Acquittal makes shooting defendant's day

Police and prosecutors did not think the “Make My Day” law gave a Colorado Springs man the right to shoot and wound a neighbor who smashed the man’s window with a beer bottle.

But an El Paso County jury decided otherwise last week. As a result, Timothy Allen Barfoot is a free man.

The jurors took a full day Thursday before finding Barfoot, 38, not guilty of first-degree attempted murder in the May 29 shooting at the Devonshire Square Apartments at 2770 E. Uintah St.

The verdict capped a nine-day trial in which public defenders representing Barfoot mounted a self-defense case based upon the 1985 “Make My Day” law that allows deadly force against someone who breaks into a home.

“Mr. Barfoot simply was protecting himself, his father and a house guest,” said Deputy Public Defender Chad Miller who along with Cindy Hyatt defended Barfoot.

Miller said testimony during the trial showed that the shooting victim, Christopher Manuel, 20, was drunk and on methamphetamine at the time of the incident.

“Mr. Barfoot simply reacted to the situation,” Miller said.

Police and prosecutors said the situation was a bit more complicated than that.

According to the arrest affidavit, Barfoot told investigators that the incident started when he heard a man and woman arguing outside his apartment.

About two minutes later, he heard pounding on the door of the next-door apartment and man shouting, “Let me in the (expletive) apartment.” Then he heard glass shattering next door.

Barfoot said he looked outside and saw Manuel wrestling on the ground with a woman later identified as Manuel’s mother.

Barfoot told police he yelled at Manuel who then started stumbling toward him. He said Manuel threw a beer bottle that shattered Barfoot’s window.

After getting his Beretta .380-caliber handgun, Barfoot said he showed the weapon to Manuel, who he said continued to advance toward the window. Barfoot said he fired until the gun was empty and then called police.

Police interviewed three witnesses, none of whom saw Manuel enter Barfoot’s apartment.

Criminal defense lawyers interviewed Tuesday were divided on whether the case represents an expansion of the Make My Day defense. The law’s name comes form a Clint Eastwood movie in which he plays a vigilante cop.

Dick Ott, a former Adams County district attorney, said a missile such as a bottle could be seen as expanding the law’s definition of an intruder.

But Ott, a criminal defense lawyer since 1992, said he would have argued that the beer bottle was an extension of the intruder, and thus, grounds for using that defense.

Tom Carberry, a former public defender, said almost from the inception of the Make My Day law there have been cases that tested what threshold an intruder has to cross before the law can be invoked.

No matter how carefully a law is written, there are always going to be cases where the facts test the meaning of the law, Carberry said.

“That’s why we have juries,” he said.

For more on this case, go to the Sidebar blog at Gazette.com