In what some believe will be a new test for Texas’s stand your ground law, a homeowner has been charged with murder after he shot and killed a man parked on his driveway.
The homeowner, 65-year-old Terry Duane Turner, was arrested last week and charged with murdering Adil Dghoughi, the Caldwell County Sheriff’s Office said.
Turner’s defense attorney told CNN his client was defending himself and his property during the Oct. 11 incident. According to a police affidavit, Turner woke up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom when he saw a car parked in his driveway with its lights off.
He returned to his bedroom to retrieve his handgun and ran outside to confront the person in the vehicle. At that point, according to Turner, the car turned its lights on and began to reverse out of the driveway.
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Turner “struck the front driver’s side door window twice with his handgun” and fired the gun, striking the driver, the affidavit said.
Dghoughi’s girlfriend, Sarah Todd, told CNN she believes her boyfriend had gotten lost and had pulled into Turner’s driveway to look up directions. At this point, there does not seem to be any connection between the two men.
Turner turned himself in to the sheriff’s office on Friday, and his attorney said his client is cooperating with the investigation.
“I just killed a guy,” he told the 911 operator the night of the incident. He also claimed that Dghoughi “started racing away and I ran after him. He pointed a gun at me, and I shot.”
Investigators did not recover a firearm in Dghoughi’s car, but they did recover a single spent shell casing on the driver’s side of the vehicle.
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Texas’s stand your ground law is found in Chapter 9 of the Texas Penal Code and stipulates that deadly force is justified if that force is “imminently necessary” to protect a person against another’s use of deadly force, aggravated kidnapping, murder, sexual assault, aggravated sexual assault, robbery, or aggravated robbery.
Turner’s task will be to convince a jury or a judge that his use of deadly force was justified based on the circumstances of the incident.
“If a person uses excessive or deadly force when their life was not really in danger, it can be difficult to defend their actions,” Texas law firm, Simer & Tetens notes. “To raise the defense, you will have to prove that you did not provoke the person who attacked you and that you were not breaking any laws at the time the incident occurred.”
Turner was released on bond on Friday.
give him the huntsville covid vax
examples need made for bad shoots
I had a similar incident where a luxury car parked in front of our house next to the curb. A guy got off and began knocking the door for several minutes. I thought he was a salesman, so I ignored the knocking. I hadn’t seen the car at this point yet. Shutters were closed. It was mid morning on a week day and there were a few people in the park across the other side of our home. It’s very peaceful and quiet here, so it’s easy to let your guard down. I peeked through the shutters and saw a young guy that didn’t appear to be a threat, but it didn’t make sense that he drove a 4~door Porsche Panamera. So I went to one of the upstairs bedrooms and noticed the car didn’t have paper plates. Mother also saw it and advised me to call 911. No emergency but something told me to call the Sheriff to report a suspicious car with paper plates. After about a minute of talking to a deputy, 3 guys suddenly rushed opened the doors of the car and rushed up the driveway. One had thick green gloves and was heading for one of the gates. In a panic and almost frozen, I decided to grab my shotgun. The scariest thought for me was having to shoot one of more people and possibly kill them. After pointing my shotgun at the rear doors, the green~gloved ex~con appeared with outstretched arms. Within a few seconds he was gone, and the car they came in was leaving up the side street. It ended in about 3 minutes or less but the first sheriff showed up 14 minutes later. They were all seasoned ex~cons who specialize in “knock knock” burglaries, but they were intent on breaking into our home. My mother is 81 and handicapped. Her hands were shaking so bad that she couldn’t even dial a phone. I hate to think what would have happened if one or more of them had entered our home.
Based on evidence this article provides id vote guilty murder 2
Get off my lawn!!
If something like this happened in any other state other than TX or FL, the homeowner would just let the person leave.
However, in Texas, and probably in Florida, they chase people down and shoot them claiming self-defense. Not sure how that works, but Texas and Florida are poopshows so he’ll probably get away with murder.
Let the Cubans take Florida and give Texas back to Mexico. Problems solved.
Quit calling these SATANIC NAZI WANNABE POWER HAPPY CONTROL FREAK HUMAN GIVEN government JOB TITLED PIECES of SHIT TYRANT CRIMINALS, Buy a GOOD SHOVEL.
Wow. I am impressed so many on here know all the facts of the case from 1 (ONE) article. Given that CNN is involved in the background of the story I see no way we have all the facts. Keep in mind there was a spent shell found in the vehicle. Was it from Mr. Turner or did the deceased also have a weapon at some point? A little early to convict Mr. Turner. It is a tragic event any way you slice it. Many lives will be horribly changed from this incident.
