Ronald Lee Haskell, Charged In Texas Massacre, Collapses In Court

[onehandle]

Source: Huffington Post

HOUSTON (AP) — A man accused of killing six members of his ex-wife's family, including four children, after forcing his way into their suburban Houston home collapsed in court twice Friday as a prosecutor read out details of the crime. A shackled Ronald Lee Haskell was standing before a state district judge during a probable cause hearing when he fell to the ground. Deputies lifted him to his feet and the 33-year-old Haskell stood for about another minute before collapsing again.

He was then lifted into a chair and wheeled from the courtroom. "His face, he obviously lost blood in his face, and his knees buckled," said Haskell's attorney, Doug Durham. "He's scared. I think he has a limited mental capacity of what's going on."

Before the collapses, Haskell had acknowledged with a quiet "Yes" a couple of questions put to him by State District Judge Mark Kent Ellis about his legal rights. Ellis ordered Haskell held without bond. "Maybe reality is finally setting in," said Tammy Thomas, the lead Harris County assistant district attorney in the case. "It's not television, this is not fiction. He is facing his consequences."

Thomas said she expected a grand jury to issue a capital murder indictment as a result of Wednesday's fatal shootings of Stephen and Katie Stay and four of their children, ranging in age from 4 to 14. Authorities have said Haskell was searching for his ex-wife, Katie Stay's sister, when he came to the home in the northern Houston suburb of Spring.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/11/ronald-lee-haskell_n_5578411.html

---

Sounds like Just the kind of Guy that the NRA wants to codpiece up.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

1. Probably overwhelmed that the government now had possession of his guns. nt

[TheCowsCameHome]

2. He isn't so tough, now that he has no guns. n/t

[Leith]

3. No Sympathy At All

The people he murdered were scared, too. Too bad he didn't fall down then.

[Botany]

4. Dirt Bag

[Wait Wut]

5. You're being too kind.

Seriously. If I said what I think of him, I'd get a post hidden.

[MissDeeds]

8. Same here

Half a dozen things ran through my mind - all of them ending with "bastard" - but I know they would get hidden. I do hope the sick twit is scared, and I hope he will be for the rest of his worthless life. No sympathy from me.

[sendero]

37. This is why I am not totally against the death penalty..

..... this piece of shit needs to die and soon.

[boguspotus]

39. This piece of shit:

Can go to hell. My god, I'm against the death penalty, but this shitstain deserves it. But when it comes down to it, I just hope he dies a long lonely death in jail.

[geek tragedy]

6. yeah, I'll skip the candlelight vigil when this guy's sentence is carried out nt

[LadyHawkAZ]

7. Reality suddenly set in?

"ERMAHGERD I'M GOING TO PRISON!! HOW'M I GONNA KILL MY WIFE FROM PRISON?? MAH GUNZ I NEEDS MY GUUUUUUNZ!!!"

*knees buckle, collapses*

[IkeRepublican]

9. Let him collapse onto the gurney with straps

Yeah, that's right.

If found guilty, say good night, prick.

[Wait Wut]

10. How do you shoot a child?

I know this is a stupid question, but I'm trying to wrap my brain around this and can't. How do you shot a damned child? I can't even imagine shooting an adult or even a rabid dog. A child? A child that you probably spent a Christmas with or ate with at a family gathering. One that possibly trusted you once.

The ex-wife and the surviving daughter...how will they cope with the survivor's guilt?

And this fucking scum collapsed? Next time, stand him up on the edge of a cliff. His attorney already throwing in the 'limited mental capacity' crap.

[Marthe48]

12. Chattel mentality?

How many of the people who murder their families see them as possessions, not people? When a family is murdered by another family member, we see that they had access to guns, 'a troubled' past' or some other 'excuse'. We don't see how they viewed their family--as loved ones, or property. I think we need to keep trying to promote emotional connections, from a very young age, so that as adults, we see our loved ones as people that we love and nurture and not disposable property. I hope this guy is punished to the fullest extent of the law, but I hope that mental health analysts pick him apart and see what the hell he was thinking.

