Wednesday, October 09, 2019

People v. Winn (Cal. Ct. App. - Oct. 9, 2019)

At first glance, I thought this opinion highlighted yet another danger of being a landlord:  the risk you're going to get stabbed an killed by your tenant.  After all, the first sentence of the opinion reads:

"A jury found defendant Alexander Winn guilty of first degree murder for the stabbing death of David Derrington after Derrington had Winn and his wife evicted from their home."

Killing your landlord seems an excessive reaction to being evicted.  To say the least.

But once I read more, I discovered that this wasn't just any old landlord that the defendant killed.  The landlord was also his wife's ex-husband.  (The opinion is a little confusing in places because it talks about the defendant having killed "Darrington" -- meaning David Darrington -- even though the defendant's wife was also a Darrington:  Traci Darrington.)

You can understand why you might stab and kill your wife's ex-husband for reasons beyond those that might arise from being evicted.

So maybe the lesson here is:  Be careful if you're trying to evict your ex-wife and her current husband has -- as here -- served five prior prison terms.

Yeah.  That sounds about right.