Mescal, Arizona

From the San Pedro Valley News-Sun of February 14, 2007

No charges filed in Mescal shooting death

Criminal charges will not be filed in the November 2006 shooting death of a Benson man, according to the Cochise County Sheriff's Office. The Cochise County Attorney's Office notified investigators in a Feb. 8 letter, said Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Carol Capas.

"The present state of evidence does not allow us to overcome the defense of self defense. Indeed, the evidence seems to support the suspect's claim that he killed the victim in self defense," states the letter from Deputy County Attorney Gerald Till to Sheriff's Office Sgt. Mark Genz.

Jesse Earhart, 25, died at the scene of the Nov. 8 incident after being shot twice by Clavis Baum during an altercation in Baum's mobile home at 3183 W. Ripple Road in Mescal.

Baum told investigators and the News-Sun that he shot Earhart twice with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun after Earhart unleashed a brass-knuckles attack on him.

"I was defending my own life," said Baum in an interview with the News-Sum.

Baum reported to authorities the day after the shooting that he'd received death threats, according to Sheriff's Office incident call logs.

"A lot of people think that I had some other choice, that there was something else I could have done and that I didn't have to do this," said Baum. "But at that point it was life or death - I was fighting for my life."

Till told the News-Sun recently that the angles at which Earhart was shot - once in the leg and on the left side of the chest - seemed to support Baum's account.

In the days following the shooting, Baum said he was unaware of any motive Earhart might have had and that he did not think he would face criminal charges.

"I think it was pretty obvious to them (authorities), what they saw, how beat up I was and how swollen my head was on the left side.

"I simply and solely had that gun for protection for myself; I had in mind to shoot nobody with it. He had a plan, he was waiting for the opportune moment to initiate it or carry it out. I'm not a cold-blooded killer or murderer. I am a man who was doing his best and determined to save his own life."