Judge: Man can be sued for wrongful death

A man acquitted of murder in a shooting outside his home under Colorado's Make My Day law can be sued for wrongful death, a judge ruled recently.

In 2005, a jury found Gary Lee Hill, 26, not guilty of all charges in the Sept. 5, 2004, shooting death of John David Knott, 19. Jurors found the shooting was self-defense under Colorado's Make My Day law, which allows people to use deadly force against an intruder to defend themselves in their homes.

But in early 2006, Knott's mother, Sally Ann Knott, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Hill.

Last week, 4th Judicial District Judge G. David Miller set a September trial date after ruling that a jury should decide if the shooting was "willful and deliberate" as opposed to self-defense.

Hill's attorney, Steven Bailey, had asked Miller to dismiss the case. He claimed Hill is immune from civil liability under Colorado's self-defense laws and that people injured while committing a felony or while fleeing from a felony are not entitled to damages, according to court filings.

"This was a tragic event for everyone," Bailey said Thursday. "Certainly from Mr. Hill's standpoint, he is always ever hopeful that someday this nightmare will be over."

According to testimony in the two-week trial in 2004, Hill got into a fight that night with Knott's girlfriend, Amanda Padilla, over her missing purse during a party at his Potter Circle house. Padilla admitted punching Hill before he got a rifle and ordered Padilla and her friend, Alessandra Ash, to leave his house.

The women returned just before 6 a.m. with Knott and Ash's boyfriend, Anthony Padilla. The four went to Hill's basement room, where he was asleep, and Amanda Padilla admitted punching him again.

Hill "was not sure if it was John Knott or Amanda Padilla who first hit him, but both were standing over him," according to Bailey's motion.

Hill was also hit in the head with brass knuckles, opening a gash that made him "bleed profusely," the motion states.

"This was cold and calculated criminal activity, which should not be rewarded by allowing recovery in a civil suit," according to the motion.

The four left Hill's house - vowing to return, Hill said during his deposition. Hill got a rifle from the closet, loaded it, went to the front porch and "fired a warning shot to scare them away," according to the motion.

Knott, who was hit in the back as he drove away, died of the gunshot wound after crashing the car.

Sally Knott's attorney, Joseph Winston, argued that self-defense didn't apply after the four left the house and that Hill's acquittal has no bearing on the wrongfuldeath lawsuit.

"Defendant testified at his deposition he did not feel threatened when he shot Mr. Knott and no one was threatening him," according to Winston's motion.

Longtime Colorado Springs attorney Lee Rosenbaum, who got a client acquitted using the Make My Day defense, said it may be easier for Hill to persuade a jury he acted in self-defense because at a civil trial, the level of proof will be lower than "beyond a reasonable doubt."

"A preponderance of the evidence is a much lower standard," Rosenbaum said of the civil trial.

Jurors will have to decide if Hill reasonably believed he was in imminent danger when he shot, Rosenbaum said.

"It sounds like what the defendant is trying to say is ‘this is double jeopardy - I already won this argument beyond a reasonable doubt,'" Rosenbaum said.

Even though Hill did convince jurors in his criminal trial beyond a reasonable doubt, a civil jury will not hear that fact, according to the rules of evidence.

Miller agreed to instruct jurors that Knott was shot "during the immediate flight" from acts defined as felonies in Hill's home, his ruling states.

The lawsuit doesn't specify the amount of damages Sally Knott is seeking.

"I really think he should pay for what he did," Sally Knott told The Gazette shortly after the lawsuit was filed.

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0110 or dennis.huspeni@gazette.com