HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Reno County Deputy District Attorney Tom Stanton says that a Hutchinson man's claim of self-defense in a murder case does not hold any legal ground. Stanton filed his response to a motion for dismissal of charges against Isaac Ervin. Ervin’s attorney filed the motion last week.
Ervin is charged with premeditated first-degree murder, aggravated kidnapping, promoting sexual acts, and intimidation of a witness in connection with the death of Lora Beth Stratton. Stratton was found beaten in a Hutchinson alley Aug. 23. She died 10 days later in a Wichita hospital.
Although Ervin admits to strangling Stratton, he claims he was defending himself after Stratton attacked him. During an interview with police, Ervin claimed he was alone with Stratton in an apartment and she became angry because Ervin wasn’t helping her bond her husband out of jail.
The motion states that Ervin took action against Stratton under the state’s “Stand Your Ground” law, “where their use of force against another person was justified in self-defense.”
But Stanton noted several reasons as to why the motion should be denied. Most notably, that strangulation is inconsistent with the claim of self-defense immunity. He also states that the method to which Stratton was killed takes a considerable amount of time and the victim is rendered unconscious and no longer a threat well before strangulation results in death.
The brief also states that Kansas courts have consistently held that strangulation is not only evidence of intention to kill, but is sufficient for a jury to conclude that the killing was pre-meditated.
Stanton also noted that the defendant is 6-1 and weighs 249 pounds while Stratton was 5-7 and weighed 115 pounds. He says it was highly unlikely that the victim was any kind of threat to the defendant.
It was also noted that, if the victim did come at the defendant with a knife as he claims, once she was disarmed, as he stated, any further action was not self-defense.