A man accused of fatally shooting a 15-year-old last year was beaten by members of the teen’s family during a courtroom melee in San Antonio, authorities said.

Victor Rivas, 18, who is charged with murder in the May 2022 death of Ethan Soto, was in a Bexar County courtroom Friday awaiting a preliminary hearing when he was attacked.

Rivas’ attorney, Adam LaHood, said his client was “going to be bruised and swollen” but was not otherwise injured.

Four people — two men and two juveniles — were arrested and will be charged with assault and disrupting court proceedings, the Bexar County sheriff’s office said. Their names haven’t been released.

    • AllonzeeLV@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      They’re lucky they didn’t kill him.

      His life was already over, with a quick death by beating possibly even an unintentional mercy on the part of the victims.

      If their assault killed him, one of the adults might have claimed his future cell.

      • deweydecibel@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        This was a preliminary hearing, too. They can’t even use the excuse that the justice system has failed them and they need to take matters into their own hands, because the justice system had not had an actual chance to do anything yet.

        Like, for fucks sake, he’s there, in the court room, about to face justice and you idiots can’t even wait to see how it plays out first? Would the world end if he didn’t take a beating right that second?

    • deweydecibel@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Why?

      The trial hadn’t even taken place yet.

      Are we seriously so bloodthirsty and shortsighted we can’t even pretend to give a shit about due process anymore?

    • Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Nah.

      I can’t explain how stupid it is to cause trouble when inside the courtroom. It’s not deserving or “good riddance”, it’s shortsighted and fucking stupid.

      If they had half a brain, they would have schemed. Get the guy in prison. Or bribe a certain accident. Or do some other sneaky shit.

      Instead, their master plan was to “hit him a bit” while surrounded by police officers and the courts? And now they get to also get charged? Fucking amateur hour.

  • uphillbothways@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    This is an excellent opportunity for potential jurors in the area to learn about valid situations to exercise the right of jury nullification. A smart DA would plead this way down to some misdemeanor resulting in community service.

    • sik0fewl@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Why? He’s already pleaded guilty. And he should go to prison for murder. And his attackers should go to prison for assault.

      • uphillbothways@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Sorry. That could be confusing. Yeah. The murderer should go to jail for murder. Absolutely.

        I’d have a really hard time sentencing the victim’s family for attacking the murderer.

        That was my point. Apologies for leaving that ambiguous in my initial comment.

        • sik0fewl@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          While I understand the feeling, mob justice like this only undermines the justice system and should really be prosecuted.

          On the other hand, it probably would not be too difficult to find a sympathetic jury and he does not appear to be seriously injured, so assuming the charges aren’t just dropped, I would expect a plea deal for something like community service, as well.

          • uphillbothways@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            mob justice like this only undermines the justice system…

            This is far from the worst thing undermining the justice system. It’s not even an egregious example of mob justice. But I suspect we mostly agree. I’ve said all I’ve got to say about it.

        • SheeEttin@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I’d have a really hard time sentencing the victim’s family for attacking the murderer.

          Why? Violence should not beget more violence. We’re supposed to be better than that.

    • PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Homeslice is 8 comments in, and already at -300 karma lmao. If you’re gonna troll, at least put some effort into it. Brand new account too.

    • Pratai@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      I used to feel bad for people like you. I used to wonder how bad your personal life must be that you need to take it out on complete strangers online.

      Then I realized that most people like you don’t necessarily have to have such bad personal lives that they feel they need to take it out on complete strangers online.

      Some of you do it because you actually think it’s funny and that the world is laughing with you and not at you. (Trust me when I say- the only ones laughing, are people just like you. And that’s a sad target audience to appeal to)

      But then I realized that no matter which of these categories you fall into, you’re still nothing but a pathetic little coward on the internet, talking a lot, and saying nothing, while offering nothing but entertainment to people that are exponentially better then you in every possible way.

      Is that what you want to be? A clown for the educated? A barely laughable side-show for people that hate you?

      (Oh, and before you go thinking that your dumb shit caused me to waste my time writing this response, it’s a copy-paste from a response I made on Reddit years ago to a sad little kid just like you. I urge anyone reading along to do the same and copy-past this to all the sad little trolls out there like this one. Maybe the minute or two it takes for them to read this will waste just enough of their time that they’ll realize that their time has been wasted in a much more entertaining way then they could ever have though of. And the only effort it took was to simply copy….

      And paste.

    • Zeppo@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      Oh, the United States? Yeah, it mostly sucks. (this is denying the ethnicity-oriented slur of the above comment btw)