Texas ‘stand your ground’ shooter headed to prison

A Houston man on trial for fatally shooting his neighbor says he was acting in self defense and his home video can prove it.

Rodriguez, a former firefighter, was recording his argument with neighbors, when he shot and killed Kelly Danaher, an elementary school teacher, and wounded two other people in May 2010. The 22-minute homemade video is the key to the trial, but what’s on the video might be in the eye of the beholder.

“This is a difficult defense to mount,” says Dana Cole, legal analyst and defense attorney. “He had no injury, he brought a gun to a noise complaint, and it appeared he was escalating it, by baiting the party-goers.”

It was after midnight when Rodriguez, complaining to police over the phone that the music was too loud, walked up to Danaher’s driveway with a flashlight and gun.

On the video, Rodriguez can be heard talking to a 911 operator, saying, “I’m running the video camera right now and I’m talking to you and I mean, I’m scared to death here.”

In the unfolding confrontation between Rodriguez and several unidentified men, one yells, “Tell you what, pal, you just pulled a gun on the wrong [expletive], OK?”

When one of the party-goers saw Rodriguez’s gun, he suggested he is getting his own. “When I go in that house and come back,” he warned, “don’t think I won’t be equal to you, baby.”

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/06/man-claims-self-defense-in-fatal-shooting-of-neighbor/