Crime in the City
Looks like there’ll be an uptick in the Cleveland body count.
Last July 4, Terrance Hough decided that he’d had enough of his next-door neighbors setting off fireworks. So, after grabbing the .40 caliber semiautomatic he kept on a kitchen shelf, he marched next door to confront 24-year-old Jacob Feichtner. Feichtner looked at Hough, incredulous. “What are you going to do, shoot me?”
Wrong question. Hough did, and then, as Feichtner lay on the ground, Hough stood over him and fired two more shots into him. Two of Feichtner’s friends, Katherine Rosby and Bruce Anderson, were sitting with their backs to this, having mistaken the gunshots for fireworks. Hough shot each of them twice in the back. Hough then started to return to his house, but heard another woman screaming. He turned, took a draw on her, holding the gun with both hands, and fired two shots. One struck her fiance in the elbow as he pushed her out of the way, and another stuck her in the finger.
Those were the final shots in Hough’s gun. He walked back into his house, leaving his last two victims wounded and Feichtner, Rosby, and Anderson dead. He had used hollow-point bullets. An ordinary one might have penetrated cleanly, but a hollow-point spreads on impact, trashing the internal organs of the victim as it moves through the body.
Oddly enough, Hough wasn’t some crazed street punk. He was 36 years old, with no criminal record; in fact, he was a Cleveland firefighter. That last factor led to one of the more bizarre excuses advanced in recent years for criminal behavior: Hough’s conduct, some claimed, was due at least in part to his resentment at Cleveland’s residency restrictions, which require municipal employees to live within the city’s boundaries.
Now, there are certainly arguments to be advanced, both pro and con, on the issue of residency restrictions. The Ohio legislature, never at a loss for things to do, chose to get into the act with the passage a couple years back of RC 9.481, prohibiting municipalities from imposing such requirements. I’d venture my opinion on the subject, but I’ve got a dog in this fight: I live in Westpark, one of the nicer areas of Cleveland — and yes, I realize that’s akin to saying, “one of Adam Sandler’s more thought-provoking movies” — which is also heavily populated by Cleveland policemen and firefighters seeking to satisfy those residency requirements. Abolition of the requirements might lead to “blue flight,” resulting in a reduction in the value of my property to a figure more in line with what the average house in Cleveland fetches any more, which is something on the order of a top-of-the-scale toaster-oven.
So I won’t get into that. I’ll just note the irony that on the same day the jury decided to spare Terrance Hough from the death penalty and instead sentenced him to life imprisonment without parole, the Cuyahoga County Court of Appeals decided that RC 9.481 was an unconstitutional infringement on home rule.
By the way, if you’re keeping score on this, of the appellate courts that have ruled on the issue, the 2nd District has upheld the statute, while the 3rd District, 6th District, 9th District, and now the 8th have struck it down.
If you’re in the latter districts, you might want to hold off on the fireworks.
June 10th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
Mr. Bensing,
I am the mother of Bruce Ryan Anderson, one of Hough’s victims. I hasten to say, that you are certainly uninformed as to the case of Terrance Hough. Hough was, and is still just a little man, a coward, and a bully. Residency requirements may have added to Hough’s anger about where he lived. But he chose to stay in that neighborhood. There must me several other communities he could have terrorized, had he chosen to.
If you had seen the trial, or knew the facts, I would hope that you wouldn’t be so callous as to insinuate that “fireworks” caused him to execute my boy. As to your last comment “If you’re in the latter districts, you might want to hold off on the fireworks”-I find that extremely insulting, not only to myself, but to the five other families that Hough has destroyed.
Rebecca Pfeiffer becca195301@sbcglobal.net
June 11th, 2008 at 7:09 am
First, I’m not going to patronize you by expressing sympathy for your loss. That goes without saying, and is basically meaningless. I know from my own experience with my mother — my brother was killed in an auto accident ten years ago — that a mother’s sorrow at the loss of a child is simply unimaginable for those who have not had to endure it.
