NOT THE SHARPEST KNIVES IN THE DRAWER: Who Says Crime Doesn’t Pay?
After deliberating for 2½ days in a civil wrongful death suit, a jury awarded nearly $269,500 to the 3-year-old daughter of Robert Johnson Fox, who was shot dead in April 2009 by Jovan Milanovic, the owner of an auto lot that Johnson was attempting to burglarize, The Gazette (Colorado Springs) reports:
“Rob was in the wrong place doing the wrong thing, but the punishment didn’t fit the crime,” [his mother] Sue Fox said afterward. “I can’t excuse his actions, but he didn’t deserve to be executed.”
The exact amount of the award was $269,500, for factors such as loss of companionship and loss of future earnings. The family will also be awarded some of the costs associated with the more than yearlong legal battle. [Emphasis, The Stiletto.] …
Police said in a 145-page investigative report that the intruder had knives in his pockets and one strapped to his ankle, but never posed a threat to Milanovic or the other men, his father Ljuban Milanovic and brother-in-law Srdjan [Novak]. …
Under Colorado’s self-defense laws, the use of deadly force is justified only under the “reasonable belief” that it’s necessary to prevent serious bodily injury or death. The jury found that none of the men had a legitimate claim of self-defense.
Property rights are not a lawful defense for using deadly force in Colorado, and the state’s so-called Make My Day law, which sets lower standard for using force, applies to households, not businesses. …
The 4th Judicial District Attorney's Office declined to file charges in the shooting, and instead sent the case to a grand jury, which decided against returning an indictment, effectively clearing the trio of criminal wrongdoing.
According to Fox’s accomplice, Brian Corbin, the two had smoked meth and were looking to steal anything to buy more drugs. In the civil trial, plaintiff’s attorneys claimed Fox attended school to become a diesel mechanic and would have made as much as $800,000 during his lifetime. But Corbin said Fox was a meth addict who had dropped out of the school and was dividing his time between getting high and stealing stuff to sell to get more drugs. His lifetime “earnings” – ill-gotten gains, is more like it – would likely have been nowhere near the amount of the jury award, because his lifespan and his “earnings” would have been well below average. Only an addled jury could have come up with a verdict like this.
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