Stand your Ground has absolutely nothing to do with this. All that stand your ground laws do is to remove an otherwise existing duty to retreat before deadly force may be used. All other elements of self defense law must still be present.
Innocence (don’t start the deadly physical force fight).
Imminence (the deadly force threat must be either in process, or imminently about to occur).
Avoidance (run away if you can). This is the only part of self defense law that is affected by Stand Your Ground.
Proportionality (don’t use deadly physical force against a non-deadly threat)
Reasonableness (Is your decision to use deadly force reasonable under the totality of the circumstances?)
Based on the “facts” that we are given here:
Innocence – It appears as if the defendant initiated deadly physical force when he approached the vehicle and opened fire on the retreating vehicle.
Imminence – It appears that the “victim” was retreating and that there was no threat occurring or about to occur.
Avoidance – Not applicable here due to Stand Your Ground law.
Proportionality – It does not appear that any physical threat was made, so the use of lethal force is certainly not applicable here.
Reasonableness – While the defendant may have believed that he was facing a deadly force threat, another reasonable person in the same situation may not see it that way. Based on the information we are given, this does not seem to be a reasonable use of force under the apparent circumstances.
Based on this, it appears that Mr. Turner may indeed be guilty of murder, or at the very least voluntary manslaughter. Of course, there may be more facts (that either have not surfaced yet, or that we have simply not been told) which may change how these principles apply.
CNN ? – I will wait for facts.
An over abundance of quick thinking coupled with a lack of judgment. He should have stayed in the house until he could process what he was seeing. Its not like he didnt have the time to do it.
He’s 65 years old, sounds like he’s been waiting a long time to shoot someone.
As a fairly large landowner, I’ve had to run trespassers and poachers off my land many times in my lifetime. Usually without incidence. Once, about twenty people in their late teens and early twenties were spinning doughnuts with their trucks in my newly planted field. My dad and I confronted them and caught them in the act. Twenty of them and two of us, things got a little hairy. My father and I were both armed, he with his pistol and me with my M1 carbine. My dad was furious and things started to escalate. At this point I had to take over and remind my dad that even though they were destroying our crops, no one needed to get hurt or worse over this. They were just wild kids out having a good time and not being responsible. We were all kids once and probably all of us had our wild times and periods of stupidity. It comes with growing up. The kids left and I don’t believe they’ve ever been back. They probably all came from good homes and I’m sure they all had family that loved them. That night they were able to go home and hopefully get a good nights sleep and reflect the next day on what had transpired.
The reason I say this is that the young man backed out of the driveway as soon as the homeowner came out. He should have been permitted to leave. Now, many more than just two lives are changed forever over something that could have just been shrugged off.
Doesn’t sound like a justified shooting based on the story as reported.
Many law enforcement officers perform similar actions with similar results.
“ he tried to ram me/run me over” or “ I thought I saw a gun/weapon”
Many times bodycam and dash cam video will refute that claim.
There are also many law enforcement officers that put theirselves in the path of a moving vehicle.
Perhaps the defense will use the police tactics as precedent action.
A vehicle parked in a driveway can justify concern, but doesn’t justify deadly force absent other actions.
How quick you all are to condemn a man based on one news story. Remember how we hated it when they did that to Kavanaugh?
I’ll wait for the facts to be released in court before I form my opinion.
Why this guy didn’t call 911 say there was a suspicious vehicle in my driveway with its lights off. Obviously the 911 operator is going to start asking for details on what the home owner is able to see from inside his home. The home owner all the while is fine to get his Gun in case something happens while waiting for the cops, but he should otherwise stayed in his home describing what he was seeing to 911. Not run outside and put himself in such a dumb and avoidable mess.
This is a perfect example of why not everyone is suited for gun ownership. These cases are on the increase. In some ways the gun lobby is forcing incompetent people to purchase guns through fear and untenable interpretation of unlimited 2a rights.
Back in the mid 70’s when I was a inexperienced teen driver, I got lost late one night out doing something I shouldn’t have been doing, drinking beer and smoking wacky-weed with my high school friends – all while driving my dads car. I was out in the middle of nowhere at 2 am, tripp’n on sinsemilla, half drunk after a couple of Country Club tall boys, 5 hours late getting home, and lost on a dark, rainy, and cold November night.
I pulled in to some old guys driveway, banged on the door, woke them up, and asked for directions. That ‘old guy’ was probably about 30 years younger than I am now. I know how blessed I am there wasn’t a ‘Mr. Turner’ living at that country home, because I sat in their driveway probably 5 minutes staring at that darkened house trying to get up the nerve to knock on the door and ask for directions home.
