Don’t Chase The Bad Guy

This is not legal advice. I am not an attorney, and I am most certainly not YOUR attorney. If you use the information that I provide to do anything or not do anything, it is not my responsibility for what happens. You are an adult and responsible for your own actions. Feel free to research the matter further on your own or retain an attorney with experience in this subject matter if you want some degree of legal certainty.

In Lincoln County case of STATE V. CARWILE, Mr. Carwile was convicted of murder that started as a self-defense incident, but where the State says he went too far. See Mr. Carwile. He looks none too happy.

A quick synopsis of what happened APPEARS TO ME that it started as a reasonable and lawful use of force. The bad guy in question, the now deceased Christopher Easter, came to Mr. Carwile’s house wearing a mask, grabbed a chainsaw off the porch, broke in, and hit Mr. Carwile with the chainsaw. He also hit Mr. Carwile in the head with a sock full of rocks. If Mr. Carwile would have shot the intruder at this point, I think that this would have been fully supported by the law of self defense in North Carolina.

What happened instead is that Mr. Carwile pushed Mr. Easter out the front door, fighting him. They continued a running fight over 500 yards, with Mr. Easter dropping the chainsaw at some point. The running fight ended up at a used car lot, and what ensued was caught on video.

The video showed Mr. Carwile’s wife hitting him with a trash can, with both of them hitting Mr. Easter, who eventually ended up on the ground. Mr. Carwile then beat Mr. Easter with apparently the same rock-filled sock that Mr. Easter had brought to the break-in initially. Mr. Easter had a wrench on him that fell on the ground, and Mr. Carwile picked it up and hit Mr. Easter with it. Carwile’s wife and a friend joined in the festivities, kicking Mr. Easter, while Mr. Carwile started repeatedly slamming Easter’s head into the pavement. Mr. Carwile kept it up, while also dragging him over to a parked car. He stopped, and for some reason, Mr. Carwile’s wife pulled Mr. Easter’s trousers and shoes and threw them out in the road. They all left Mr. Easter, who, as you might expect, died like a dog laying on the ground.

What is my take on this?

First of all, let us not shed a tear for Mr. Easter. He deserved to be killed for breaking in to another man’s castle. He “fooled around and found out.” Good riddance to bad rubbish, as they used to say.

The lesson I take away from this is that, as the statute clearly states, you have no more right to use deadly force in self defense once the bad guy who is breaking in stops his efforts. NCGS 14-51.2 states, in part,

“(c) The presumption set forth in subsection (b) of this section shall be rebuttable and does not apply in any of the following circumstances: …

(5) The person against whom the defensive force is used (i) has discontinued all efforts to unlawfully and forcefully enter the home, motor vehicle, or workplace and (ii) has exited the home, motor vehicle, or workplace.”

I can understand Mr. Carwile still being mad about being attacked by Mr. Easter, but I think that it was obvious that he took it too far.

If you look at his NCDOC record linked above, you can see that his judgement was in general less than stellar, as it appears that he was already charged as a habitual felon when all this happened. That is probably why he didn’t have a gun to defend himself, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Mr. Easter was known to Mr. Carwile, as Mr. Carwile was apparently an unlicensed pharmaceutical distributor and Mr. Easter also had drug convictions.

Since 1985, the cops can’t shoot at fleeing felons, neither can you or me. What could you do in such a situation as Mr. Carwile found himself in?

• Keep your door locked. Yes, even in your nice neighborhood.
• Pay attention to your surroundings.
• Have a driveway alarm. Have cameras around your home. This stuff lets you know what’s going on so that you are not surprised.
• HAVE A FIREARM. If you do not have one where you can put your hands on it in a few seconds (preferably on your person) then it is not doing you much good.
• If the bad guy runs away, LET HIM! Then get yourself to safety.
• Be a good witness. Get photos of the bad guy if you can do so safely.
• Call the cops and let them know what happened.
• Use your head!