give me a hug because I'm going to jail those were reportedly the last words a Wyoming man said to his mom after he allegedly shot his sister in the head it's an eerie statement to make given that he could face the rest of his life in prison we're in Gillette Wyoming for this story and believe it or not this all took place just last week on January 20th that's when police were called to a local home after a neighbor heard the sound of a gunshot however the neighbor wasn't the only person to call 911 police
say 26-year-old Vincent hacket also called 911 but it wasn't a call for help it was to admit he was the one behind the shooting the victim his 33-year-old half-sister Haley Martinez when police arrived they reportedly found Haley with a gunshot wound to her head they rushed her to the hospital where Hospital staff found two more gunshot wounds sadly she never made it out alive and was pronounced dead within minutes after arriving to the hospital I mean brothers and sisters normally have arguments but not ones that result in a deadly shooting so what happened well Vincent
and Haley's mother helped piece that together according to a report by Cal boy State Daily their mom was there through the whole thing she told police she made plans to help clean Haley's home earlier that day they drank together and Haley might have been feeling those drinks according to detectives that afternoon Haley's mom invited her to her home where Vincent also lives and a friend of Haley's was also invited because she reportedly had Haley's children from a sleepover last Sunday now Haley's mom told police Haley and Vincent might not have had the best relationship and
their interactions were often confrontational because Haley allegedly was known to use drugs and Vincent didn't approve of her lifestyle or how she chose to raise her children but police say that night is where everything took a turn the three family members were drinking hanging out with Haley's children and watching TV innocent enough right that is until Haley reportedly overheard her friend and Vincent talking about her upset by whatever was said police say she stormed out of the home even leaving behind her shoes so her friend had to pick Haley up she returned back to her
mom's home but the fighting between Haley and Vincent only continued they argued and that was broken up by their mom they kept on going to the point Vincent told Haley to leave according to police he led her to the front door pushed her onto the porch and locked the deadpol Haley then banged on the door trying to get back inside and that's when the door suddenly swung open and Haley was in the doorway but she was met with the bullet to her face allegedly by Vincent she fell down and mind you Haley's children and her
mom were all there in the house when this happened Haley's mom got the children took them to the back of the home and then two more bullets were fired at some point after Vincent called 911 and told his mom give me a hug because I'm going to jail and that's where he went now charged with second deegree murder prosecutors reportedly wanted Vincent Hackett to be held on a million dooll cash only Bond but the judge went for a lower bond amount still in the six figures but for A4 million doll instead just a horrific case
out of Wyoming I'm joined Now by criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor Florina aler Florina thank you so much for being here today you know Florina this case is kind of hard to wrap your head around really like Vincent hackin allegedly shot his half sister after an argument in the head what's your reaction to this case and have you seen anything like it before I I have not seen anything like this before this really is just shocking and horrible for a brother to kill his own sister over disagreeing with her lifestyle um it is really
egregious really surprising and um I cannot understand how he could have gotten to a mental state to think to do this and speaking of that you know not approving of his sister's lifestyle or how she raised her children is that something that you think his defense attorney will use if this case actually goes to trial I mean the defense attorney can try to use that but I don't see how that in any way amounts to a defense uh potential defenses include self-defense where the victim would have had to been in the act of being aggressive
and actively attacking him which from the facts is not the case here or an extreme emotional state where the person is enraged from a real shocking and sudden event and acted in that moment and that's not a complete defense but that would reduce it and this does not sound like that either uh cases where these extreme emotional defenses come in are a spouse walks in on another other spouse cheating on them and they're just in shock from that moment again not a defense to murder but can downgrade it in some states to manslaughter here this
is a lifestyle that she was living this is not a sudden and shocking event nor really is there anything extreme about it so I don't see what the defense here will be the defense here is get a plea deal yeah and obviously as a former prosecutor and now criminal defense attorney you obviously see both sides in your opinion does it help or hurt his case Vincent's case that he had called 911 to admit to this shooting instead of just running or fleeing from the scene well obviously it hurts him in that it's pretty clear he's
