Hunter acquitted in deadly shooting of Marine reservist
SALEM, Ore. (AP) - An Oregon hunter has been found not guilty of manslaughter in the shooting death of a Marine reservist from California he says he mistook for a bear.
The Statesman Journal newspaper reports the Salem jury deliberated for about two hours Friday before acquitting Eugene Collier.
The 68-year-old was the last witness to take the stand.
He told jurors he was shooting to kill when he fired the .270-caliber bullet that caused the death of 20-year-old Christopher Ochoa, of French Camp, Calif., in October 2011 near Silver Falls State Park.
Collier was hunting with his 12-year-old grandson and says he thought he was shooting a bear
He and his wife met with members of Ochoa's family privately after the trial ended. Neither family spoke with the media after the verdict.
The police do this a lot are there bears in the hood??
Next step, filing civil suit, Not out of the "woods" yet, juries as in OJ case, when we thought jury would come back with guilty found otherwise, but civil suit turned differently...Ochoa family deserves better, and slob hunter's deserve  to be purged from fraternity.
@Social Glimpse OJ was not tried by his peers. Brentwood is far from south central LA
reminds me of Cheney when he shot his friend in the face "on accident because he thought his friend was an animal."
@SparklesMarissa --- Cheney didn't kill anyone with his gun, unlike Ted Kennedy did with his car.
@The Resistance @SparklesMarissa Did her family get any kennedy money
@The Resistance @SparklesMarissa Cheney just shot his friend in the face. The fact that nobody died is not a point in Cheneys favor.Â
@SparklesMarissa Â
Cheney was bird hunting with a group of people. He shot at a bird but failed to see the person down range. He didn't mistake a person for a bird.
I thought it was a bear breaking into my house
BTW didn't I hear somewhere this guy didn't have a valid bear tag? Hmmmm.
I tried to edit the last couple of words like hugo and add go hunting. Couldn't do it for some reason. Guess I reached my 2 cents worth, haha.
As a Hunter Ed. instructor for ODFandW for 10 yrs., We stressed the 10 commandments of safe firearms handling, with the top three being most important. One of those is "BE SURE OF YOUR TARGET AND WHAT'S BEYOND". Evidently this shooter was not following that rule, And he was hunting with his grandson, no less. Although he was aquitted, I feel for his grandson. I hope he gets the proper training and educatioon. If this guy had gone through hunters safety or even used a shred of sense from his so-called many years of hunting, the young marine would not be dead. I go huntingwonder how many other un-informed hunters are out there everytime I go. hugo hunting.
@Bdou If the Marine didn't trespass, he would not have been shot. The dead person didn't take responsibility seriously either. At least 2 people made poor decisions on this day. One paid with his life and the other one will have to live with the fact that he shot and killed someone.
sooo, he was a marine reservist huh?  i hope from this moment on, every artical states the entire biography of every innocent killed.  an example might be as follows.  "No charges on woman who accidently ran over a part time teacher, pre op MTF tranny, tweeking pet lover, satan worshipping, poet"
@Pers Retiree "i hope from this moment on, every artical states the entire biography of every innocent killed" Only when it benefits their agenda...
@Pers Retiree What's wrong with you?  Sounds like you're spending your retirement yelling, "Hey you little brats -- get off my lawn!!"
Don't feed the troll.
@BrownknightI might take your advice, but he's not "the troll". Â He's THE troll, aka Fishbait. Â Gotta admit -- he's very good at what he does!
@Pers Retiree The 'tranny" thing might be illegal, what with all the special rights and all.Â
Another classic example of a "hunter" shooting before actually determining what he was shooting at. This trigger happy idiot may have been found not guilty of manslaughter but he is very guilty of poor judgment, and guilty of needlessly killing another human being. If you can't tell a bear from a human you have no business being able to get a hunting license. I am not a proponent of our sue happy society but this is one case where I would make an exception.Â
@I812Â Â "but he is very guilty of poor judgment,"
Wow. Thanks for clearing that up. The rest of us weren't sure.
@Playanekes @I812 VERY guilty as opposed to the regular, generic guilty.
@Playanekes Always happy to help you out but I really don't think you can speak for anyone else on this forum, can you?
