Antonio Turner was sentenced to three years in prison for battery by means of a deadly weapon after he shot a man who had threatened him.

Yet in a decision which has left conservatives cheering, the Indiana Supreme Court has just overturned his conviction.

Defendant shot man who was aiming a gun at him

According to the Indiana Star, Turner was a college student on October 2, 2021 when he was studying organic chemistry with three classmates.

At one point, a "love interest" of one of his fellow students called and twice threatened to attack Turner, prompting him to retrieve a firearm from his car.

As he made his way back from the vehicle, a car came speeding towards Turner, prompting him to fire four shots which struck the driver.

A subsequent investigation revealed that the driver was the same man who had previously threatened Turner and was aiming a handgun when the defendant opened fire.

Trial judge found Turner's action to be "objectively unreasonable"

However, the magistrate judge who oversaw Turner's bench trial rejected his claim of self-defense and found his actions to have been "objectively unreasonable."

The judge pointed to how the car had tinted windows, which prevented Turner from making a positive identification of the man he shot.

'Good guy with a gun': Indiana's top court overturns guilty verdict in shooting https://t.co/9ZZdCUxa4g

— IndyStar (@indystar) March 13, 2025

Yet the Supreme Court found otherwise, stressing that Indiana law gives people the benefit of hindsight when it turns out that their actions were necessary even if this was not conclusively known when force was used.

"This is a case about a good guy with a gun shooting a bad guy with a gun"

"This is a case about a good guy with a gun shooting a bad guy with a gun when the only choices were to shoot or be shot," the unanimous opinion read.

"Because Turner shot (the man) before (the man) shot Turner, Turner is the defendant rather than the victim in this case," the court stressed.