Retired Green Beret shoots intruder, gets court martial
BREVARD, Jan. 19, 2008 - Retired Army Green Beret James
T. (Smokey) Taylor got his court martial this weekend and came away
feeling pretty good about it.
Taylor, at age 79, is one of the oldest members of
Chapter XXXIII (The Larry Thorne Chapter) of the Special Forces
Association. He was placed on trial by fellow Chapter XXXIII members
under the charge of "failing to use a weapon of sufficient caliber" in
the shooting of an intruder at his home in Knoxville, TN, in November.
The court martial, of course, was very much tongue in
cheek. The event itself was deadly serious.
Taylor had been awakened in the early morning hours of
November 5, 2007,when an intruder broke into his home. He investigated
the noises with one of his many weapons in hand.
"It was just after Halloween, on Monday morning at
4:30," Taylor said. I heard this commotion at the door and grabbed my
fishing gun, a little .22 revolver, to see what was going on. I got to
the front door and this fellow had ripped my security door out of its
frame. He said, 'you're going to have to kill me. I'm coming in.'"
When a warning to leave went unheeded, Taylor brought
his .22 caliber pistol to bear and shot him right between the eyes.
"I was about four feet away from him when I shot,"
Taylor said. "Looking back now, I'm glad he didn't die, but that boy had
the hardest head I've ever seen. The bullet bounced right off."
The impact knocked the would-be thief down momentarily.
He crawled out of the house then got up and ran down the street. Taylor
dialed 911 and Knoxville police apprehended the wounded man about 200
yards away, hiding in a hedgerow.
Complicating the case, as well as the court martial, the
offender was released on bail but failed to appear for his court date.
Knoxville police said the man was homeless. They did not know his
whereabouts or why he had been given bail.
The charges brought against Taylor by his fellow Green
Berets were considered to be serious. He is a retired Special Forces
Weapons Sergeant with extensive combat experience during the wars in
Korea and Vietnam.
"Charges were brought against him under the premise that
he should have saved the county and taxpayers the expense of a trial,"
said Chapter XXXIII President Bill Long of Asheville, NC.
The trial was held at the Hampton Inn in Brevard, part
of the group's regularly scheduled quarterly meeting. Long appointed a
judge, Bert Bates, a defense counsel, Jim Hash, and a prosecutor,
Charlie Ponds. All are retired Special Forces non-commissioned officers
with extensive combat and weapons experience.
Ponds outlined the case against Taylor, emphasizing that
the citizens of Knox County were going to be burdened with significant
costs to again apprehend, and then prosecute and defend the would-be
burglar.
"Proper choice of a larger caliber gun would have spared
the citizens this financial burden," Ponds said, "while removing one bad
guy from the streets for good. He could have used a .45 or .38. The .22
just wasn't big enough to get the job done. Hash disagreed. He said
Taylor had done the right thing in choosing to arm himself with a .22.
"If he'd used a .45 or something like that the round
would have gone right through the perp, the wall, the neighbor's wall
and possibly injured some innocent child asleep in its bed. I believe
the evidence shows that Smokey Taylor exercised excellent judgment in
his choice of weapons. He clearly remains to this day an excellent
weapons man."
Hash then floated a theory as to why the bullet bounced
off the perp's forehead.
"He was victimized by old ammunition," he said, "just as
he was in Korea and again in Vietnam, when his units were issued ammo
left over from World War II."
Taylor said nothing in his own defense, choosing instead
to allow his peers to debate the matter. The jury, consisting of all the
members of the Chapter, discussed the merits of choosing a larger
caliber weapon as well as the obvious benefits to society of permanently
deleting the intruder so he would never again threaten any private
citizen.
The other side of the coin, that of accidentally causing
injury to a completely innocent citizen if a more powerful gun had been
used, also gained considerable support.
Following testimony from both sides, Judge Bates
determined the charges should be dismissed. The decision was met with a
round of applause. In fact, there was strong sentiment expressed that
Taylor should receive an award for not only choosing wisely in picking
up the .22, but for the accuracy of his aim under difficult and
dangerous conditions.
After the trial Taylor said the ammunition was indeed
old and added the new information that the perp had soiled his pants as
he crawled out the door.
"I would have had an even worse mess to clean up if it
had gone through his forehead," Taylor said. "It was good for both of us
that it didn't."
Meanwhile, back in Knox County, the word is out: Don't
go messing with Smokey Taylor. He just bought a whole bunch of fresh
ammo.
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