the person who did this but where it helps him is for purposes of mitigation for sentencing it sounds like he's accepted responsibility and admitted that he did this if he expresses remorse which is a question to be answered right it doesn't necessarily sound that he even feels bad about what he did he's just accepting responsibility and says yes I did this but here's why um if he can acknowledge and accept remorse that could potentially for purposes of sentencing mitigate his sentence to get him less years not significantly less but it could shave some years off
of his sentence yeah and whether you know it's shooting or stabbing or strangling just murdering your sister in general for seemingly no reason except being possibly irritated or mad for what she was doing with her life you know it's not an excuse at all for this horrendous horrible murder but in your opinion do you think that the defense can try and play it as a Not Guilty by reason of insanity I don't see how insanity is going to apply here insanity is a really narrow standard and in order to be able to establish not guil
by reason of insanity they have to establish that in the moment when he was acting he did not know the difference between right and wrong and did not appreciate the nature of his actions him calling 911 him accepting responsibility him stating what he did and why he did it is evidence against the insanity defense this sounds like a case where he knew what he was doing and did it intentionally with purpose and understood that what he was doing was wrong he just didn't care that's not Insanity that's that's a whole another issue that is not
a defense and I think adding on to that as well too is telling your mom you know Mom I'm I'm going to jail now give me a hug after murdering your sister and shooting her in the head um allegedly you know just reading through what we know now how much do you think that alcohol kind of played into the escalation of everything because again shooting someone in the head or the face clearly sends a message that you want this person to die yeah plenty of people drink alcohol plenty of people get drunk and they don't
shoot somebody in the face as a result of being drunk so I don't see how him drinking is a defense either I can see how him drinking maybe gave him the courage to do something like this uh but the vast majority of society drinks alcohol and does not murder people so I don't see how that can possibly be an excuse either and say for instance there's no plea deal or he denies the plea deal and this case actually goes to trial in your opinion you know and obviously we hear from a lot of legal analysts
and you you yourself saying no case is ever a slam dunk but in this particular case if this case were to go to trial do you think that the prosecution has the slam dunk here this is as good a case as it gets um a 911 call is not going to get suppressed it's not a police interrogation while he's in custody it's a call he makes and a statement he makes so that's going to Comm in to evidence they arrest him at the house at the scene and he makes more admissions all of that's going
to come in I don't see how he could possibly argue there's Reasonable Doubt and he's not the person who did it in light of that evidence I also don't see how he could possibly argue self-defense when he shot her in the head and in the face and there's no evidence that she attacked him so really the only defenses in a murder are either that it's s defense so I did it but I was justified in doing it I don't see how that applies here or they got the wrong person it's not me there's Reasonable Doubt
about who did this and I don't see how that applies here so he needs to accept responsibility and his lawyer needs to negotiate as best a plea as possible so that he could maybe shave some years off of the prison sentence that he and I don't say this lightly but he's going to get it is rare that I say that a case is a slam dunk case in light of the evidence that we know here in this case I don't see an aquid yeah it'll be kind of hard to kind of you know dismantle or
kind of like I guess go with the defense that you know this wasn't him this was somebody else um Florina I want to thank you so much for your time today I really appreciate your insight into this case before we sign you off though where do you think everything goes from from here I think this is one of those cases where the attorneys are going to negotiate a plea in short order and it's going to resolve and we really won't hear about it but I could be wrong and really he's he's in the driver's seat
of this one and if he doesn't want to take a plea he's got a right to a trial um it's sure to convict him but he does have that right and he's free to exercise that right all right I guess we'll see how how everything goes from here again Florina thank you so much for your time today I really appreciate your Insight thanks for having me Vincent hacket remains in jail on a $750,000 cash Bond he has a preliminary hearing that's set for Thursday January 30th no plea has been entered yet but if Vincent Hackett
is convicted he's facing 20 years to life in prison reporting for long crime I'm Elizabeth Milner
