Weld County, Colorado

From Denver’s Rocky Mountain News of September 14, 2005

Weld County shooting under investigation

Weld County Sheriff's deputies are investigating the shooting of a 19-year-old man wounded as he allegedly broke into a neighbor's home.

The shooting occurred in a home in the 2100 block of Meadowlark in the Meadow Vale subdivision near Weld County Road 5 and Highway 119 near Longmont, according to a press release issued by Weld County Sheriff John Cooke.

The sheriff's office did not identify home owner or the wounded man, Nathan Weathers.

Weathers was shot with a 9 mm handgun, according to the sheriff's office. He is being treated at Longmont United Hospital.

Cooke's press release noted that the shooting may fall under Colorado's "Make My Day Law," which allows a home owner who feels threatened by an intruder to shoot the suspect.

From the LongmontFYI.com of September 15, 2005

Police: Drunken teen shot

Man enters wrong home after accident

A bleeding, drunken man stumbling home after a motorcycle accident was shot Wednesday morning by the owner of a house he mistakenly entered, according to the Weld County Sheriff’s Office.

According to the sheriff’s office, 19-year-old Nathan Weathers was in a single-vehicle motorcycle accident sometime early Wednesday morning near Weld County Roads 5 and 26.

Without notifying the authorities, the injured and intoxicated Weathers then traveled a half-mile from the scene of the accident, presumably on foot, and entered the home at 2173 Meadowlark Place through a window off the back porch, investigators said.

According to Weld County records, the home, owned by James and Cheryl Haflich, is a block away from where Weathers lives with his father at 2133 Blue Mountain Road in the Meadow Vale subdivision off Weld County Road 51/2, east of Longmont. The houses are each on the east side of their respective streets and are both one house from a corner.

Weld County Sheriff’s spokeswoman Margie Martinez said Cheryl Haflich was getting ready for work at around 4 a.m. when she heard Weathers trying to enter through the window. She alerted her husband, and they both yelled for Weathers to get out, but he entered the house, Martinez said. James Haflich then fired three shots with his 9 mm handgun, one of which hit Weathers, she said.

The Haflichs called 911, and Weathers was taken to Longmont United Hospital, where he was in serious condition in the intensive care unit Wednesday, according to the sheriff’s office. Investigators have not said whether the first two shots were fired in warning, or where the one bullet hit Weathers.

“The bullet wound was not life-threatening,” Martinez said. “He’s probably in critical condition from the motorcycle accident.”

A family spokesman, contacted at the hospital, said the family did not want to comment Wednesday.

Martinez also said she didn’t believe Weathers was armed when he entered the house.

“I don’t think ‘Make My Day’ requires that,” she said of the Colorado law that allows homeowners to shoot intruders under certain circumstances.

The Haflichs declined to comment.

The sheriff’s office said it is not recommending that the Weld County District Attorney’s office file charges against the Haflichs, but is recommending that Weathers be charged with trespassing, traffic violations and driving under the influence.

(More about Weathers)

From the LongmontFYI.com of September 16, 2005

Shooting probe nearly complete

Sheriff pursuing trespassing, traffic charges against teen

The Weld County Sheriff’s Office has nearly completed its investigation of an intoxicated teen who they say was shot by the owner of a house he mistakenly entered Wednesday morning.

According to spokeswoman Margie Martinez, the sheriff’s office is still recommending that the district attorney charge the intruder, Nathan Weathers, with trespassing, in addition to traffic and driving under the influence violations related to a motorcycle accident they say he left just before entering the wrong house.

Officials from Longmont United Hospital said Weathers is in serious condition in the intensive care unit.

Martinez said the homeowner who shot Weathers, James Haflich of 2173 Meadowlark Lane, will not have charges recommended against him.

(More about Weathers)

From the LongmontFYI.com of September 17, 2005

Weld DA will make call on ‘Make My Day’ shooting

The sound of a window breaking awakens Ona Boutcher, who alerts her 69-year-old husband, Francis. Francis Boutcher pulls his .38-caliber revolver out of a closet and confronts the intruder in the kitchen of his home at 1020 Collyer St.

The two struggle. In the dining room, the intruder shoves Boutcher, who fires one shot and misses. The intruder throws a chair at Boutcher and pushes him to the floor.

