Man takes plea deal in pot garden teen killing

Man takes plea deal in pot garden teen killing – San Jose Mercury News
BELLFLOWER, Calif.—A Bellflower homeowner who shot and killed a teenager allegedly stealing his backyard marijuana plants has pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter.

Prosecutors say Jerry Roger Cress, who had been charged with murder, agreed to the plea deal calling for 15 years in prison.

The 61-year-old resident shot Jacob Walker in January 2007 after allegedly discovering the 15-year-old Paramount High School freshman and his 25-year-old brother in the backyard where he was growing marijuana.

Cress says he has liver cancer and he grew and smoked marijuana to ease treatment symptoms.

A fifteen year prison term for a 61-year-old man with liver cancer may as well be a life sentence.  However, I can never justify taking someone’s life over a marijuana plant.  Patients, be smart with your grow security, keep plants hidden from public view, and never use violence to protect your crop.

I believe fifteen years is far too harsh a sentence, considering the man was protecting his personal property on his own land.  He’s a medical user of marijuana, protected by Prop 215, and the marijuana thieves were engaged in trespassing and robbery of drugs (it’s not a medical plant to the fifteen-year-old).  Once again, a situation where the prohibition of marijuana for all adults creates a system where marijuana is worth more per ounce than palladium, giving incentive to thieves to turn over a quick profit.  I’m sorry a teenager was killed, but he, unlike Jerry Cress, was committing a felony on another man’s property.