Chevy 2 65
NES Member
Complete and total disregard for a citizens rights. What can the people do?The defense did use the "licensed wife was home alone watching the guns" defense. It didn't work or at least it didn't work on all 22 of the allegedly exposed guns. It may have been a factor in the 10 acquittals but that still left 12 guilty verdicts... enough to further bankrupt him, take away his gun rights & collection and put him away for the rest of his life. Unbelievable but true, although some believe the sentence will be far less. The real goals were the felony conviction, a little House of Correction time, confiscation of his collection and forever PP status.
I don't believe the defense was ever really based on a "cops forced her from the house" defense. I believe the prosecution acknowledged that she was home with the guns. I believe it went more to that dubious "under the control of the owner or other lawfully authorized user" wording, further refined by the wording "under the control of a person if the person is sufficiently near the firearm to immediately prevent its unauthorized use" (or similar) from case law. In other words, yes she was there with the guns but not close enough to them at all times to meet the enhanced criteria.
Remember that the prosecutor dismissed all the testimony of the wife as simply the words of a clueless, loving wife just trying to protect her dastardly evil husband who likes killing children... and, apparently, the jury bought it.