Attorney challenges self-defense claim in fatal shooting
TULSA — An attorney representing the family of a teenager fatally shot while reportedly robbing a fireworks stand is casting doubt on the narrative that the shooter acted in self-defense.
Nathan Milner, a criminal defense lawyer based in Tulsa, said he believes there is a lack of evidence to back up the claim that Johnny Mize Jr., 32, shot and killed 15-year-old Jake Ulrich because he feared for his life.
Witnesses told Tulsa County sheriff’s investigators that Mize, whose family owns a fireworks stand near 65th West Avenue and Charles Page Boulevard, exchanged gunfire with two robbery suspects late Tuesday morning.
Johnny Mize Sr., his father and the stand operator, previously told the Tulsa World he saw the suspects place a large box of fireworks in the bed of a pickup and then heard a shot fired. He said his son fired a single shot in return and jumped in the truck’s bed as it drove away. The younger Mize then fired a shot at a tire in an attempt to disable the pickup.
The truck was found abandoned a short time later with Jake Ulrich slumped over in the passenger’s seat; he died at the scene.
Jack Leeray Ulrich, 27, who is believed to have been the driver during the robbery, showed up at the sheriff’s office Thursday afternoon after he was named a person of interest in the shooting. Detectives questioned and released him pending further investigation on the advice of the Tulsa County District Attorney’s Office.
Detectives questioned the younger Mize the day of the shooting but did not arrest him. During his interview, Mize stated he saw two individuals in a green truck steal a $600 box of fireworks, according to an affidavit. He said he pointed a gun kept at the stand toward the robbers to “scare” them, but heard a “pop” and thought he was being shot at. He then fired his gun but was not sure what he hit because he said he wasn’t aiming at anything in particular.
The affidavit states the younger Mize jumped into the bed of the truck, which sped away. He told detectives the vehicle was swerving in an attempt to eject him, so he reached over the pickup bed and shot out the driver’sside rear tire. The vehicle then came to a stop, and the driver fled on foot. Mize stated he could not clearly remember what happened next because he may have “blacked out.”
The older Mize told detectives he also tried to climb into the pickup bed at the fireworks stand but was thrown to the street, the affidavit states. He ran to his other son’s truck and tried to follow the vehicle. When he caught up, he noticed the younger Mize was driving the suspect’s pickup and flagged him down. The two then loaded the fireworks into their truck and returned to the stand, the affidavit states.
Sheriff’s spokeswoman Casey Roebuck said the district attorney’s office will determine whether the shooting was justified under state law commonly known as Stand Your Ground.
For Stand Your Ground to apply, the person who used defensive force must have experienced “reasonable fear of imminent peril of death or great bodily harm.” Additionally, the person against whom the force was used must have unlawfully and forcibly entered a residence, occupied vehicle or business.
From what he knows of the investigation, Milner said it did not appear Jack and Jake Ulrich forcibly entered the stand, but rather grabbed the fireworks and jumped back in their truck.
“It doesn’t seem to be reported that a weapon was used to forcibly attain any property or enter (the business),” he said. “It just appears to be simply a larceny where they walked up, grabbed some stuff and ran. That to me is not a forcible entry or a forcible act and does not invoke the Stand Your Ground law.”
Milner also questioned the older Mize’s statement that one of the robbers pulled the trigger first; he said it is not obvious whether either Ulrich had a gun at all. If the younger Mize fired first, Milner said it could actually suggest Jack and Jake Ulrich acted in selfdefense.
According to Roebuck, authorities recovered Mize’s firearm but did not find a second gun at the fireworks stand or in the pickup. She also declined to comment on how many spent shell casings were located at the scene, citing the active investigation.
The other detail Milner said he finds troubling is the shooter’s decision to hop in the fleeing pickup and shoot at the tire.
“Who in their right mind is going to continue to chase after them and jump in the back of a truck over the cost of those fireworks? Who’s going to really risk their life over that? That raises a huge question for us,” he said. “We think there might be more to the story than what’s actually been said and being reported by the owner and the owner’s son.”
Milner described Jake Ulrich as a well-behaved kid without a criminal record. He said he lived with his grandmother and that he typically didn’t hang out with Jack Ulrich, who served nearly four years in prison after being convicted of second-degree burglary and two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon in 2008.
According to family members, Jake Ulrich accepted his cousin’s invitation Tuesday to do some tree-trimming work in order to afford to buy firecrackers. The news of what happened left the teen’s family in disbelief, and some believe Jake Ulrich may have been forced to take part in Tuesday’s events.
Milner said the teen’s family could decide to pursue civil action based on what other information is uncovered during the investigation.
Although Roebuck couldn’t comment on the self-defense aspect of the case, she did say her agency doesn’t approve of pursuing robbery suspects.
“We want them to leave the law-enforcement activities to us,” she said. “In this case, this all happened over fireworks, and we don’t advise anybody to jump into a suspect’s vehicle because there’s a lot of unknowns. Anything could happen if you take that kind of action.”
Eric Fuson, a certified gun instructor and general manager of Tulsa’s 2A Shooting Center, said self-defense shootings are complicated to analyze because the circumstances are never identical. However, he said, the law makes clear that the only time a shooting is justified is when the person who fired the gun believed someone’s life was in immediate danger.
“If you feel you’re in danger of great bodily harm or death, then deadly force is authorized,” Fuson said. “Otherwise, you are not authorized to use deadly force.”
Any additional action, such as chasing down the robber and opening fire, isn’t protected, he said.
Fuson has taught several firearm-related courses at his shooting range, and self-defense plays an important role in the lessons. Students who take the courses are taught a rule of thumb he says helps gauge whether a shooting is justified.
“If you knew when you pulled the trigger you were going to spend the rest of your life in prison and you would have done it anyway, the likelihood is you got a pretty good chance of that being a justified shooting,” Fuson said.