[Wait Wut]

14. That could be a big part of it.

I just don't get it. I know there are people that lack the safety switch, I just can't grasp the actions.

[Marthe48]

19. I don't understand either

We have grandkids and a generational family, kids of all ages in our lives and they are all wonderful. My heart breaks for families who lose their loved ones, especially in this way.

[littlemissmartypants]

20. Curious me wants to know what you are calling

A "safety switch" ?

[Wait Wut]

24. That thing in our minds...

...subconscious or not, that tells us not to do something. Most of us get angry, frustrated, furious, etc. Most of us also do not kill 4 year olds because we're pissed off at our ex. Our switch flips to safety long, long, long before it gets even close to that. Some people don't have that switch.

[littlemissmartypants]

23. Empathy has become a rare character trait.

A moral compass must be taught and talked about. This guy, sigh, had a gun and was a misogynist.

Sometimes that is all it takes.

J Ky Med Assoc. 2005 Jan;103(1):10-3.

Intimate partner violence: homicides followed by suicides in Kentucky.

Walsh S1, Hemenway D.

Author information

Abstract

Homicides followed by suicides are rare yet devastating events. This study, for the first time, details the problem in Kentucky by linking coroner, medical examiner, vital statistics and administrative judicial data. In the three-year period 1998-2000, there were 492 firearm homicides in Kentucky, of which 32 (6.5%) were followed by a firearm suicide. All perpetrators who followed their homicide by killing themselves were males. Just or 9% of firearm homicides (46/492) were intimate partner-related but the majority of these (54%) were followed by a suicide. Although we found that only a small percentage of firearm homicides a followed by firearm suicide, when women were shot and killed by their intimate partners, the perpetrator shot himself in two thirds of cases. Continued research about violent deaths might provide a better understanding of homicides followed by suicides--critical for surveillance and prevention efforts.

Intimate partner violence: homicides followed by suicides in Kentucky. [J Ky Med Assoc. 2005]

PMID: 15682981 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15682981



http://www.suzannemacnevin.com/2010/09/the-truth-about-women-and-gun-control.html?m=1

Love, Peace and Shelter. littlemissmartypants

[Judi Lynn]

33. Thanks for your post. Excellent. n/t

[rocktivity]

32. His marriage was his, so he could break it if he wanted to!

rocktivity

[Hekate]

22. Revenge on his ex-wife for leaving him. "She'll really suffer now, won't she?"

THIS alone is a big reason abused women stay with their abusers. They know the threat of revenge is real.

[littlemissmartypants]

25. Agreed. nt

[TheDebbieDee]

30. OMG! I tried to tell people this all the time, but nobody got it...

I wasnt able to feel safe from my nutty husband until he'd been confined to the psych ward of military hospital. That was 25 years ago!

And our society nor our military seems to have gotten any better at dealing with batterers!

[NickB79]

40. No fucking clue

Hell, I had to shoot a badly wounded, dying raccoon that dragged itself onto our property last month, and still feel bad thinking about it even though it was clearly suffering.

To shoot a CHILD?!? You need to have no soul.

[Blue_Tires]

44. hated the ex-spouse more than he loved his neice/nephews

[AlbertCat]

11. Didn't have enough doughnuts before court?

This...further down in the article:

"I think the evidence is going to show ... he is a troubled individual and he has a history of mental illness," Durham said. "Unfortunately, the delivery of the health care has failed in this system."

....LAME!

Thomas said that strategy was not surprising, "because there aren't many explanations otherwise for him to grasp." But she said the probable cause in the case showed a "determined effort involved, the planning, the conscious decisions."

thank you.

[CanonRay]

18. Apparently he wasn't so "mentally ill" or have enough "diminished capacity" that couldn't get guns.

and frankly, I don't give a shit what he was thinking at the time. We're long past worrying about his sorry ass.

[AlbertCat]

34. "determined effort involved, the planning, the conscious decisions."

indeed.

