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- On January 2, 2009, Brian was visiting his
parents in Mount Laurel while taking a break from moving to nearby
Hoboken.
- After Brian’s former wife canceled his scheduled
visit
with his son, he became distraught and said something to the effect of
“life’s not worth living anymore” to his mother and drove away.
- His mother, a trained social worker, became
worried
about a possible suicide risk and called 9-1-1 but hung up after having
second thoughts.
- Law enforcement traced the call and soon arrived
at
the scene. The police called Brian, who was on his way to his new
residence in Hoboken, and asked him to return to his parents’ home
because they were worried.
- When he returned, the cops searched his vehicle
and
found two handguns, both locked and unloaded as New Jersey law
requires, inside the trunk, in a box stuffed into a duffel bag with
clothes.
- Brian was arrested and, according to his
attorney, the subsequent trial and conviction were the “perfect storm
of injustice.”
- New Jersey allows exemptions for gun owners to
transport weapons if the move is for hunting purposes or if the person
is relocating, but the Superior Court judge who heard Brian’s case
refused to allow this statute exemption to be read to the jury.
- After two and half days of deliberation, the
jury returned a guilty verdict and Aitken was convicted and sentenced
to seven years in prison!
- Governor Christie commuted Brian’s
sentence to time served.
- It's stuff like this that can, and likelly will
someday, trigger a peasant's revolt.
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