Munoz family files lawsuit in 2012 Bend killing

The father of a Bend man who was shot and killed in June 2012 after he was found asleep inside an Awbrey Butte home has filed a lawsuit alleging the homeowner and his companion were the initial attackers.

The wrongful death lawsuit filed on behalf of Edmund Munoz seeks more than $500,000 in the death of 33-year-old Shane Munoz.

Kevin Perry and Amanda Weinman had arrived at Perry’s Awbrey Butte home to find Shane Munoz, a stranger to both of them, asleep on the couch. Perry told police he grabbed a gun and shot Munoz after the intruder attacked him.

Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel in February found Perry to be justified in the shooting.

The lawsuit filed in Deschutes County Circuit Court claims that Shane Munoz hadn’t posed a threat to Perry or Weinman, and that a police investigation had been incomplete. It says the couple were the initial attackers and acted recklessly.

Bend attorney Foster Glass, representing Edmund Munoz, told NewsChannel 21 on Friday the lawsuit was filed quickly in June to take action before the 3-year statute of limitations expired.

An amended complaint will be filed next week, he said, followed by formal serving to the couples’ attorneys, after which depositions can be taken from those involved.

Glass said he disagreed with Hummel’s decision to dismiss the case, saying the “evidence didn’t support the decision.” But he also noted that while criminal convictions require that a jury find the charges were proved “beyond a reasonable doubt,” civil cases have a lesser standard and instead require that a jury agrees a “preponderance of evidence” shows the allegations are more likely than not true.

The lawyer, a former district attorney in Grant County, said the couple made several false and contradictory statements to police, including that Munoz had a gun when he did not.

Having reviewed the police record, Glass said Munoz had taken off his shirt and neatly folded it on the arm of the couch before he went to sleep, and that Perry reached under the couch to get his own gun before the encounter. He also said Perry first claimed he shot Munoz in the stomach, when he was shot in the back at close range, and that after the shooting, Weinman kicked him in the head as he lay on the floor.

“They told at least four different stories,” he said, noting that juries in criminal cases are instructed to discount witnesses’ statements if they find any to be untrue.

“The police did a pretty good job,” he said, but that prosecutors didn’t ask for more info or clear up some issues.

“They said, ‘He was attacking us’ – well, that’s easy to say” afterward, the attorney said.

“You can’t shoot somebody because they are in your house,” Glass said. “You only have the right to use deadly force and shoot somebody if it’s reasonably necessary” to prevent a felony is being committed, which does not include trespass.

Edmund Munoz told NewsChannel 21 Friday night he believes anyone who reviews the full 948-page police report would agree that the outcome of the criminal investigation was not just.

“I don’t think there’s a reasonable person on the planet who wouldn’t think this thing stinks to high heaven,” he said. “This case should have gone to the grand jury.”

Munoz said Hummel or previous DA Patrick Flaherty would have done something differently, if it had happened to their son.

“This isn’t over yet — this is just a start,” he said. “We just want our day in court with the evidence we have and let 12 men and women decide. We’re not arguing the Castle Doctrine.'”