[chris]

A Botetourt County homeowner who shot and killed a drunken stranger who forced his way inside during a 911 call on Friday, April 10, 2009, was not charged after prosecutors ruled the shooting justified.

The homeowner, Jody Hoover, 46, called Botetourt County authorities that night to report a man in the yard of his home in the Nace area of the county. Hoover told a dispatcher the man was hollering and crying out, according to the recording of the call.

As the call continued, Hoover handed the phone to his wife and picked up a double-barreled, 12-gauge shotgun. About seven and a half minutes in, the man threw a wrought-iron chair through a sliding glass door and pushed his way inside.

On the recording, Hoover can be heard warning the man that he was armed and telling him to "go away." When the man came through the shattered door, Hoover fired twice. Deputies reached the house as the shots were fired.

The intruder was pronounced dead at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital. Investigators identified him through fingerprints as Jerry Lee Jones Jr., 35, who lived on Nace Road about two miles away and did not know the Hoovers. Police said Jones's blood-alcohol level was more than four times the legal limit for driving.

Commonwealth's Attorney Joel Branscom and the Botetourt County Sheriff's Office reviewed the evidence, including the 911 tape, and declined to charge Hoover, calling the shooting a justifiable homicide. Authorities later released the recording of the call.