Can It Be a Crime to Defend Yourself in Your Home?

Late at night, you are suddenly awakened by the sound of breaking glass. A burglar is entering your home. Fearing for the safety of you and your family, you open your gun safe and retrieve your pistol. The burglar hears you and flees out the window. You chase after him, following him outside, and you demand he stop. On your front lawn, he turns and reaches for the inside of his jacket. Believing he is about to pull out a weapon, you pull the trigger and shoot him.

Have you committed a crime?

Use of Force in Your Home Defense

In California, you are legally allowed to use force against another person in your home if you reasonably believed that:

• You or another person in your home were in imminent danger of being killed, seriously injured, or unlawfully touched;
• You reasonably believed that immediate force was necessary to prevent that danger; AND
• You used no more force than was necessary to defend against that danger.1

Notice that the above rule does not justify the use of deadly force to merely prevent a crime from being committed in your home. You must believe that the danger was to you or another person. The use of lethal force is generally not allowed to prevent someone from simply taking or damaging your property, unless in so doing the criminal will put you or another in jeopardy of life or limb.

In the scenario above, if you are charged with murder for killing the burglar, the prosecution will likely argue that the burglar was fleeing, and therefore no longer posed a danger to you or anyone in your home. Your criminal defense attorney will argue that you did act reasonably under the circumstances in using deadly force.

Presumption of Reasonableness During a Home Invasion

California Penal Code section 198.5 presumes that you have a reasonable fear of death or great bodily harm resulting from the unlawful and forcible entry of someone else into your residence, so long as the intruder is not a member of your family. This means that you need only show that the burglar broke into your home to establish your reasonable fear. The prosecution would be forced to overcome this presumption by showing that your fear was somehow unreasonable even within your own home.

Contact the Criminal Defense Attorneys at Wallin & Klarich

You could face criminal charges if you shoot someone who breaks into your home, but an experienced criminal defense attorney may be able to put together a winning defense strategy for you. At Wallin & Klarich, our skilled attorneys have over 40 years experience successfully defending clients facing criminal charges. Let us help you, too. Contact us today for a free, no obligation consultation.

With offices in Los Angeles, Sherman Oaks, Torrance, Orange County, San Diego, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura, West Covina and Victorville, there is an experienced Wallin & Klarich criminal defense attorney near you no matter where you work or live.

Call us today at (877) 4-NO-JAIL or (877) 466-5245 for a free phone consultation. We will get through this together.

^{1. See CALCRIM 505: Justifiable Homicide: Self-Defense or Defense of Another href=”#ref1″>↩}