@Playanekes @I812 I guess you have to give yourself authority because no one else will. Nevertheless you are upholding the lowest common denominator standard quite well.
@I812Â @Playanekes I just did, Professor Obvious.
Am I missing something? Was this Marine wearing a bear suit?
Granted I am not a hunter, nor have I ever been hunting but this seems like someone being reckless with a firearm.
I just dont understand how you can mistake a bear and a human. Â
Another issue is that it is a hunters responsibility to insure the bear is not with cub. That takes more time to observe the animal before you decide it is harvestable. This was human error and a costly mistake. I am of the impression the jury took pity on the shooter. In the long run, he is probably a person who will suffer with this for the rest of his life. Would a conviction and possibly a sentence serve much purpose? Probably not. I just hope he uses the time he has to make ammends for his error.
@From the OC What happens is that the human brain will try to fill in bits of missing information in order to try and make sense of what it's seeing. So you're out hunting and you spot something from a distance that isn't clear, your brain will automatically start trying to make sense of what it sees by adding bits to make a picture. Throw in some "buck fever" and desire to show your grandson a good time and you have a recipe for disaster.
@Scotty9Â @From the OCÂ Well, that explanes the vision of monsters under my bed when I was little. If you turn on the lights the dam things turned back into socks.
Sad, but, I'm glad this is the way it turned out and that the families were able to meet afterward.
It's still possible for adults in America to make deadly mistakes, cope with the loss and the grief, come together and move forward with out there having to be lawsuits, prison sentences, political crusades.
Please be careful with your guns, everybody. You can't un-pull the trigger.
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@lousecrapton Land open to the public would be considered public hunting land as opposed to this mans own private land. Not a difficult concept.
Unless you were in the courtroom or on the jury you have no idea what happened. Â Everytime there is a trial, people think they know more than the jury, when they actually don't know squat. Â He was found innocent by a jury of his peers. Â That is all that counts.Â
@Shadow A friend in Cottage Grove had someone fire shots into his house, the Sheriff told him that's why you live in Oregon. Forget it.....
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After paying his legal fees and the civil suit that is sure to follow, I doubt he will have any private land to hunt. To shoot when the target is not clearly identified is at least negligent homicide, and he should be paying a harsh penalty.
@rec503 In this case, I totally support a lawsuit....
@rec503 Well, apparently the jury disagrees.Â
Some people just have to sue everybody anytime they feel wronged. That's what Jesus and Gandhi and the Buddha would have done; sue people.
@Playanekes @rec503 The jury acquited him of manslaughter, there are multiple less serious charges he might just have found guilty of. In any case, what this jury did has little bearing on a civil suit, don't ask Jesus Ghandi and Buddha about that, ask O.J.Â
This article does not paint the whole picture. If someone is out hunting on public land they expect other people and take precautions but this happened on private land and the hunter did not expect anyone else to be on his land. Still, be sure of your target.
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@lousecraptonLand open to the public would be considered public hunting land as opposed to this mans own private land. Not a difficult concept.
@Nathan James @lousecrapton Hunter: I was just trying to scare him. He was hunting on my land.
Cop: well he is dead.
Hunter: Oh well then I thought he was a bear then.
Life is 10% reality 90%Â perception..Â
@Nathan James The fact that he was on private land does not change the standard for identifying your target.  The truth is he should have been extra careful as he has his grandson with him.  He was not exactly setting the example for his grandson on correct game identification.
Hmmm only in oregon.......This happens every year somewhere....I Hunted when i was younger and Never shot at Anything i could not see clearly enough to determine what it was.....People get Trigger Happy in the woods...Crazy to think that this was why I stopped hunting...
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@lousecrapton Umm ... you're saying that the young man who died was wearing orange? Â
Very sad, but accidents happen.Â
Still, I wonder what kind of lesson the grandson will take away from all this.
@Mikey Whatever the lesson grandson will not forget. Probly doesn't want to shoot anymore
@Mikey This was not an accident. It was a case of someone shooting something without first identifying if it was truly the intended target. The grandson probably learned that it is okay for grandpa to shoot and kill another human being if he say he thought it was a bear.
So now he gets to go back out hunting with his granson...really nice !