On March 23, 1994, a medical examiner viewed the body of Ronald
Opus and concluded that he died from a gunshot wound of the head
caused by a shotgun. Investigation to that point had revealed that
the decedent had jumped from the top of a ten-story building with
the intent to commit suicide. (He left a note indicating his
despondency.) As he passed the 9th floor on the way down, his life
was interrupted by a shotgun blast through a window, killing him
instantly. Neither the shooter nor the decedent was aware that a
safety net had been erected at the 8th floor level to protect some
window washers, and that the decedent would most likely not have
been able to complete his intent to commit suicide because of
this.
Ordinarily, a person who starts into motion the events with a
suicide intent is ultimately deemed (legally speaking) to have
committed suicide if he successfully dies, even if the exact
mechanism of his death might not be what he had originally
intended. That he was shot on the way to certain death nine stories
below probably would not change his mode of death from suicide to
homicide, *but* the fact that his suicide intent would not have
been achieved under this particular circumstance (ie. because a
safety net had been erected below, unknown to the suicidal jumper)
caused the medical examiner to feel that he indeed had a case of
homicide on his hands.
Further investigation led to the discovery that the room on the
9th floor from whence the shotgun blast emanated was occupied by an
elderly man and his wife. He was threatening her with the shotgun
because of an interspousal spat and became so upset that he could
not hold the shotgun straight. Therefore, when he pulled the
trigger, he completely missed his wife, and the pellets went
through the window, striking the decedent.
When one intends to kill subject A but kills subject B in the
attempt, one is guilty of the murder of subject B. The old man was
confronted with this conclusion, but both he and his wife were
adamant in stating that neither knew that the shotgun was loaded.
It was the longtime habit of the old man to threaten his wife with
an unloaded shotgun. He had no intent to murder her; therefore, the
killing of the decedent appeared then to be accident. That is, the
gun had been accidentally loaded.
But further investigation turned up a witness that their son was
seen loading the shotgun approximately six weeks prior to the fatal
accident. That investigation showed that the mother (the old lady)
had cut off her son's financial support, and her son, knowing the
propensity of his father to use the shotgun threateningly, loaded
the gun with the expectation that the father would shoot his
mother. The case now becomes one of murder on the part of the son
for the death of Ronald Opus.
Now comes the exquisite twist. Further investigation revealed
that the son, Ronald Opus himself, had become increasingly
despondent over the failure of his attempt to get his mother
murdered. This led him to jump off the ten-story building on March
23, only to be killed by a shotgun blast through a 9th story
window.
The medical examiner finally closed the case as a suicide.
