by Dave Workman
Senior Editor
A jury in Spokane, WA, has acquitted a local man of manslaughter charges in the March 2013 shooting death of an alleged car thief who was driving away in his SUV.
The jury subsequently determined that the shooting was justified, so defendant Gail Gerlach could be reimbursed for his trial expenses, according to KHQ News and the Spokane Spokesman-Review.
Washington state has a unique statute that allows for recovery of reasonable court costs in the event a jury acquits in a trial where there was a claim of self-defense.
The family of the dead man, 25-yearold Brendon Kaluza-Graham, was devastated by the verdict. His grandmother told reporters that Kaluza Graham was “a sacrificial lamb.” There are already hints of a civil wrongful death lawsuit.
However, Gerlach’s defense attorney, David Stevens, was quoted by local media insisting that the charges against his client should never have been filed.
At one point, Gerlach was offered a plea bargain but he rejected it. According to the Spokesman-Review, prosecutors offered him a one-year sentence behind bars in a local jail rather than prison, but he fought the charges in court, instead, facing up to ten years if convicted.
On March 25, 2013, Gerlach was allowing his SUV to warm up outside his Spokane home. He had walked inside the house for just a moment and when he came back out, he saw a man pulling away with his vehicle. He told investigators that it appeared the man behind the wheel was reaching out of the window with some kind of weapon, and fearing he was about to be shot, Gerlach fired.
The shooting got media attention across the Pacific Northwest and beyond as it raised questions about the use of deadly force to protect private property. Unscientific polling on various Northwest and national gun rights forums found overwhelming support at the time for the notion that using deadly force to stop a car thief is appropriate.
However, in the wake of the jury verdict emotions were mixed among readers of stories in the Spokesman Review and KHQ. Some readers think Gerlach used excessive force, and according to KREM News in Spokane, the dead man’s family is continuing to speak out, asserting that not all the facts were brought out during the trial, and that the verdict could send the wrong message to the community about using force in property crimes.
Gerlach fired a single shot from his 9mm pistol at Kaluza-Graham, after which the SUV rolled to a stop. He then reportedly went inside, called police and unloaded the gun.
For 13 months the case was part of a broader debate about how far people could or should go in protecting their property. Washington statute on use of force allows deadly force “when there is reasonable ground to apprehend a design on the part of the person slain to commit a felony…” While auto theft is a felony, Gerlach’s claim that he thought Kaluza-Graham was pointing a gun in his direction would have posed the greater threat.
There is no requirement that a person who acts in self-defense must essentially wait for a shot to be fired.
When a shot is fired, as appears to have been the case in another highprofile fatal shooting, this one in White Center, a bedroom community south of Seattle, then self-defense becomes clearer. In that case, a teen was fatally shot by another youth who was illegally carrying a firearm, a charge that he will face in court.
However, investigators determined that Charles Moimoi, who fired the fatal shot, was shot at first, so he would have essentially been acting in self-defense. A companion of the dead teen, Reuben Castillo, had fired a round at Moimoi from a passing car in which Castillo was riding. Moimoi then returned fire.
The other shooter, identified as Jose Bedolla-Mendoza, faces charges in the incident.
