In most states, you do not have the legal right to use deadly force in self-defense unless you or someone else is under the threat of imminent deadly force. You may not use a firearm to detain someone, and you don’t have the legal right to shoot at someone as they attempt to run away.

Kentucky’s Jeff Conrad is likely to spend the rest of his life in prison (if he doesn’t get the death penalty) because he apparently decided to become judge, jury, and executioner.

A man accused of shooting alleged burglars was arrested just before 7 p.m. on Tuesday.

According to Sheriff Jon Hayden, detectives presented the evidence to a special called grand jury, who then indicted him on a capitol murder charge.

Hayden said the vehicle was backing away when Jeff Conrad, 49, of Benton, fired the shot.

According to the McCracken County Sheriff’s Department, on June 8 the McCracken County Commonwealth Attorney’s Office convened on a special grand jury to hear evidence from the investigation into the death of Garlon Casey Cox.

The grand jury returned the indictment for murder against Conrad. He was found and arrested in the Calvert City area on Tuesday afternoon at about 7:15 p.m. and taken to the McCracken County Regional Jail without incident.

Brandon York, 36, of Benton, was one of two suspects in the incident and appeared in court on Tuesday, June 9.

McCracken County Sheriff Jon Hayden said Jeff Conrad reported he arrived at AAA Storage, located on Eagles Nest Drive, around 7 a.m. to find two people with a pickup truck of items from his storage unit.

Conrad said he confronted the two people in the truck with a loaded .45 caliber pistol and ordered them not to move.

York ran from the scene on foot just as the pistol was fired. That round apparently hit Garlon Casey Cox, 30, of Benton who was with York.

Deputies found Cox in the driver’s side seat with an apparent gunshot wound to the head. The truck had crashed into one of the storage units. He was transported to Lourdes Hospital and later died.

Folks, if you are going to own a firearm, and especially if you are going to carry one for self-defense, you simply must learn all the applicable laws, think out scenarios of when and how you can legally use deadly force, and understand that “I was angry” or “I was offended” isn’t legal justification.

We’re better than this.