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BS: Talk about a 'tough room'

12 Mar 01 - 04:03 PM (#415961)
Subject: Talk about a 'tough room'
From: rangeroger

Just got this by e-mail.

Man Gets 99 years for killing over a song.
CORPUS CHRISTI,Texas (Reuters) - A Texas man was sentenced to 99 years in prison for killing a musician who did not know the song he requested,a prosecutor says.

Ramon Cabera,48, became angry with David Saenz,57,because Saenz could not play "El Guajolote",or "The Turkey",so he shot him in the head with a .38 caliber pistol,Assistant Nueces County District Attorney Mark Skurka told Reuters on Friday.

"As a prosecutor,I've seen a lot of senseless killings,but this one -- there's just no way to explain it", he said.

Saenz was a local character who often played the guitar and accordian and sang for his neighbors,Skurka said.

Witnesses said both men had been drinking beer when Cabera insisted that Saenz play "El Guajolote",but Saenz insisted he did not know it.They argued briefly and Cabera went home,only to return a few minutes later with gun in hand.

"He told people to move out of the way,then drilled him with the .38 right in the forehead",Skurka said.

Saenz died at the scene with the guitar an the accordian at his feet.

Cabera testified he was not drunk when he shot Saenz,but had no memory of the murder.He was sentenced by a jury on Thursday and,under Texas law,will be eligible for parole in 30 years.

rr


12 Mar 01 - 04:18 PM (#415980)
Subject: RE: BS: Talk about a 'tough room'
From: wysiwyg

Post the lyrics!!! Hurry up!!!!!

~S~


12 Mar 01 - 04:21 PM (#415983)
Subject: RE: BS: Talk about a 'tough room'
From: Rick Fielding

I'd rather have gotten shot than have to play that turkey!

Rick


12 Mar 01 - 04:26 PM (#415986)
Subject: RE: BS: Talk about a 'tough room'
From: Kim C

Them's mighty purty hands you got. You wanna keep em? Play I'm A Good Ole Rebel.


12 Mar 01 - 04:27 PM (#415987)
Subject: RE: BS: Talk about a 'tough room'
From: Sorcha

SONG CHALLENGE!!!


12 Mar 01 - 04:34 PM (#415996)
Subject: RE: BS: Talk about a 'tough room'
From: catspaw49

It wasn't that he didn't know the song, it was the accordion.

Spaw


12 Mar 01 - 04:41 PM (#416003)
Subject: RE: BS: Talk about a 'tough room'
From: Rick Fielding

Now of course if the musician HAD played

Feelings

You Light up my Life

Heart of Gold

Tie a Yellow Ribbon

Achy Breaky Heart

...they could have just pleaded "justifiable homicide" and the shooter would have walked.


12 Mar 01 - 04:51 PM (#416011)
Subject: RE: BS: Talk about a 'tough room'
From: gnu

Spaw.... the accordion ? You mean, a crime of passion ? jealousy ? I have read in some posts that the accordion has a ( sex ) life all of it's own. Perhaps it was homocide ?

gnu


12 Mar 01 - 04:52 PM (#416013)
Subject: RE: BS: Talk about a 'tough room'
From: Matt_R

For the last bleeding time, there is nothing wrong with Achy Breaky Heart!!!!!!!


12 Mar 01 - 04:52 PM (#416014)
Subject: RE: BS: Talk about a 'tough room'
From: wysiwyg

Lessee... Rick wanted to learn target shooting... I think if I work those uo into an autoharp medley... yup, then when he and Heather come to call... yup.... ssshhh!

~S~


12 Mar 01 - 04:54 PM (#416016)
Subject: RE: BS: Talk about a 'tough room'
From: Jon Freeman

I have played in pubs for pints of beer where people have turned nasty if you can't do a song but this is crazy. I can't help but wonder again about the wisdom of the US gun laws.

Jon


12 Mar 01 - 04:59 PM (#416021)
Subject: RE: BS: Talk about a 'tough room'
From: gnu

The gun had nothing to do with it. Perhaps the alcohol ?

gnu


12 Mar 01 - 04:59 PM (#416023)
Subject: RE: BS: Talk about a 'tough room'
From: SINSULL

OOOH Tie A Yellow Ribbon AND Feelings on the autoharp! That's worth practicing. Want to do a duet?


