GLENWOOD, Iowa — Before a Mills County grand jury questioned his client, Don Hopp's lawyer told him that he shouldn't say anything, that he should exercise his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself.
But Hopp, a 66-year-old Malvern-area farmer who blasted birdshot into the backside of a suspected burglar on Aug. 17, didn't follow that advice. Instead, Hopp says, he answered the seven-person panel's questions.
He told the grand jurors how shook up he had been by three other recent burglaries and how he watched TV at night with a shotgun by his side, and about what happened when he was hit once again — and this time was home.
"They asked very good questions. I was impressed. They weren't there for a picnic," Hopp said of the jurors. "I answered them all."
In the end, it worked out for Hopp. The grand jury did not indict him.
The decision was no surprise to Mills County Attorney Eric Hansen, who said it was a close call on whether Hopp should face charges. Shooting someone in Iowa generally is illegal unless the person poses an immediate threat. Burglary suspect Miguel Martinez was shot outside Hopp's home, suffering minor wounds, in what Hopp called an accident.
"Barring some sort of stirring new evidence or extraordinary new circumstance, there won't be any charges filed," Hansen said. "I anticipated that was the most likely outcome, but because it was a close call, that's ... why we call the grand jury in."
Burglars in the past had ripped off guns and cash, Hopp said. They even went through his freezer and threw his Banquet dinners all over the floor. They stole socks and underwear.
The farmer told The World-Herald he was watching the local news about 10:10 p.m. that night when he heard a series of thunks from the door on the south side of his home. He grabbed a shotgun and confronted at least one burglar, chasing him out, authorities have said.
While outside, Hopp has said, he tripped over a wheelbarrow and accidentally fired into the air. Authorities that night rounded up three burglary suspects — Martinez, then 30, and Patrick Hover, 19, both of Council Bluffs, and Yosvani Galindo, 33, of Omaha — with the help of an Omaha police helicopter. Martinez was treated for his wounds and released the same night.
Galindo pleaded guilty to second-degree burglary and received a suspended 10-year prison sentence with two years of supervised probation. Hover pleaded guilty to second-degree burglary and Martinez to attempted burglary. Sentencing for the final two is scheduled for late January, Hansen said.
Hopp says he is still troubled by the burglaries and all that went along with them.
"You wait until you are in your house, 10:10 at night ... and you hear a clunk ... all of a sudden your brain says, 'Hey buddy, they are busting into your house again.' That throws fear into you, a fear that will be with you the rest of your life."
Contact the writer:
402-444-1310, andrew.nelson@owh.com
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