Secondly, I am responsible for what I write, but I am not responsible for how people choose to interpret it. My description of the killings, which is the only part of the factual aspect of the case I recounted, is absolutely accurate. I don’t think that anybody reading that account would believe that it is in any way sympathetic to Hough. It describes him for exactly what he was on that night: a cold-blooded executioner. I never expressed any support for the theory that residency restrictions played any role in Hough’s actions; in fact, I flatly labeled the theory “bizarre.”
This is a legal blog, intended mostly for lawyers, rather than for circulation among the public. The basic point of the thread was to mention the recent 8th District decision on residency restrictions. That said, my last comment was too flippant, and under the circumstances extraordinarily insensitive, and I do apologize for it.
July 29th, 2008 at 10:02 am
I’d like to see him fry!! How many people do you kill before these panty-wastes sentence these perps to death…pathetic.
July 30th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
the bible says “anyone who commits murder, if there are 2 or more witnesses, send them to me YOUR LORD GOD and i will deal with them” sorry ohio you messed up again it does not say:
oh i get off if i SNAP or it does not say i get off because you do not have the guts to do your job as a JURY beause my mommy cried and feels sorry for me IT SAYS SEND THE MURDERER TO ME AS IN CAPITAL PUNISHMENT!!!!!
September 9th, 2009 at 9:03 pm
Russ Bensing: You are INACCURATE in your description of the commission of this crime. Whether or not your intention was to inform the public regarding the law about residency requirements or not, I could care less. What does matter to me is your continual insistense that you know the facts about this crime. YOU DO NOT.
Bruce’s mother, Rebecca Pfeiffer
September 17th, 2009 at 5:45 pm
What Mr. Hough did was certainly a crime and wrong in every aspect, however the vitims in this case had no respect for anyone or anything. It would be wrong to say they deserved it or that they had it coming, but let it be a cautionary tale to all young people that you can’t live your life however you want, whenever you want without any regard for your fellow man and not expect that sooner or later it will have consequences. It is too bad that everyone can’t make an effort to get along and too bad for Jacob and ultimately his friends too, that they never did learn that. it is a very sad story for all involved, but the back story to this had been brewing for years and has more than enough blame to go around. Again, to all you young people, you cannot live your life in a manner that says I’m going to do whatever I want and screw you to those that it harms or those that don’t like it. Eventually you will have consequences even if the other person is considerably more wrong than you. Live a life of fun if you wish, but remain respectful of others and cognizant of their rights as well and there will be more harmony in the world.
December 30th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
Carlos,
Again, a comment ignorant of true facts. Did you know that Katie and my son Bruce Anderson we SITTING DOWN, with their backs to Hough when he pummeled 2 bullets into their backs? Did you know that the fireworks were already over and Jacob Feichtner was walking around cleaning up their debris when Hough came outside? Did you know that Hough laid in wait for all the neighbors (who were also lighting fireworks, by the way) to go inside their homes, so he could do this deed without being seen by witnesses? Did you know that my son was just visiting that scene with a friend and had never been there before? Did you know that hollow point bullets are used to kill? Did you know that Hough’s last shallow complaint against his neighbors had been 2 years prior to this incident? Did you know that my son’s blood was found on Hough’s shirt and shoes? Did you know that my son tried to get up and run, and Hough shot him again? Did you know that my son’s insides were shredded? Did you know that I never got to see my son after he was murdered because the Cleveland police failed to notify his family that he was dead in the morgue? Did you know that his twin sister and his oldest sister never got a chance to say goodbye? Did you know Bruce took his last breath and died in a stranger’s driveway?
You, take your mangled, heartless, crazy making attitude somewhere else. You are obviously deranged if you truly think what you said is in any way helpful to anyone. Consequences my ass. Bruces mother
September 1st, 2011 at 5:37 pm
Great post