Nicholas Furry

This story is submitted by Nicholas Furry's mother.  She is very angry that her son was denied justice by the Sacramento District Attorney's Office.

To Whom It May Concern:

I am writing this letter as an open plea to any mother, father, wife husband, daughter or son out there who believes that they will never be a victim.  Please pay attention, this can happen to you and the pain will never go away.  What compounds our pain does not rest with the fact that our family was the victim of a violent crime, but that we were then victimized by the very criminal justice system we have in place designed to protect us.

This all started when my son moved to Sacramento last summer.  Shortly after taking up residence in Rancho Cordova, my son and another young man developed a conflict with one another.  The conflict involved a lot of posturing, bravado and harsh words.  Basically, it was testosterone gone awry.  No fisticuffs, knives or guns.  Just young men doing what they do best.

This youthful baloney continued with harsh stares and sour words until that fateful night in August.  During an encounter where words were exchanged again, the young man turned and ran away.  This action caused by son's dog to give chase, in a relatively natural act for a canine.  In turn, my son gave chase to his dog.  The young man did the unthinkable.  He pulled a loaded firearm from his waistband, extended his arm behind him as he ran, and discriminately fired two shots behind him.  One shot struck my son in the abdomen.

As my son lay bleeding on the ground, and in apparent effort to finish the job, this brave soul walked up to my son and struck him on the back of the head with the gun.  The boy and his accomplice then fled, not only the scene, but the community.

My son was rushed to the hospital and treated for a gunshot wound to the stomach and a blow to the head.  He remained hospitalized for over a week and still faces more surgeries to completely recover physically from these wounds.

After four days on the run, and with time to get his story straight with his accomplice, the shooter turned himself into authorities.  The fact that he did so during another court date for a similar previous offense should not go unnoticed.  The shooter stated that the only reason why he shot my son was that he was acting out of self defense.  He was "afraid of my son and his dog".

My son was unarmed, and the kid possessed no evidence that the dog was vicious.  The boys were of comparable height and weight.  To a layman, this claim appeared relatively laughable.  To an experienced prosecutor, you would think they would be rolling hysterically on the floor that this was the defense that they had to go up against.  However, to Jan Scully, Sacramento County District Attorney, it seemed reasonable.  Case dismissed.

Yes, the kid who was out on bail for committing a serious felony, who brought a gun to a verbal confrontation, negligently discharged two rounds while running, and then pistol whipped his fallen target, was believed by the DA's office to have acted in self defense.

Could it be that my son was viewed as an aggressive and menacing force which would pose the threat of great bodily injury?  Not likely, as you will remember, he was unarmed and of equal size.  What about the possibility that the dog could pose a threat of great bodily injury?  It's possible I guess, but then I would suspect the dog would have been shot.  What am I missing?

Let me change hats for a moment and sit in the DA's chair.  The boy and the dog were chasing the kid so he fired to protect himself.  Ok, I will buy that.  We will then just have to assume that the shooter was afraid and the blood spewing from the gunshot wound must contain some sort of blood borne pathogen, so the assault to the back of the head was also justified.  Justification for not waiting for the police to report this claim of self defense is not a consideration, certainly because of some legitimate and lawful reason.  Therefore, let's drop the case because we cannot likely get a conviction for ANY charge.

This left us all shaking our heads in collective wonderment.  How is it possible to not achieve a conviction for any charge at all?  Possession of a firearm?  Per the deputy district attorney, "he only possessed it for a short time, and it would be hard to prove possession."  Duh, the bullet wound would be pretty compelling evidence.  How about negligent discharge of a firearm?  I would think that everybody's statement that the shooter was running and firing the weapon, and one round struck a human would be pretty good evidence?  Or maybe a charge of assault with a deadly weapon?  No, not the obvious one where the kid shot my son with a gun out of "self defense,"  but the less obvious one where he hit him in the back of the head with the gun AFTER he shot him.  I guess the DA's office did not think that the wound noted by the responding officer and the treating physician would be compelling evidence.  How is it possible that no charges could be brought forward for this case?

After doing a little research, I finally discovered what it comes down to.  Guts and integrity.  The Sacramento County District Attorney's Office lacks the guts and integrity to move forward on a prosecution that they may have to aggressively prosecute.  Is it that they can't get an easy plea bargain, also known as a "win", they don't want to take a chance of hurting their win/loss record with a case where they actually have to present evidence and testimony.

The crime victim is the last consideration in the eyes of the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office.  And for the record, I have statistics to support my assertion.  According to the San Francisco Chronicle, roughly 14.4 of 100 arrests in Sacramento County end in a prison term, compared to 26.6 of 100 in Fresno County, 38.7 of 100 in Los Angeles County and 41 of 100 in San Diego County.  This tells me that Sacramento either lacks aggressive prosecutors, or has incompetent police, unable to present a sufficient case for prosecution.  Given the significant lack of allegations of false arrest, I would suspect the weakness lies within the District Attorney's Office.

This should concern you, as you could be a victim of both a crime and of a system that fails to provide justice for crime victims.  In fact, if you live in Sacramento, you can see by the statistics below that the criminal mentality is extremely pervasive.  Of course, why shouldn't it be, there is little threat of punishment in this county?

Please, help me find justice.  If not in this case, at least in the knowledge that Ms. Scully actually cares more about the victims than her own press releases.  Of course, the facts above do not seem to reflect such an attitude.  When you see a crime, report it.  Follow through with the police, and demand prosecution.  It is our only hope to be able to remove the “victim” label from our backs and replace it with one that says “Survivor.”

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