Trolley Square shooting victim's parents appeal to federal court
Ken and Sue Antrobus filed an emergency appeal Tuesday morning with the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, seeking to have Vanessa Quinn legally recognized as a victim in the case against Mackenzie Hunter. He sold Sulejman Talovic the .38 Special that was used to kill Quinn during the Feb. 12 shooting rampage.
"By unlawfully selling a handgun to Talovic, the defendant effectively 'set a bomb' — that is, let loose a person who was prohibited by federal criminal law from carrying such a weapon," the Antrobuses attorneys Paul Cassell and Greg Skordas wrote. "The bomb 'exploded' some eight months later when Talovic did precisely what Congress was concerned about: committed multiple violent felonies."
Talovic, 18, went on a shooting rampage at the Trolley Square mall, killing five people and wounding four others before dying in a shootout with police.
A federal judge last week denied the Antrobuses request to have Quinn recognized as a victim under the Crime Victim Rights Act. It would have allowed them to speak at Hunter's sentencing and seek restitution.
"The defendant's criminal sale of a handgun directly harmed Vanessa Quinn when she died from a bullet fired from that gun," their attorneys wrote. "The defendant's crime also proximately harmed her, as the defendant had good reason to foresee that the gun would be used in a crime of violence."
Hunter, 20, disagrees. In a motion filed Monday in connection with his case, his attorney argued that Hunter had no way of knowing what the gun would have been used for.
"Vanessa Quinn was a victim of a tragic and heinous crime that had no direct or proximate connection with Mr. Hunter's crime of providing a firearm to a minor, Sulejman Talovic, eight months earlier," Hunter's lawyer David Finlayson wrote.
"There has never been any evidence provided, statement made or argument by the United States that could lead to a finding that Mr. Hunter could have foreseen the actions of Talovic at Trolley Square."
The Antrobuses are asking the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to decide whether they will hear the issue within 72 hours. Hunter is to be sentenced on Jan. 14.
E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com
Recent comments
I guess if you would all read the news Utah law says if you sell...
Earl | Jan. 15, 2008 at 9:05 p.m.
These comment sections are worthless. Whoever is moderating is doing...
Craig RULES! | Jan. 8, 2008 at 1:01 p.m.
That's just not the way our legal system works (vicarious punishment...
The legal system | Jan. 8, 2008 at 12:02 p.m.
