Castle Doctrine protects man in 2 killings

ROBERTSVILLE, Mo. -- A Missouri man who killed a former roommate and a neighbor this year was protected by a state self-defense law that gives people broad license to use deadly force to protect themselves in their home or car.

Michael T. Wieners, 55, fatally shot former roommate Richard Kirk Wagnon, 60, at Wiener's rural eastern Missouri home in February. Wieners said Wagnon broke in with a firearm and tried to kill him. He had previously stayed with Wagnon after being stabbed, and the two had a falling out.

In June, Wieners fatally stabbed neighbor Eric Frazer, 38, in the same Franklin County home. Wieners told police Frazer had broken in, used an ax to smash up the home and demanded money and a ride to Arkansas. A police report said deputies had gone to the house hours earlier because of an argument between the two.

In both cases, authorities say a Missouri law known as the Castle Doctrine protected Wieners from prosecution.

Wieners told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch he killed his former friends in self-defense.

"I wasn't looking for that," he said. "I am not that type of person. But I am not going to let somebody take my life."

Franklin County Sheriff Gary Toelke said "there were things" about the deaths that concerned authorities. "But there's no evidence to sway those concerns either direction, basically," Toelke said. "We can't prove that our suspicions are right; we can't prove that they are wrong."

Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney Bob Parks said his office has never had a case like Wieners' with two shootings in the same place.

"Even if they are a bad guy, we'll give them the benefit of the doubt because of the Castle Doctrine," Parks said.

Toelke said Wieners is among a group of people who live on the law's edge and avoid prison. Wieners appears more than 80 times in Franklin County sheriff's reports for complaints against him, as a witness or for his arrest.

"There are some people that we deal with constantly," Toelke said. "They never seem to stay in jail for very long or they just always seem to attract trouble."