Okla. mom Sarah McKinley won't face charges for shooting intruder

[Dave]

This is a case where the law worked the way it should. A young woman is home with her 3 month old baby and someone is trying to break in, the person finally breaks in and she shoots the guy, he dies. In Oklahoma, residents have the right to protect themselves within their home, even using deadly force. It was not a good start of the year for her, her husband had literally died a week earlier from cancer and now she's having to deal with some guy (who it turns out she knew), trying to break in. I don't know if they figured out what the guy was after.. could of been some of the pain meds her husband had taken or worse, maybe he was there to do something bad to her. Regardless though, she had to do what she had to do to protect herself as well as her baby and she did. On a side note, the accomplice was arrested and charged with murder... its also the law in Oklahoma that if you take part in a crime where a death happens, you are charged with murder. Not sure if I like that law or not.. might be a little over reaching. I suppose though that if your old enough to commit the crime then you have to be ready and willing to do the time... pleading ignorant simply won't cut it.

(CBS/AP) BLANCHARD, Okla. - Authorities say they won't file charges against an Oklahoma widow who fatally shot a New Year's Eve intruder at her house while she was on the phone with a 911 dispatcher.

Pictures: Oklahoma teen mom shoots intruder

Sarah McKinley, 18, asked a Grady County dispatcher for permission to shoot the intruder at her Blanchard mobile home.

"I've got two guns in my hand. Is it OK to shoot him if he comes in this door?" McKinley asked the dispatcher.

"Well, you have to do whatever you can do to protect yourself," the dispatcher is heard telling McKinley in the 911 tape released Wednesday. "I can't tell you that you can do that, but you have to do what you have to do to protect your baby."

McKinley's 3-month-old son was with her when she shot Justin Shane Martin, 24.

Oklahoma law allows the use of deadly force against intruders, and prosecutors said McKinley clearly acted in self-defense. According to court documents, Martin was holding a knife when he died.

"Our initial review of the case doesn't indicate she violated the law in any way," Assistant District Attorney James Walters told The Oklahoman newspaper.

However, prosecutors have charged Martin's alleged accomplice, Dustin Louis Stewart, 29.

Stewart, who called 911 shortly after the home invasion, told a dispatcher he fled the scene when Martin made his way into a Blanchard home, reports CBS affiliate KWTV.

"My name is Dusty Stewart and I think it was my friend that got shot."

Stewart reportedly told the dispatcher, "I don't know what he was trying to do. I stood at the fence and told him to come on and I don't know what he did."

Stewart was charged with first-degree murder.

"When you're engaged in a crime such as first-degree burglary and a death results from the events of that crime, you're subject to prosecution for it," Walters said.

Stewart was arraigned Wednesday and was being held in the Grady County jail. A bond hearing was set for Thursday. 

According to court documents, Martin and Stewart might have been looking for prescription drugs. McKinley said it took the men about 20 minutes to get through her door, which she had barricaded with a couch.

She said her husband had died about a week earlier - on Christmas Day - after being hospitalized with complications from lung cancer earlier that month.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-57352784-504083/okla-mom-sar...