I support our 2nd amendment right 100%, but you can’t shoot someone just because they pull into your driveway and turn their lights off. Especially after you go out and confront them and they try to leave. No doubt this hothead was brandishing and probably scared the crap out of the guy as Turner approached him – gun in hand. No matter why he was there.
If Turner was that scared something was about to happen to him he should have armed himself, called the police, and watched the guy from inside and awaited the cavalry.
Then if the guy got out of his car, ball bat or crowbar in hand, you can pretty much surmise he wasn’t there to play baseball or work on your house. If he took one of those ‘tools’ and started beating your door down, THEN maybe it’s time to use deadly force.
Dude. I wasn’t there, but it sounds like this guy just murdered someone
This guy is an idiot. He is not smart enough to own firearms. Just because you have a gun doesn’t mean you can shoot anyone you want. He IS guilty of murder.
Yep, this guy’s in a heap of deep do do.
Mr Turner I am sorry for you but I believe personally you made a mistake I am a staunch second amendment supporter and yes my home is armed I am 65 years old and I pray that I never have to pull my weapon if someone breaks into my house my personal opinion is you were clearly in the wrong I support strongly stand your ground but you made a strong error in your judgment may God help you through this time and for the families of the man that was shot.
He’s a moron he should have of at least gave a verbal warning first and wait for a response he had his firearm what was he thinking
Moron or not, if the guy in the car had a gun, that would have got him shot…
Mr. Turner, time to order the Vaseline for your long stay in prison. Goodbye access to firearms.
Sorry, there, Turner. When he started backing out of the driveway and no ‘verifiable’ threats were being made…to put it mildly, you have a problem due to your actions. You opened fire on a retreating individual and, again…no ‘verifiable’ threat towards yourself. I’m a staunch 2nd amendment advocate and supporter. I can see where you might have been ‘concerned’ and with good reason, but when he started leaving…get the license plate, if you can, make and model of vehicle, if possible, description of the individual and call the police with that information. Then, fill out a statement. Finally, hope for the best.
Sorry Turner you are wrong this is a horrible thing.
I hink this is NOT a stand your ground case, if the driver of the car was trying to leave than there was NO danger. I agree that the last thing he should have done was to leave his house, if the driver exited his car and tried to gain entry to the home than i would say this was a justified shooting but someone trying to leave is NOT justified. I wish the the guy in the car had just said he was sorry and he was lost but he will leave. I mean maybe he did but we will never know. Just my opinion here but this should be classified as a crime and he should have his day in court to let a jury decide if he should go to prision or not. This is what our judicial system is for but with the little info being presented to us it sounds like it was not a justified shooting to me.
Agreed. This case has nothing whatsoever to do with Stand Your Ground.
1.) When the “threat” retreats, the danger is over; you don’t get to keep “defending”
2.) Running after a retreating “threat” while shooting is NOT self-defense
3.) There were so many other possible ways the homeowner could have handled this, all without killing someone.
Yeah, that’s definitely not self-defense or SYG. He instigated a confrontation with a deadly weapon in hand where there was no clear threat, then shot the man when he attempted to flee the crazy guy with a gun coming at him. That is murder, straight up. My guess? He went out spoiling for a fight, saw a colored man in his driveway, and shot the (in his head, anyway) dangerous criminal thug who was clearly casing his home.
Mr Turner should be charged for murder.
The fact that the victim turned on his lights and was backing out of the driveway is enough not justify the killing. I agree with Chris also.
Sorry Turner was not self defending.
He was attacking like a rabid dog.
Ida called the police rather than start shooting at a random car in my driveway.
Dude could be lost or just turning around.
I know I have done both before and would hate to think I have to wear a bullet proof helmet and vests just to take a drive.
This sounds like a very tragic incident and this Turner guy looks to be an idiot. Well he didn’t do himself, the victim or anyone that supports the 2nd Amendment any favors. He didn’t have to go outside to investigate and could’ve just called the police to come by and check it out. I know that depending on where you live this might not be possible for the Police to come and check but you can at least call. He didn’t need to leave the safety of his home where he had the advantage and open himself up to an ambush if someone else was outside hiding/waiting. He could of used a flashlight from the inside of his home to light up the car and see what is going on as well as giving a warning to the unknown person in the car. He didn’t need to brandish his firearm in an aggressive manner and discharge his weapon. He left the safety of his own home and escalated the situation. Hard to claim self defense in that scenario.