Shooter Ordered To Pay Family Of Dead Burglar

Criminal charges were never filed against a property owner after he killed a trespasser. Despite that, a civil jury ordered the shooter to pay the dead man’s family $300,000.

It all started early one morning in April 2009. Robert Fox and Brian Corbin were caught trespassing at Southwest Auto, an auto body shop. According to court documents, the men were there to steal property, to make money to buy amphetamines.

Southwest Auto had been targeted before, and the owners filed a police report.

?Both Jovan (Milanovic) and his father, Ljubin (Milanovic), told the police officer, ‘Well, the next people that come on to the property, we?re going to shoot,'” said attorney Jennifer Stock, who represented Fox?s family in the civil case. ?And the officer that they spoke with said, ‘You can?t do that. What you need to do is call the police if you see someone coming onto your property.'”

?And then low and behold, what happens the next weekend? Someone came onto their property outside of business hours, and they blew him away,? said Stock. ?So they followed through on their threat, which shows that this is something they had planned ahead of time.?

Fox?s daughter was 8 months old when he died. For her sake, his family decided to file the civil lawsuit.

?There actually were a loss of potential earnings and support that the little girl had,? said Stock. ?So that’s why it was actually a viable lawsuit — that in addition to non-economic losses of companionship.?

Stock said she knew the case would be tough.

?The common perception out there is, ‘It’s my property,’ and of course there’s anger against a criminal who is breaking onto your property with the intent to steal something,? said Stock.

?However, people need to understand that that’s not the state of the law,? said Stock. ?You don’t get to shoot someone just for breaking onto your property.”

John Craver, Jovan Milanovic?s attorney, did not respond to KRDO-TV?s request for an interview.

KRDO did track down Jovan Milanovic at his auto shop. He said his lawyer told him not to talk to reporters about the case. However, he did say that this has been a difficult time for his family.

Jovan Milanovic has two children, ages 2 years and 3 weeks.