FULL VIDEO AT THE END OF THIS POST
YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENED NEXT!
A Quiet Afternoon Turns Terrifying
Imagine doing yard work on a peaceful Saturday.
Suddenly, shots ring out.
This is what Mr. and Mrs. Fletcher describe to Judge Judy.
They are the plaintiffs in this case.
They claim their neighbor, the defendant, cut down trees on their property.
The defendant is accused of using these trees for firewood.
The Plaintiffs' Story Begins with Gunshots
Mr. and Mrs. Fletcher have lived on their property for about 25 years.
They had no previous difficulties with their neighbor.
Then came that Saturday in April.
Mrs. Fletcher was outside with her son.
She was doing some basic yard cleanup.
"All of a sudden, shots rang out as in somebody was shooting at us," she tells Judge Judy.
She describes yelling at her children to hide behind a truck.
She told them to stay down and not move.
She ran inside to tell her husband what was happening.
They immediately called 911.
"As far as I was concerned, it sounded like the bullets were just ripping through the air right there in our yard," Mrs. Fletcher states.
The police arrived.
They also started to hear the shots while in the yard.
The Defendant Explains the Shooting
Judge Judy turns to the defendant.
"What were you doing?"
she asks.
The defendant admits she had three friends over.
They were shooting Tannerite off from the Beaver Dam, off her driveway.
Judge Judy clarifies, "So you had three friends over who were shooting a gun?"
The defendant confirms this.
She estimates her property is three-quarters of a mile to a mile from the plaintiffs' home.
The group included her boyfriend, a girlfriend, and the girlfriend's boyfriend.
The police did arrive that day.
The defendant confirms she spoke with them.
They stopped shooting.
Missing Trees and a Firewood Pile
Judge Judy then shifts to the main claim.
"Clearly, trees were cut down on the plaintiff's property," she states.
"Do you know who cut them down?"
The defendant replies, "No, I don't."
Judge Judy continues, "Clearly based upon what I look at, some of the wood from those trees ended up close to your house.
Do you know how it got there?"
Again, the defendant denies knowledge.
"No, I don't," she says.
Judge Judy asks if the defendant uses firewood.
The defendant confirms she does.
She explains that a friend named Jim brings her firewood.
Two other neighbors also bring her firewood.
She states, "I do not run a chainsaw, and I don't cut a firewood."
Judge Judy asks if she knows where these neighbors get the firewood.
The defendant says Jim gets it from his property.
But for the other neighbors, she doesn't know.
Judge Judy points out, "But clearly, his property ended up in your firewood pile."
The Sound of a Chainsaw
Mr. Fletcher then adds to the story.
He testifies that they heard a chainsaw on the defendant's property most of the summer.
This was before they discovered the missing firewood.
He doesn't know if the defendant ran it herself.
But the chainsaw was running over there.
They heard it all summer.
Judge Judy asks the defendant if she was ever away from her property during the summer.
She confirms she was.
Judge Judy asks who else lives on the property with her.
The defendant says she had a gentleman staying with her for a while, but he had been gone for almost two years.
"Who was staying with you over the summer?"
Judge Judy presses.
"No one," the defendant replies.
"When you weren't there, who was at the house?"