On March 23, 1994, the medical examiner in San Diego viewed
the body of Ronald Opus and concluded that he died from a shotgun
wound to the head. The decedent had jumped from the top of a
ten-story building intending to commit suicide: he left a note
indicating his despondency. As he fell past the 9th floor,
however, he was hit in the head by a shotgun blast through the
window, which killed him instantly. Neither decedent nor the
shooter was aware that a safety net had been erected at the 8th
floor level to protect a window washing crew, and that Opus would
not have been successful in his suicide because of it.
The fact that Opus was shot on the way to certain death would
not ordinarily have changed the cause of death from suicide to
homicide. But because the net was present, and would have
prevented Opus suicide attempt from being successful, the medical
examiner felt he had a homicide on his hands, and an investigation
was launched.
The room on the 9th floor from whence the shotgun blast
originated was occupied by an elderly man and his wife. At the time
of Opus suicide attempt, they were arguing, and the husband was
threatening his wife with the shotgun. During the argument he
pulled the trigger, missing his wife and discharging the weapon out
of the window, striking Opus in the head. Thus, the elderly man
seemed guilty of murder, since by law, when a person intends to
kill subject A but kills subject B in the attempt, that person is
guilty of murder.
When confronted with the murder charge, both the elderly man
and his wife insisted that neither knew the shotgun was loaded.
Further, the old man said it was his long-standing habit to
threaten his wife with the unloaded shotgun when they argued, and
he had not intention of murdering her. Since the old man had not
loaded the shotgun, the murder of Opus now appeared to be an
accident.
The investigation continued. A witness was discovered who
claimed to have seen the elderly couples son loading the shotgun
approximately six weeks prior to the fatal incident. It was
subsequently learned that the sons mother had cut off his financial
support and the son, knowing it was his fathers habit to threaten
his mother with the shotgun, loaded it without their knowledge with
the expectation that his father would shoot his mother, granting
him his revenge. Thus the son was charged with the murder of Ronald
Opus.
Upon further investigation, however, it was discovered that
the son, one Ronald Opus, had become increasingly despondent over
the failure of his attempt to engineer his mothers murder, so
despondent that, on March 23, 1994, he jumped off the ten story
building where his parents lived, only to be killed by a shotgun
blast to the head as he passed the 9th floor.
The medical examiner ruled the case: A suicide!