It’s a suitably strange conclusion to a bizarre case.
Bryson Dewberry had filed a suit against Chang Ho Yi, a liquor store owner who’d shot Dewberry in the face after after he’d shoplifted a bottle of Grey Goose vodka.
Now, a jury has determined that Yi was only 35 percent responsible for the incident — so Dewberry will receive nothing.
The original episode popped off in Colorado Springs, Colo., in October 2010. According to the lawsuit reported by the Colorado Springs Gazette, Dewberry snatched some Grey Goose and ran to car parked nearby. Yi took off after him, armed with a .357 revolver, and opened fire, striking Dewberry as he sat in the backseat of the vehicle.
The bullet traced a path from his torso to his jaw before blowing a hole through his cheek. Cops said the bullet eventually wound up in the leg of a passenger, age 17.
Afterward, Yi didn’t report the shooting: the police only learned about it after Dewberry and the teenager showed up at an area hospital and told their side of the tale.
When investigators questioned Yi, he initially claimed not to know anything about such an incident and insisted that he couldn’t have taken part in it anyhow because he didn’t have a firearm.
Investigators caught Yi in several lies and prosecutors subsequently charged him with attempted murder because the state’s Make My Day law permits business owners and homeowners to shoot in self-defense, but not if they’re under no personal threat and are simply protecting their property.
Once the facts of the case were shared with a grand jury, though, the El Paso District Attorney’s Office decided against charging him because of the difficulty involved in winning a conviction under such cloudy circumstances.
In a later interview, Yi told the Gazette he’d initially lied to the cops because he thought they were on Dewberry’s side — and besides, he’d hit his head and didn’t really know what he was doing while pulling the trigger.
