“The prosecution tried to convict Mr. Galvin of murder, by insisting that he was not legally allowed to protect himself from an intruder that attempted to take his gun from him.”
(Colorado Springs, CO) An Army Special Forces veteran that had been charged with negligent homicide for fatally shooting an intruder in his garage has been found not guilty by a jury of his peers. Michael Joseph Galvin had been charged after an incident on November 3rd, 2015, in which Robert Carrigan was killed. The trial lasted two weeks; deliberations lasted less than a single day.
Galvin had previously served as a Green Beret in 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) and is now currently serving in the Colorado National Guard. If he had been convicted, Galvin faced up to three years in prison. Carrigan, the man killed while breaking into Galvin’s property, was described during the trial as a man with a long history of trouble, who had recently resumed doing drugs and had begun living on the streets.
The prosecution’s entire case was built on technicalities and a complete lack of understanding of situations like what Galvin found himself in when Carrigan was killed. The first barrier the prosecution had to overcome was insisting that the Colorado law that protect homeowners who use deadly force against intruders did not apply to Galvin’s case.
The prosecution insisted that the so-called “Make My Day” law did not apply to Galvin, as the incident occurred in a detached garage; they argued that Galvin had no rights to self-defense because his garage was not physically attached to his home. Under “Make My Day,” Colorado residents are permitted to utilize deadly force against an intruder if they reasonably believe that the intruders intend to use “any degree” of force against them; Colorado self-defense laws state that deadly force is only authorized if someone is at risk of being killed or seriously injured.
The prosecution tried to convict Mr. Galvin of murder, by insisting that he was not legally allowed to protect himself from an intruder that attempted to take his gun from him. As part of the charge of negligent homicide charge, they insisted that Galvin did not act as a reasonable person would act in his place. They had the audacity to argue after the fact that Galvin should have stayed in his home and waited for police to arrive, then stated in contradiction that he should have used his firearm to detain Carrigan until the police arrived.
Luckily, the jury saw right through the hypocrisy and total lack of logic in the prosecution’s case and acquitted Galvin of the charge against him. The defense team clearly demonstrated that as a Special Forces combat veteran, Galvin was extremely qualified to identify deadly threats in these situations. They were also able to show that the prosecution had intentionally tried to misrepresent evidence and claim that the autopsy backed up their narrative that Carrigan had been shot in the back while trying to flee the scene.
The simple truth points to the fact that Mr. Carrigan made the poor choices of first attempting to rob a Green Beret, then compounded his mistake fatally by attempting to take Galvin’s pistol.
