(Saw this on the local news this morning before I fell asleep. Only thing that surprises me here is that the couple was white, really. Then again, this did happen in Long Beach, so…)
On the one hand, this is probably murder if what’s been reported about her horror movie actress fall is true, especially given that Califorinia is rather stringent about when it’s “appropriate” to defend your self. While there are times where I think that California’s self-defense laws should be more relaxed even as much I personally don’t like guns, at least we don’t have those ridiculous “Stand Your Ground (Against Minorities, Mostly)” laws here (yet).
On the other hand, even if it is murder and the guy gets charged, I still don’t really care. I think what he did was “understandable” rather than, say, “right” and there’s no love lost that this woman is in the ground. Considering that the couple had assaulted him before, probably would have killed if they had the chance and didn’t care about their unborn child if it even actually existed, I can’t say she’ll really be missed. You could try to make the case that may be they were stealing to try to support their unborn child or some bullshit, but, unless you’re an idiot who probably shouldn’t be reproducing anyway, you don’t steal from someone’s house for that.
That said, I’m not going to be one of those people who are ridiculously trying to determine that the child would have assuredly turned out to be some type of criminal like its mother. It’s likely that may have happened if they kept the child, but who knows what or who it would have turned out to be or if it would have even lived past birth/infancy. Now it gets to be nothing if it actually existed in the first place.
Speaking of which, I wonder how long it will take them to confirm if she was actually pregnant and not just trying to manipulate his emotions, in vain, to save her life. I wouldn’t put past her to be outright lying since women thieves are like that, though of course that wouldn’t make it any less murder on the old man’s part.
Ultimately, her being pregnant doesn’t really matter: she’s dead now for reasons she brought on herself, even if her death probably isn’t legally justifiable (in California). Tough shit.