Boutcher fires two more times.

One bullet hits Laureano Jacobo Griego Jr. in the head, killing him.

An autopsy later revealed the 18-year-old Longmont man had been drinking and smoking marijuana before he died.

The Boulder County District Attorney’s Office did not pursue charges against Boutcher, citing Colorado’s “Make My Day” law.

The Colorado Homeowner’s Protection Act of 1985 gives the occupant of a dwelling the right to use “any degree of physical force, including deadly physical force,” if a person is there illegally and seems intent on committing another crime. The occupant must have a “reasonable belief” that the intruder has committed or will commit a crime or might use physical force against anyone inside.

The law got its colloquial nickname from a line in a Clint Eastwood movie.

While Boutcher’s killing of Griego was justified under the law, it was not easy for the couple to accept, according to police.

“They were both devastated,” said Longmont Police Cmdr. Craig Earhart, who was the first sergeant at the scene that morning. “They were both very shook up by it.”

Both Francis and Ona Boutcher have died since the incident.

Almost immediately, police knew the “Make My Day” law applied to the situation, Earhart said. He believes it was the first situation of its kind in Longmont after the law passed.

Even without the “Make My Day” law, Francis Boutcher likely would have been protected by laws allowing people to defend themselves.

The difference is, self-defense laws require someone to use a reasonable degree of force against an imminent threat. The “Make My Day” law allows a resident to use any degree of force against an intruder to protect himself, other residents or his property, Earhart said.

“You don’t have to believe they’re going to kill you or assault you,” Earhart said.

The Weld County District Attorney’s Office will have to consider if the “Make My Day” law applies to Wednesday morning’s shooting in Meadow Vale, a subdivision east of Longmont. James Haflich, 49, shot Nathan Weathers after the 2004 Skyline High School graduate crawled into his house through the back window at about 4 a.m., according to the Weld County Sheriff’s Office.

Weathers, 19, survived and is in serious condition at Longmont United Hospital.

The gunshot wound was not serious, and his injuries likely were sustained in a motorcycle crash from earlier in the night, according to a sheriff’s spokeswoman.

The sheriff’s office said Weathers was intoxicated and likely thought he was entering his father’s house, a block away and on the same side of the street and distance from the corner.

(More about Colorado‘s “Make my day“ Law)

From the Longmont Daily Times-Call of January 13, 2006

Shooting won’t lead to charges

Homeowners, invader cleared in Sept. incident

A drunk and injured man who stumbled into the wrong home east of Longmont early on the morning of Sept. 14 and was shot by the homeowner will not face charges.

Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck said Thursday that his office will not file charges against 19-year-old Nathan Weathers for entering the home of James and Cheryl Haflich.

James Haflich, who shot Weathers in the arm when he entered the home, also won’t face charges.

According to Weld County Sheriff’s Office reports, Weathers was involved in a single-vehicle motorcycle accident near Weld County roads 5 and 26 before the shooting. He walked nearly a half-mile and tried to enter the Haflich home at 2173 Meadowlark Place, believing he was going to his own house a block away, reports indicated.

Weld County investigators said Weathers entered the Haflich home at 4 a.m. through a window off the back porch because the door was locked.

Cheryl Haflich first saw Weathers and then called her husband, who shot at Weathers three times with a 9-mm handgun, hitting him once, according to investigators.

The sheriff’s office initially recommended that the district attorney charge Weathers with trespassing.

Weathers was intoxicated, according the district attorney’s office, with a blood-alcohol level of 0.185 when he was taken to the hospital after the incident.

“Evidence in the case does not, beyond a reasonable doubt, establish that Mr. Weathers knowingly and unlawfully entered the Haflichs’ home or wished to commit a crime,” Buck’s office said in a statement.

“Mr. Weathers was also disoriented due to the motorcycle accident, and evidence shows that he did not know the Haflichs or have anything against them,” the statement said. “In addition, evidence does not show that Mr. Weathers was trying to sneak into the home, but rather believed he was trying to enter his own home and seek assistance for his injuries.”

The district attorney also said James Haflich acted reasonably when he armed himself and shot Weathers as an intruder.