What gun? That gun tucked in the seat by my leg?
Yeah, the Tulsa D.A. Office
is that Stupid and Out of Touch
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| Jack Ulrich, before the robbery. |
We covered this story last week in the hope that the Tulsa County District Attorney Office would realize just how insane it would be to prosecute a young man defending property and exercising his right to self defense under the Second Amendment. To our disappointment the lesson didn't take.
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| A close up of the handgun in the possession of the felon. |
The Mize family had set up a fireworks stand in their yard this year. The Fourth of July was the last day for fireworks sales so the Mize family had marked down a huge box of fireworks, 50% off, reasoning that making a few dollars off the box of fireworks was better than returning the box to the supplier as most of these fireworks stand run on a consignment basis. The $1200.00 box of fireworks was marked down to $600.00. As the inventory was held on consignment the Mize family would have had to pay the supplier for the product if it wasn't returned in salable shape.
Jack Ulrich, a violent felon, a three time felon, at the time out on bond for assault with a deadly weapon, possession of firearms after a felony conviction, receiving stolen property, and other crimes decided to enlist the aid of his 15 year old cousin Jake Ulrich to steal the fireworks in broad day light. The Ulrich family had a home within sight of the fireworks stand so it was likely that others in the Ulrich family knew the armed robbery had been planned.
Fireworks stands in West Tulsa have a record of being robbed often so the Mize family kept a gun under the counter like most firework stands in the area are prone to do, all perfectly legal as it is a place of business.
Witnesses said that Jack Ulrich fired his handgun towards the Mize family during the commission of the robbery. The father of the Mize family reported hearing a loud shot and seeing a gun flash as he ran toward the truck and ducking down to lower his profile in response as he ran toward the back of the truck.
One woman who gave a statement to police was standing along with her husbandg at the fireworks stand when someone inside the Ulrich truck fired, with the woman having a baby in arms and a teenage daughter standing beside her.
Witnesses said that Johnny Mize initially dropped his gun as he exited the fireworks stand and had to retrieve the gun before running toward the side of the truck. About that time was when someone in the truck fired a shot toward the Mize family, witnesses say that Mize junior returned fire, a single shot, not even an aimed shot but fired with the gun blindly aimed over the side of the truck where he was seeking cover from the gunfire. Whether the 15 year old armed robber was killed by gunfire from Jack Ulrich shooting from inside the truck or if the single Mize shot went through the open back window no one really knows, but one of the two shots did hit the 15 year old armed robber, and blasted the passenger side window glass out onto the Mize's front yard.
Finding out they were robbing armed victims led 27 year old Jack Ulrich to speed away in the alledgedly stolen truck with three of the Mize family members trying to climb in the bed of the truck to retrieve the stolen fireworks. Only one made it into the bed of that truck, Johnny Mize junior who dove over the side of the truck into the bed of the truck, the other two family members were thrown off the bumper as the pickup truck careened away at high speed. The elder Mize, the father of Johnny Mize, was dragged across his own driveway as the truck sped away. Once on the paved road Jack Ulrich saw Johnny Mize in the back of the truck and begun violently swerving at 50 to 60 miles per hour in an attempt to throw Johnny Mize out of the truck.
Now how many times have we seen trained and experienced police officers shooting drivers for far, far, less? Gunning the drivers down out of a fear of being ran over despite the cop being at the side of the car or even behind the car. Yet Johnny Mize didn't do what most of us might have done while in fear for his life, he didn't shoot the driver, Johnny Mize reached over the side of the truck and shot the rear time to stop the vehicle. That proved that Johnny Mize was not out of control or acting in an impassioned state, he reacted with thought and restraint.
Convicted felon out on bond Jack Ulrich fled into the woods once the truck stopped, carrying his gun and didn't show up for two days, leaving his 15 year old partner in crime dying or dead in the stolen truck. Remember that the fatal shot had been one of the first shots fired, either from Jack Ulrich firing from inside the truck or Mize firing blindly, over the side of the stolen truck tailgate, while dodging fire allegedly from Jack Ulrich.
The Ulrich truck was by then was sitting in the road about a mile away from the fireworks stand. Johnny Mize has told police that he stepped on the emergency brake to stop the truck from continuing to roll but never entered the cab other than reaching in to step on the emergency brake. Mize senior and the younger Mize boy had set off in a small car looking for Johnny Mize and found him on the road and transferred the now broken box of fireworks into their car, returning to scoop up some fireworks that had spilled out of the box into the back of the truck.
When convicted felon Jack Ulrich showed up at the Tulsa Sheriff Department he claimed he didn't own or possess any guns and didn't have a gun during the armed robbery. Then the next day Ulrich appears in the Creek County courtroom where his bond was revoked for his March 2017 arrest for a multitude of crimes including being in possession of a gun after conviction of a felony. Worse, the Newson6.com photo of Ulrich and his wife sitting in their car while taking a selfie clearly shows the butt end of a hammer-less automatic pistol tucked into the seat next to Ulrich's leg. The picture obviously was taken from Ulrich's or his wife's Facebook page.
Strangely enough the Tulsa County D.A. Office accepted the word of a multiple conviction violent felon with a history of using guns in crimes and possessing guns after his felony convictions over the word of witnesses and family members that were present at the time of the shooting and said Ulrich fired first during the armed robbery. Worse, the D.A. Charged Jack Ulrich with a misdemeanor larceny instead of armed robbery and charged Johnny Mize with felony manslaughter.
Convicted felon Jack Ulrich wasn't charged with first degree felony murder or even manslaughter because the D.A. Claimed that the law only allowed him to only charge one defendant with the death so he chose to charge the family member that fired in self defense and to protect his property. Had he charged Ulrich he wouldn't have been able to charge Johnny Mize with anything.
Johnny Mize junior isn't a choir boy. He has two very old dismissed cases on his record, one a dismissed protective order that was unfair enough that the plaintiff was ordered to pay the court costs after the dismissal, and a second dismissal after he made restitution in a petty larceny case. Both of the cases were misdemeanors and again, both were dismissed. So a young man with zero felony arrests or convictions was charged while a known convicted violent felon, one out on bail for other recent crimes, was given a sweet deal of a charge.
The Tulsa D.A. Obviously believes that citizens have no right to self defense under the 2nd Amendment. He has a problem with separating good citizens from the violent thugs as evidenced in the latest three time mistrial on the Tulsa police officer father shooting his estranged daughters boyfriend, with the father/police officer saying that the boyfriend had a gun. A gun was found in the trash in the same interrogation room that the estranged daughter had been questioned in but the judge didn't allow that fact to be used in the trial. The Shelby shooting was another case where the D.A. was beaten badly and showed errors in judgement.
Johnny Mize and his family are just working class folks and a legal defense fund has been set up in Johnny Mize's name. Please click on the link above and contribute toward this vital 2nd Amendment case.
