SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — A recent fatal road rage-related shooting has raised questions about self-defense laws versus Utah’s new road rage law.

According to the Utah Highway Patrol, there have been 40 road rage incidents since the tougher penalty law took effect in July.

That figure includes a deadly incident Monday morning, in which Jose Ramirez, 50, was killed.

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The suspect, Thomas Long, claimed self-defense.

In 2021, there was another road rage incident in which shots were fired, and the suspect in that case claimed the same thing – and the case was closed.

KUTV asked a former prosecutor if that could happen in Monday’s case.

The incident between Ramirez and Long resulted in Ramirez’s death. Long claimed he was defending himself after seeing Ramirez remove something from his belt.

This is not the first time someone has claimed self-defense.

Former prosecutor Nathan Evershed found the ruling in the case in 2021 interesting. It was thrown out by a judge during a show cause hearing, set up by lawmakers in 2021 for self-defense cases.

“Which means that beyond a preliminary hearing, a defendant can use the court to evaluate whether the state has the evidence to prove its force was not justified,” Evershed said.

This is what the judge found in the 2021 case.

But the judge also wrote: “The application of Utah’s new show cause hearing law to incidents in which a firearm is used by a driver claiming he is not required to withdraw from public highway is a political issue that the state legislature may wish to reconsider. »

Evershed said there are some exceptions to the law, such as class B and C misdemeanors and domestic violence.

He said he wouldn’t be surprised if lawmakers included road rage among those exclusions.

“I don’t know if their intention was to extend this to road rage incidents,” he said. “These could be handled by juries rather than judges in a show cause hearing.”

Evershed said Long’s attorney would most likely request one of those show cause hearings.

He said all cases are different, so it’s unclear what a judge would decide this time.

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