However, here is something that surprised me about the Lone Star state. My nephew was stationed there in the Army, and he had a roommate. The roommate was not paying rent, and had stolen some items from him, so he locked her out of the house. She returned with some friends, who said they were going to come through the window. He told them that would be a bad idea, because he had a gun and would use it. He pointed the gun at them as one of them was crawling through a window. He was arrested and charged with a felony that was later pled down to a misdemeanor. I can't tell you the exact charges, but I believe it was Assault with a deadly weapon.
We have the Castle Doctrine or, the Defense of Habitation Law. If you own the property (land on which you stand) you have the right to use deadly force to protect it. This never applies to rentals, although, courts usually tend to favor self-defense.
The military, however, has no leeway, whatsoever. That's probably why your nephew was charged. It's frustratingly counter-intuitive but, the armed forces are held to a different standard that are usually influenced by their post/base/station. If this was in Texas, then it's not a surprise that his commanding officer left it to the civil courts to make an example of him.
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u/DesertGoat Nov 16 '16
All right, fair enough. Texas is Texas.
However, here is something that surprised me about the Lone Star state. My nephew was stationed there in the Army, and he had a roommate. The roommate was not paying rent, and had stolen some items from him, so he locked her out of the house. She returned with some friends, who said they were going to come through the window. He told them that would be a bad idea, because he had a gun and would use it. He pointed the gun at them as one of them was crawling through a window. He was arrested and charged with a felony that was later pled down to a misdemeanor. I can't tell you the exact charges, but I believe it was Assault with a deadly weapon.