Sarah McKinley shoots intruder, intruder's accomplice is the only one charged. Is this fair?

She should get a reward. Stewart should get the book thrown at him.

Absolutely not. Why would she be charged? What crime did she commit?

Should she be charged with anything for killing Justin Martin?

I read about this a few days ago. The article stated the intruder(s) spent 19 minutes breaking in, and once inside rushed the young woman while brandishing a knife. She did absolutely the right thing, especially considering she had an infant to protect. Even if she was alone she did the right thing.

His accomplice should get a tough sentence, but I’m not so sure he deserves to be charged with murder.

She was protecting her baby and herself from an intruder holding a knife. She should get high honors. Her husband had just died the week before and this man was a predator. The other man should be charged with as many charges he can be to stay in prison for life. He was part of a plan to terrorize a woman with a baby and who knows what they had in mind to do to her. If I’m not mistaken, the pictures inside her home showed that she didn’t own much, so robbery probably wasn’t the motive.

Why would anyone charge a woman who was under seige for approx. 20 minutes? I’d gamble the people on the other side of that door were more than prepared to do her harm after putting so much effort.

Should the accomplic be charged with his friend’s murder? No, I’m not sure how they reason that out. Man, don’t fark up in OK!

Hell no she shouldn’t be charged with anything! She had every right to defend herself and her baby. I’d do the same thing.

And the accomplice shouldn’t be charged with the man’s murder, but he should be charged with something like accomplice to attempted burglary and fleeing a crime scene… I’m not up on the law for that sort of thing.

@chyna so robbery probably wasn’t the motive.

They were after her dead husbands pain killers. Pathetic.

If she shot both of them, does that add to her killstreak? Call of Duty: Suburban Momfare.

I don’t get why the other guy is being charged with murder, though.

As to the case of Dustin Stewart, he’s already out on bond. He’ll cop a plea to a lesser charge.

Plus, I love the dispatcher. I can’t tell you what to do, BUT…

@FutureMemory I hadn’t read the article in the question, but had read the article when it first came out, so I didn’t know that’s what they were after. So pathetic.

Hell yes it’s fair. I say give her a freakin’ medal!

@bkcunningham the dispatchers have to be very careful how they word their responses to questions. A good defense Attorney could use the dispatch tapes to get their client out of jail if the dispatcher would have come right out and said ‘blow the SOB away.’

I also think she should be getting an award instead of charged. I was thinking more mother of the year.

Oklahoma law uses the hand of one is the hand of all basis for their criminal code. That means if you are sitting in the car and someone riding with you robs the C store, they can charge you with everything that goes on inside the store. In this case the one guy commited a crime that resulted in a death, his own. But by Oklahoma law death during the commission of a crime is premeditated murder. So the accomplice can be charged with first degree murder.

I am not into guns or violence but, in this case, she did the right thing.

Shooting/killing someone in self defense when they break into your house is a basic right. And Dustin Stewart should be charged with murder- someone died while he was participating in the commission of a felony.

There really is no question here.

What she did was completely justified, based on the facts that I’ve seen so far – not much, to be sure.

But because of a husband dying a week earlier and then having to endure that assault on her home, and having to kill one of the invaders… I’d say the county ought to spring for some heavy-duty counseling for her. Killing a person, even when it’s justified, is not something to take lightly. She may be more at risk now than she was when those two thugs entered her home.

I didn’t know about the hand of one doctrine, @WestRiverrat. Thanks. Very interesting. I’ll have to look it up and read more about that.

I believe the dispatcher was very aware of the legalities by the way she worded her responses.

Wow, justice correctly served! She doesn’t get charged, and the accomplice does!
I wish this story got more media attention. I want this message to get out!

She should be charged for letting the accomplice live.

Stewart should be forced to become McKinley’s man slave. She will keep him heavily chained to an I-beam in the basement and fed nothing but poopy diaper.

“Suburban Momfare.” LOL.
Absolutely not. Good for her. She has been through enough.

She should not be charged not only because it was in self defense (of her and her baby), but because (despite the fanfare surrounding her actions) she has to live with the fact that she had to end someone’s life.

Justified as her actions were, she’s not a killer, and that kind of thing has to weigh on you.

The lady acted within the law to protect her baby and herself. This was a justifiable shooting. The person with Martin, should be charged with burglary and aggravated assault. He may have not had a weapon, but we all know what his intentions were as an accessory.

I am curious as to why this question was even asked about the lady.

I would have acted just as she did. And the law says that if you are involved in committing a felony and the crime results in the death of someone, you re guilty of murder.

She should not be charged with anything. I talked about this a couple days ago with a right wing guy and he said over and over again the liberals would have her head. Bullshit! I’m a liberal, and I think she was protecting herself and her baby and it was perfectly reasonable, it was self defense.

I don’t like how the media seemed to focus on her being a young female alone at home with her baby, because I think if it was 45 year old man ome alone and he shot that intruder dead he also should not go to jail for protecting himself from two men who will not let up trying to force their way into the house.

I think they should be lenient on the man who got away, but later turned himself in. I am not sure exactly what I mean by lenient, but he gets credit from me for turning himself in.

I’ve already read a brief article about this case so I can only give an opinion on what little I know of so far. I don’t think it is fair to charge the accomplice with murder but the mother did the only reasonable thing she could have done by shooting that intruder. In my opinion she also should not of had to call the police to ask for permission to shoot that intruder. The intruder forced her hand here.

I don’t know about in the US, but here you are allowed to use ‘reasonable force’ to defend yourself if someone breaks into your property. Given the intruder had a knife and was determined to get into her house where she was alone with a young child, I think she used reasonable force to defend herself and her child.

She should receive the key to the city as an example for other intruders. Unfortunately as our economy continues to dwindle this sort of thing may not be so foreign to us. I pray she is able to sleep comfortably soon.

cant wait to learn how to blow zombies away. jk. Self defense.

Y’all think this case is cut and dried, a slam-dunk win for the grieving young widow protecting herself and her infant against drug-crazed and armed thugs… and it should be.

But it isn’t always.

In case after case in the USA “no-knock” raids by police (very often raiding a home in error, on faulty or malicious information) the same type of “home invasion” occurs, a lot quicker than the time to dial 9–1-1 and engage the operator in a chat, give the baby a bottle and check your weapon.

Sometimes cops are killed in these raids (as I think they should be, because these raids are as un-American as can be, and cops who participate are in criminal violation of their oath) and the homeowner goes to jail. There are more than a few cases of otherwise innocent homeowners on Death Row for their “crime” of self-defense.

These aren’t drug dealers, just owners of the wrong house at the wrong time, and quicker on the draw and better shots than they were expected to be.

In fact, in some states this woman may very well be prosecuted. If she was on the phone for more than a few minutes, then she had an “opportunity to flee”, which some prosecutors (especially stupid ones, perhaps, or where the homeowner isn’t so photogenic) may very well have prosecuted as a murder charge.

@CWOTUS Yeah, as you said, those homeowners should not be prosecuted either if the police barged in unnanounced. But, don’t officers yell out they are the police when they barge in? Give the person a chance to come willingly?

Cwotus, you know you are discussing two entirely different situations.

It’s not so different to the guy behind the door, @john65pennington. If I’m woken in the night by the sound of my door being broken down, then it’s not so different to me.

[mod says] This is our Question of the Day!

We should definitely be allowed to defend ourselves and our children from attack. No, she shouldn’t be charged with anything.