Prosecutors in Missouri say they are not filing charges in the shooting death of an Iowa man because they can’t prove the case. Thirty-eight-year-old Jesse Saldivar of Cedar Rapids was killed three months ago after getting in a fight outside a bar in Grain Valley, Missouri.
Kevin Harrell, with the Jackson County Prosecutors Office, says 27-year-old Clinton Reighard shot Saldivar three times. Witnesses said they thought Saldivar had a gun and was reaching for the weapon. However, investigators did not find a gun on Saldivar.
Harrell said Missouri’s self-defense law only requires a person to have a reasonable belief that someone else is planning to use deadly force. That person doesn’t have to prove deadly force actually existed.
"We made a determination that it would be difficult to overcome Missouri’s law of self-defense," Harrell said.
Saldivar’s wife, Heather, is stunned with the news. "Unbelievable, ridiculous, I really didn’t think this could happen," Heather Saldivar said. Her husband was in Missouri to visit family.