12 Mar 01 - 05:05 PM (#416028)
Subject: RE: BS: Talk about a 'tough room'
From: Tyke

It's about time the world got rid of Guns altogether!

The reform of the Gun Law in England has come too late for some. We don't even hear about the daily I drive by shooting's in the USA. Unless someone famous is shot or it happens in a School.


12 Mar 01 - 05:13 PM (#416032)
Subject: RE: BS: Talk about a 'tough room'
From: Wesley S

I wonder if a National guitar would stop a .38 ?? Or if Martin could come up with some armor plate for the back of one of their special models ? Then they could identify the guitar with the bullet it will stop. A B-38 or a B-45 or even a B-12Guage. Hmmmmm.......


12 Mar 01 - 05:27 PM (#416043)
Subject: RE: BS: Talk about a 'tough room'
From: Peter T.

Old theatre joke:
"I don't want to say it was a tough crowd, but halfway through they turned the theatre back into a barn...."

yours, Peter T.


12 Mar 01 - 05:37 PM (#416053)
Subject: RE: BS: Talk about a 'tough room'
From: wysiwyg

Sins, bring it on!

~S~


12 Mar 01 - 05:39 PM (#416054)
Subject: RE: BS: Talk about a 'tough room'
From: katlaughing

Sorry I fail to see the humour in this. It is just stupid and sad.


12 Mar 01 - 05:53 PM (#416061)
Subject: RE: BS: Talk about a 'tough room'
From: bill\sables

I recall one night a few years ago when I was playing in the Jolly Roger Pub in Scarborough Yorkshire with guitarist Steve Martin. After half time a group of six hells angels walked in wearing their "origionals" They were big buggers, you must have seen the type, tattoos on their teeth and muscles in their spit. Well in those days I used to play a few tunes on 5 string banjo and we had already played Grandfathers Clock, Beverley Hillbillies, and Dueling Banjos before they walked in. They saw the banjo on a stand behind me and requested Dueling Banjos again. Now I am not one to play the same tune twice in one night so I walked to the mike and said "This is a tune called Dueling Banjos" and lived to play again.
Percy French said "Best be a coward for five minutes than a dead man all your life"
Bill


12 Mar 01 - 06:37 PM (#416099)
Subject: RE: BS: Talk about a 'tough room'
From: Jon Freeman

gnu, OK, it was the alcohol, lets try the prohibition again.

Jon


12 Mar 01 - 07:50 PM (#416162)
Subject: RE: BS: Talk about a 'tough room'
From: GUEST,petr

theres a great book called Ireland a tin whistle and a bicycle. About a fellow traveling around Ireland and going to all the sessions. At one point he's in a pub in the North having drinks with some bikers. They see that he has a guitar so they make him get up and play. He goes through a number of tunes and they request John Denver. He doesnt know any, "Play some John Denver or well kill ya". somehow the words to country roads make their way to the forefront of his mind.


12 Mar 01 - 08:10 PM (#416181)
Subject: RE: BS: Talk about a 'tough room'
From: FOG(Friend of Gnome)

I have almost been shot on many occasions for actually knowing the words to some of the ones that I do!! FOG


12 Mar 01 - 09:50 PM (#416256)
Subject: RE: BS: Talk about a 'tough room'
From: DougR

Prison sentence? I wonder why they didn't sentence him to be executed? Seems like a clear case of premeditated murder to me.

DougR


12 Mar 01 - 10:10 PM (#416278)
Subject: RE: BS: Talk about a 'tough room'
From: Sorcha

No, it's not funny, but you either laugh or cry. We make humor out of things that hurt the most.

i will not get involved in a gun debate again.
i will not get involved in a gun debate again.
i will not get involved in a gun debate agian.

Sorcha the Cop's Wife in the Wild, Wild West, USA.


12 Mar 01 - 10:14 PM (#416284)
Subject: RE: BS: Talk about a 'tough room'
From: Pete M

DougR

perhaps because they realise that someone capable of doing this is in need of help not retribution, perhaps they realise that state sanctioned execution is also premeditated murder and that two wrongs don't cancel, perhaps they believe in the sanctity of life, much touted as slogan in America I believe.

Pete M


12 Mar 01 - 10:29 PM (#416294)
Subject: RE: BS: Talk about a 'tough room'
From: Burke

Pete, this is Texas we're wondering about.


