Here's a recent case in the state of Pennsylvania, USA:


Guilty Plea Entered for Shooting Neighbor

NORRISTOWN, PA: June 4, 2001 — A Montgomery County man who shot his neighbor during what he thought was a break-in at his house in Upper Gwynedd Township has pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter.

A suburban Philadelphia man pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter Monday for fatally shooting a naked neighbor who entered his home in the middle of the night.

Paul John Bellina, 52, entered the guilty plea on the day his trial was expected to begin. He faces a maximum sentence of 10 to 20 years in prison.

The victim, Craig Holtzman, 31, was living next door with his parents at the time of the Sept. 13 shooting in Upper Gwynedd Township, Montgomery County. Authorities said Holtzman was drunk when he [wandered outside to take a leak and] mistakenly entered Bellina's home through the basement about 4:30 a.m. Authorities believe he may have mistaken the residence for his family's home, where he lived in the basement.

Bellina awoke to the sound of his burglar alarm, saw Holtzman at his door in the nude and retrieved his gun. Police said Bellina shot Holtzman eight times -- first inside the home and then again outside in the yard -- three times in the head.

Bellina was charged with voluntary manslaughter and reckless endangerment two weeks after the shooting. His lawyer, Patrick McMenamin, said he pleaded guilty in hopes of winning a more lenient sentence. McMenamin says Bellina is remorseful, but believes he was justified in the shooting. He says Bellina doesn't think jurors would agree.

Copyright 2001 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.


The reason for Bellina's suspicion that jurors wouldn't see his act as justifiable, as stated in local news stories at the time, was that Bellina followed the naked guy out the door onto the lawn as he was trying to escape a man HE must have assumed (in his drunken state) was an intruder in HIS home. And here again in this case, the shooter grabbed his gun first and used it, instead of calling police or escaping from the house himself. It was mentioned at the time that Bellina is a veteran, so his training in self-defense was touted as a factor in the shooting.

Anyway, there's one example for you, Red Eye, of what happens in these cases in the US.