[alp227]

13. Meanwhile the lone survivor in the shooting has been released from hospital

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Lone-survivor-in-Spring-mass-shooting-released-5616014.php

[niyad]

15. as church lady would say, "how conveeeeeeeenient!" trying for sympathy? somehow, I don't believe

him for a second.

[blkmusclmachine]

16. Never

Really

Accountable

[George II]

17. Although I'm vehemently opposed to the death penalty, this case has me wondering...

.....but then again, forty more years of maximum security prison sure seems like more punishment than putting the idiot out of his misery in a few years.

I wonder if he's realized yet that he's had his last beer, has touched his last gun, and spent his last moment of not being controlled 24/7 by someone other than himself.

His future is going to be mighty difficult to bear, perhaps more uncomfortable than a thirty year acceleration to his eternity in hell!

[exboyfil]

21. He will probably live longer on death row

I don't see him doing really well in the general population. Someone will surely Dahmer him before long. He is a weak coward who slaughtered children. He will have no friends.

[George II]

27. Cruelly speaking, that's what I'm hoping for.

[Ruby the Liberal]

26. The x-wife had a protection order against him, meaning

that under federal law, he wasn't allowed to purchase or own a weapon.

The man who fatally shot four children and two adult relatives of his ex-wife near Houston this week had a history of domestic violence, according to a divorce decree, and was legally prohibited from purchasing or possessing a gun.

{snip}

While it's unclear how Haskell bought or acquired the gun he used to murder six people, the incident may reveal how loopholes in federal gun laws allow many known domestic abusers to evade the background check system, the group said Friday.

{snip}

Federal law prohibits accused domestic abusers with protective orders issued against them from possessing or purchasing guns while the order remains active. But many known domestic abusers slip through the cracks because only licensed dealers are required to conduct background checks. Federally prohibited gun purchasers can still buy guns from unlicensed, private sellers, at gun shows or online, because those sellers are not required to conduct background checks.

{snip}

Congress tried and failed last year to close the loopholes in the background check system. The Manchin-Toomey amendment, which lacked the votes to overcome a Senate filibuster in 2013, would have required background checks on all sales between private parties, with limited exceptions.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/11/houston-shooting-domestic-violence_n_5578430.html

[Loudly]

36. What's supposed to happen when you already have your guns when the order is entered?

Especially in a state which abhors gun registration?

Are police supposed to magically know you have guns and show up at your doorstep to impound them?

Talk about loopholes!

[Demsrule86]

42. how was it he even had a gun?

Whoever helped this coward to get a gun should go to jail as well.

[mountain grammy]

28. I've always opposed the death penalty, but when it comes to a case like this one,

I wouldn't want to make the decision.

[enid602]

29. what could make him so mad?

The way he mowed down his ex wife's family members. You'd think his only daghter had just been overlooked in the cheerleading competition.

[Thinkingabout]

31. Background checks especially in cases of repeated domestic abuse, his brother and sister also

Had protective orders, he did not need any guns. Since the story they can go to gun shows and purchase guns all guns purchases should require background checks. We do not need another family massacred because of in abilities of certain groups to realize certain people with guns is stupid.

[Historic NY]

35. Texas has swift justice...

unfortunately he can't pay for each death. Lets hope the survivors sue the hell out of UTAH for their malfeasance, pain and suffering because they neither did there job or think domestic violence is okay.

[dem in texas]

38. Capital Murder - He's Headed for Death Row in Huntsville

I wish I could be on the jury, I would vote to send him there in a heartbeat. No telling how many more he would have killed if the 15 year girl had not survived and called 911. I saw on the news that he had choked his own mother a few weeks ago and she had gotten a protective order against him. Say what you will about Texas, this is one of the times when the killer deserves the ultimate punishment.

[chrisa]

41. Theater

[richmwill]

43. He didn't collapse and take his last breath? Too bad...

No sympathy whatsoever for him. Whatever ends up happening to him, I celebrate it.