12 Mar 01 - 10:34 PM (#416298)
Subject: RE: BS: Talk about a 'tough room'
From: Sorcha

Ahh, well, Texas.........no prob, then, right? Hey, Aine lives in Texas..........we don't want her shot, now, do we?


12 Mar 01 - 10:40 PM (#416301)
Subject: RE: BS: Talk about a 'tough room'
From: Amergin

Not so ong as she knows how to play "El Guajolote",or "The Turkey"......


12 Mar 01 - 10:42 PM (#416304)
Subject: RE: BS: Talk about a 'tough room'
From: Sorcha

Maybe she could make Mole instead? or play Turkey in the Straw?


12 Mar 01 - 11:07 PM (#416315)
Subject: RE: BS: Talk about a 'tough room'
From: Pete M

well yes Burke, but I did try and resist singling Texas out with an "even in Texas" clause. Perhaps now they have got rid of their last Govenor there is hope even there.

Sorry, I shouldn't pick on Americans, we have just as many (in percentage terms) people in NZ who cannot see any contradiction in advocating the "right to life" for a foetus and the death penalty in the same breath.

Sorcha, I don't particularly want to open that topic again either since it is very rarely a debate, more a continuous statement of opposing views. However the thing that concerns me is the number of the pro gun lobby who base their case on their "rights". If those who wished to own guns, as I do, saw it as a privilidge they had to earn by a practical demonstration of both need and their capability to handle the responsibility, I believe both this kind of incident, and many tragic accidents would be greatly reduced. I'm not naive enough to think they will ever be totally prevented.

Pete M


13 Mar 01 - 11:28 AM (#416587)
Subject: RE: BS: Talk about a 'tough room'
From: Kim C

Well, you know, Texas is sort of its own country....


13 Mar 01 - 12:38 PM (#416660)
Subject: RE: BS: Talk about a 'tough room'
From: Steve Latimer

Gnu, you're right, it wasn't the gun.

It was the bullet.

Having said that, I'm with Sorcha.


13 Mar 01 - 08:03 PM (#416988)
Subject: RE: BS: Talk about a 'tough room'
From: DougR

I hear you Peter M. But it seems to me they still should have fried him. No, they don't do that anymore, though, do they? Even in Texas they stick them with a needle.

DougR


14 Mar 01 - 07:18 PM (#417746)
Subject: RE: BS: Talk about a 'tough room'
From: Burke

The death penalty in Texas did not begin with Bush, so it's doubtful that it will end with him. Bush could grant clemency, but its the judges & jurors of Texas who decide to pronounce the penalty in the first place. A new govenor might bring more commuted sentences, but real change needs the state as a whole to change. Given that so many do receive a death sentence in Texas one can wonder at why, in this case, he did not. Maybe the life of a musician wasn't considered a big enough loss. Maybe it was that accordian.

I've heard that the death penalty is less likely to be given if the perp expresses remourse for his/her actions. That may be the case here.

I am opposed to state executions in principal. There are cases when I am tempted to change my mind. I don't know enough about this case to have an opinion.


14 Mar 01 - 09:05 PM (#417822)
Subject: RE: BS: Talk about a 'tough room'
From: DougR

I've given this a lot of thought and I believe I have to agree with Rick. It think it was the accordian. DougR


14 Mar 01 - 10:44 PM (#417880)
Subject: RE: BS: Talk about a 'tough room'
From: Jim the Bart

"He died with his accordion on" - we can all hope for as fitting an epitaph. But it still doesn't make up for a pointless death.


15 Mar 01 - 12:48 AM (#417945)
Subject: RE: BS: Talk about a 'tough room'
From: DougR

True Bart. They should have fried him. DougR


15 Mar 01 - 12:19 PM (#418232)
Subject: RE: BS: Talk about a 'tough room'
From: LR Mole

Make Mole what?--LR Mole, peering about.


15 Mar 01 - 01:57 PM (#418310)
Subject: RE: BS: Talk about a 'tough room'
From: Wesley S

LR Mole - My guess is that Sorcha was talking about a sauce used in Mexican cooking called mole. It's pronounced with an "a" sound at the end.


15 Mar 01 - 01:58 PM (#418312)
Subject: RE: BS: Talk about a 'tough room'
From: mousethief

I see. Make Mole "aaaaah." Which is to say, make Mole feel comfortable and/or plesant?