parole. Possessing a gun like the one Vaughn used —a Winchester .410 caliber shotgun with a sawed-off barrel that makes it easier to conceal and potentially more destructive — is a felony, and Vaughn was also convicted on that count. The state's "stand-your-ground" law says a person is justified in using force and has no duty to retreat when the person "reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to himself." But it can't be used in some occasions when that person was committing a felony at the time. Somerset had been living temporarily in the home with Vaughn, and moments before the shooting, his mother gave Vaughn a notice to leave the trailer, which he ripped up, according to the opinion. Vaughn tried unsuccessfully to call 911 with his iPad, the opinion said, and from the porch told Somerset and his mother that they were the ones who needed to leave. Posted by: Skidmark 2024-05-08 |
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