This image was taken from the 2009 thriller movie Law Abiding Citizen where a father takes revenge for losing his wife and daughter.
A young Texas father who beat to death with his fists a man molesting his 5-year-old daughter will not be charged, authorities said Tuesday as they released a dramatic emergency call tape of the dad frantically pleading for help before the hired ranch helper died.
A Lavaca County grand jury Tuesday declined to indict the 23-year-old father in the death of Jesus Mora Flores, 47. Prosecutors said the grand jury reached same conclusion as police after reviewing the evidence: The father was authorized to use deadly force to protect his daughter.
Flores was killed June 9 on a family ranch so remote that the father is heard profanely screaming at a dispatcher who couldn’t locate the property.
The Associated Press is not identifying the father in order to protect the daughter’s identity. The AP does not identify victims of sexual assault.
The tense, nearly five-minute emergency call begins with the father saying that he “beat up’’ a man found raping his daughter. The father grows increasingly frazzled, cursing and crying into the phone so loudly at times that the call often becomes inaudible.
V’Anne Huser, the father’s attorney, sternly told reporters several times during a news conference at the Lavaca County courthouse that neither the father nor the family will ever give interviews.
“He’s a peaceable soul,’’ Huser said. “He had no intention to kill anybody that day.’’
The attack happened on the family’s ranch off a quiet, two-lane county road between the farming towns of Shiner and Yoakum. Authorities say a witness saw Flores “forcibly carrying’’ the girl into a secluded area and then scrambled to find the father. Running toward his daughter’s screams, investigators said, the father pulled Flores off his child and “inflicted several blows to the man’s head and neck area.’’
Emergency crews found Flores’ pants and underwear pulled down on his lifeless body by the time they responded to the emergency call. The girl was taken to a hospital and examined, and authorities say forensic evidence and witness accounts corroborated the father’s story that his daughter was being sexually molested.
Philip Hilder, a Houston criminal defense attorney and former federal prosecutor, said he would have been surprised if the grand jury had decided to indict the father. Hilder said Texas law provides several justifications for the use of deadly force, including if someone committing a sexual assault.
“The grand jury was not about to indict this father for protecting his daughter,’’ he said.
Authorities said the family had hired Flores before to help with horses on the ranch. He was not born in the U.S. but was here legally with a green card.
(AP)
<관련 한글 기사>
딸 성추행 목격한 아빠, 분노의 복수로…
5세 딸 성추행 현장에서 범인 폭행 살해
미국 일간 크리스천사이언스모니터 인터넷판은 16일 텍사스주 샤이너에서 딸을 성추행한 남성을 살해한 아버지(23)의 행위가 정당한 것이냐는 논란이 일고 있다고 보도했다.
딸과 살해된 남성의 친척을 보호하기 위해 관련자들의 신원이 전혀 보도되지 않고 있다. 다만 이 아버지는 지난 9일 마구간에서 딸을 성추행하는 남성을 살해한 것으로 알려졌다.
사건 당시 딸은 닭들에 모이를 주기 위해 마구간으로 갔으며, 딸의 비명 소리를 듣고 달려간 아버지는 이 남성이 성추행하는 모습을 보고 격분, 폭행해 숨지게 했다는 것이다.
성 추행범은 말 조련사로 딸의 가족들과 안면이 있었다.
범인은 머리와 목에 타박상을 입고 그 자리에서 숨졌으며, 딸은 가벼운 상처를 입고 병원으로 옮겨져 치료를 받았다.
아버지는 누구를 살해할 의도가 없었다며 자신의 행위를 깊이 후회한다고 말한것으로 알려졌다.
경찰 조사 결과 살해 동기에 대한 아버지의 주장과 배치되는 증거는 나오지 않았다.
텍사스주 대배심은 살해 정황을 깊이 조사하고 있으며, 다음주 이 사건을 다룰 예정이다.
이번 사건에 대해 대부분 여론은 아버지를 동정하고 있으며, 누구라도 이 아버지의 상황에 처했더라면 우발적인 살해를 배제할 수 없었을 것이라는 견해를 보이고 있다
그러나 법률 전문가들은 어떤 상황에서도 법의 심판에 맡기지 않고, 당사자가 가해자를 응징하는 것은 법률상 허용되지 않는다는 입장을 보이고 있다.
성추행이 사실이라면 딸을 보호하는 것이 당연한 권리이지만 아무리 분노에 차있더라도 스스로 범인을 즉결 처형할 수는 없다는 것이다.
이번 사건에서 아버지가 법적 책임을 져야 할 가능성을 배제할 수 없으나 미국 배심원들의 대부분은 현재까지 밝혀진 상황에서는 아버지가 딸을 보호할 권리가 있다는 입장을 보이는 것으로 알려졌다. (연합뉴스)
