Batavia Ohio, A jury recently convicted Charles Martin, an obsessive 67 year old man, for the shooting death of teenager Larry Mugrage jr. (15 years old) who "walked on his lawn".
I've heard of some cranky older folks and the old, "get off my lawn," line has been overused in some circles but, to actually shoot someone for walking on your lawn?
In less than 4 hours the jury returned a guilty verdict. Though the man was tried on a charge of aggravated murder the jury convicted him on the lesser count of murder because they could not come to an agreement as to wether the murder was planned or not.
The defense did not dispute the fact of the murder. Instead they focused on the harrasment Mr. Martin has suffered at the hands of these teens who routinely ignored his pleas to, "stay off my lawn!"
On the day of the murder the victim stepped on the lawn on the way to play basketball. Mr. Martin yelled at him and retrieved his shotgun from inside his home. Later that same day Mr. Mugrage again stepped on the lawn. This is when Mr. Martin pulled out his shotgun and fired at him twice!
Mr. Martin then called 911 and told the dispatcher, "I just killed a kid."
Let that be a warning to all of you youngsters out there. If an old man tells you to get off his lawn, get off of it! you don't know if he's packing a shotgun or not so why take the risk?
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I JUST finished reading about this then came here and saw it posted. Pretty messed up if you ask me.
It is messed up…
It sounds like the guy was super obsessed with his lawn and the kids would just bug the heck out of him by stepping on it! Finaly he had enough and shot one.
if you think thats messed up i went to school with him
He said it like he killed a bug. I killed a kid.
some people are sickos. :)
What a waste of a life.
Don’t jump to conclusions. The story we’ve been told is what the press wants us to hear. There may be much more to the story that we haven’t heard. It may not have been just lawn obsession. Certain kids in his neighborhood may have been doing more than just walking on his lawn.
Ah, but then it wouldn’t be news, would it?
I hate when people walk on my lawn, would stop short of killing you though, just a warning ;)
certianly you heard the story the press wants you to hear. i wish ppl would have not attacked him. for your information i grew up with larry and its still surreal to think that this happened. i was there when it happened.
if you want the real story on “jerry” as we called him, come for a visit to see larry’s mother, anita.
im sure she’ll be real happy to tell u what happened.
Charles Martin has committed suicide in prison. http://www.middletownjournal.com/news/middletown-news/man-who-shot-teen-for-crossing-lawn-commits-suicide-in-prison-240374.html
People should respect (I.e. stay away from) other people’s property.