| Submit your comments on this article |
| -Lurid Crime Tales- |
| He Was So Mean, He Once Shot A Man For Giving Him A Wedgie |
| 2008-07-02 |
| The Utah Supreme Court today threw out the manslaughter conviction of Erik Kurtis Low, who killed a Park City man after the victim gave him a 'wedgie.' Low, now 40, claimed in his 2005 trial he was defending himself when he shot 38-year-old Michael Jon Hirschey following a night of drinking, drug use and horseplay. In reversing the conviction, the high court ruled the trial judge shouldn't have granted a prosecution request to instruct jurors they could convict Low on the lesser offense of extreme emotional distress manslaughter. The justices also ruled prosecutors are barred from retrying Low for murder, extreme emotional distress manslaughter, or imperfect self-defense manslaughter. The state could retry Low for other forms of manslaughter or lesser offenses. Court records say Hirschey teased, manhandled and threatened Low while they and two other men were ingesting cocaine at his apartment. Finally, in the early morning hours of May 8, 2003, Hirschey grabbed Low's underwear and yanked upward hard enough to pull him off his feet. About 15 seconds later, Low shot Hirschey in the shoulder and the head, according to court records. Low was charged with murder; a 3rd District Court jury deadlocked in February 2005. At a second trial a few months later, Summit County prosecutors asked for jury instructions on extreme emotional distress manslaughter. The defense objected, saying the jury would confuse the instruction with Low's self-defense claim, but was overruled. Jurors acquitted Low of first-degree murder but convicted him of manslaughter. He was sentenced by Judge Bruce Lubeck to up to 16 years in prison. Low's attorney on appeal, Elizabeth Hunt argued that the choice of whether to assert a defense of extreme emotional distress manslaughter is up to the defendant, not the prosecutor. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #1 Tom Wesley Hardin [for too loud Snorin']??? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2008-07-02 19:10 |