Opinion ID: 2682680
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Harper Fights with His Fiancée

Text: It was May 26th, 2008—Memorial Day Monday—and plaintiff Joseph Harper was grilling ribs. Mr. Harper, along with his fiancée Mary Crimmins, and their two sons, “Little” Joey and Johnny Ray, had gathered at the home of Harper’s sister Laverne in Douglas, Georgia for a late-afternoon barbeque. As he fussed with the meat, Harper drank about six bottles of Budweiser beer in a two- to threehour stretch. Meanwhile, Crimmins wanted nothing more than to abandon the party, return home, and go to bed. She approached Harper to voice her complaint as he grilled. “I’m cooking; we can’t [go],” Harper replied, but Crimmins stood firm. She threatened that if Harper did not leave the barbeque now, Harper “could find [his] own way home.” At last the “angry and embarrassed” Harper caved to Crimmins’ demands and left Laverne’s house. He managed to extract one parting concession, however. Instead of going home immediately, the family would visit 1 “The court [must] grant summary judgment if the movant shows that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a). We view the evidence and resolve all reasonable doubts in favor of the nonmoving party. See Morton v. Kirkwood, 707 F.3d 1276, 1280 (11th Cir. 2013). 3 Case: 13-13190 Date Filed: 07/11/2014 Page: 4 of 19 Eric Dibble—the cousin of Harper’s ex-wife Tracy Lynn—for a few more moments of holiday revelry. At Dibble’s, Harper and his cousin amused themselves with a game of pool and “a few shots of some kind of liquor.” Crimmins remained outside and smoldered on the doorstep. Eventually the family left for home, but right after arriving they departed again, this time for their neighbor Danny Chaney’s house. At Chaney’s, Harper helped himself to “maybe one or two more beer[s]” from the cooler. By this time Harper was, of his own admission, an intoxicated man. Then the quarrel started. At Chaney’s house, Harper asked Crimmins whether he could borrow her van to go get more alcohol. Crimmins refused, flustering Harper in front of his friend. Later on at home, the pair continued their argument, which soon blew “out of control.” While two year-old Johnny Ray slept on the couch and four-year old Joey played video games in the living room, Harper and Crimmins tussled in the bedroom. Crimmins tried to call the police, but before she could connect, Harper seized the phone and threw it against the wall. The fight then migrated to the dimly lit living room, where Crimmins came on Harper “like a bulldog and attacked.” After tripping over their son Joey, the couple wrangled on the floor, and Harper endeavored to pin down Crimmins’ churning arms. Around that time, Harper’s nephew Brandon Singleton entered to calm the conflict. His efforts, however, proved fruitless. As Singleton intervened, Harper 4 Case: 13-13190 Date Filed: 07/11/2014 Page: 5 of 19 exclaimed, “Why don’t y’all just leave me alone[?]” and marched to the bedroom to grab his .22 rifle. When Harper returned, Crimmins was heading out the door with one of the children. Harper then loosed a volley of bullets into the ceiling as Crimmins loaded her sons into the van, hoping Crimmins would return “if she thought [Harper] was serious about killing [himself].” But the plan did not work— Crimmins sped with the children into the night. After Crimmins left, Harper spirited away to the woods behind his house. He ran—high stepping around the prickly pads in his path—until he paused to deposit his rifle in the fork of a tree. Harper squatted next to the tree and cried. “I knew . . . right then that Mary was leaving and it—and I knew that things had gone too—way too far and I just—I broke down.”