Ashland, Ohio

From the Mansfield News Journal of August 26, 2006

Prosecutor: Jeromesville man will not be charged because shooting was self-defense

No criminal charges will be filed in connection with a shooting earlier this month in Jeromesville that sent a rural Ashland man to the hospital.

Prosecutor Ramona Francesconi-Rogers said Friday the shooting was self-defense after reviewing the facts in the case, statements from three people involved and applicable state law.

A. Thomas Piacent, 53, of 783 County Road 30A, Ashland, was shot in the abdomen Aug. 6 after entering the home of his stepson-in-law, Michael Bigley, at 36 Glenn St., Jeromesville, at around 9 p.m.

Piacent spent several days in critical condition at an out-of-town hospital and has since been released. Bigley, 35, spent several days in the Ashland County Jail before he was released without being charged.

Francesconi-Rogers said the incident started when Piacent read a published report that Bigley attacked a 17-year-old boy in front of his home and went to Glenn Street to confront Bigley about "things he felt were of an ongoing nature" involving the treatment of his stepdaughter and her children. Piacent went into the home and found Bigley in a back bedroom, where they got into a verbal argument.

Piacent called Bigley outside to "settle things like men," was locked out of the home, pounded on windows around the front door, went to his vehicle to get a cane and then broke down the door, which was locked with a deadbolt. The prosecutor said Bigley warned Piacent he would shoot if Piacent tried to come back in, and fired a .38-caliber handgun after Piacent shattered the doorframe when he re-entered.

Francesconi-Rogers said both men told essentially the same story to law enforcement officials, as did a man who accompanied Piacent as a witness and "for protection." He was not identified.

The prosecutor said she decided not to file charges or to take the case to the grand jury, which met Thursday and Friday, after reviewing the facts and applying Ohio law and the criteria for a successful self-defense argument. She said the criteria include:

. The defendant is not at fault for creating the situation that gave rise to the event that resulted in harm.

. The defendant has a reasonable belief he or she is in immediate or imminent danger of great bodily harm and the only means of retreat from that danger is the use of deadly force.

. The defendant has not violated the duty to retreat.

Francesconi-Rogers also pointed out that a person has no duty to retreat in their home before using deadly force or to use other means first to repel an assailant from coming in. She said the only people in the home at the time were Bigley and his three children, ages 7, 9 and 12.

"The answer appears very clear to me he had the right to defend himself in that home under those circumstances and that he would have established successful self-defense at trial," Francesconi-Rogers said. "Had I had any conflicting evidence or conflicting arguments within this office about what it might have constituted, I would have taken it to the grand jury.".