An Oklahoma City marijuana grower charged with murder dodged jail time and is serving 10 years of probation.
LaRue Bratcher negotiated an Alford Plea in February, meaning he accepted – but did not plead guilty to – the charge of manslaughter by resisting criminal attempt, according to Oklahoma City TV station KOCO.
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The defense attorney in Bratcher’s case, Clay Curtis, explained to KOCO that the “charge says you unnecessarily killed someone while they were committing a crime against you.”
Bratcher, who is Black, was charged with first-degree murder in 2020 after allegedly shooting and killing Daniel Hardwick, a white man who Bratcher said was trying to break into his cannabis cultivation facility.
Authorities claimed the state’s self-defense laws didn’t protect Bratcher because his cannabis license had expired in 2019 and he was operating illegally.
Bratcher’s second-degree murder charge was dismissed and four other charges were suspended
Read full article on Marijuana Business Daily