Property owner cleared.

A mobile home on property owned by Accomac, Virginia, resident Robert Hall had been vacant for several years. Hall tried to keep it in good condition, but it became a hangout for young people and attracted loiterers and drug dealers. Hall reported trespassers to the police on numerous occasions, but to no avail.

Wayne Tyler Jr., also of Accomac, was believed to be the ringleader of the troublemakers. A convicted drug dealer, Tyler threatened Hall five or six times while the landowner worked at the site. In July of last year, after Tyler allegedly threatened him with a firearm, Hall began carrying a gun in his truck for personal protection.

On September 28, 2002, Hall visited his property at about 9:30 p.m. and again found Tyler there. According to Hall, Tyler "started walking toward my truck. He started running off at the mouth. He had his hands down, I couldn't see them. I thought he had a gun. I feared for my life, that's why I tried to protect myself."

Hall fired a single shot from a distance of about six feet, striking Tyler in the lower abdomen. The wounded man fell in a ditch beside the road, then got up and ran away. He was hospitalized for four weeks, but recovered.

Hall, who cooperated with authorities and readily admitted that he had shot Tyler, was charged with unlawful wounding, a felony. According to the June 7th Salisbury (Maryland) Daily Times, Accomack County Commonwealth Attorney Gary Agar, who prosecuted the case, maintained that Hall "could have driven away" rather than shoot Tyler. Agar described the shooting as "a bad act. He has violated the law here, he needs to be punished for doing that."

The case was tried before Accomack Circuit Court Presiding Judge Glen Allen Tyler. Following a day of testimony on June 5th, Judge Tyler found Hall not guilty, ruling that the shooting was indeed justified and that the beleaguered property owner was without fault in the confrontation with Wayne Tyler. "He had every right to think he was in danger," Judge Tyler asserted. "There is hardly anything more dangerous than a gun-toting drug dealer," and "Wayne Tyler has ... a reputation for being a gun-toting drug dealer who is aggressive."