Man Facing Murder Trial Claims He Thought He Was Shooting An Alligator, Was High On Meth For Days

A 31-year-old from Louisiana is facing a murder trial after he shot and killed another man in the head back in 2013, but as the trial has come to fruition after years the defendant’s motives have finally come to light: he claims he was stalking and hunting an alligator, not a human being.

Robert Chouest, 31, is facing second-degree murder charges after shooting Shawn Galjour in the head with a Browning rifle back on May 22, 2013. The defense attorney in the case, George Ledet Jr., claimed that Mr. Chouest “had been high for days prior to the incident, using cocaine, methamphetamine, prescription pills and alcohol.” Which I don’t know about you bros, but to me that seems like the most confusing defense tactic in history: my client isn’t guilty of murder because he thought he was shooting an alligator while he was high on a massive cocktail of drugs.

PEOPLE’s Tara Fowler reports:

Robert Chouest, 31, is charged with second-degree murder for shooting 41-year-old Shawn Galjour in the head with a Browning rifle on May 22, 2013, WDSU reports.

Police say Chouest spotted Galjour lying in his grandparents’ driveway and called out to him. When he didn’t respond, Chouest set up his rifle 50 yards away and fatally shot the victim, according to the Daily Comet.

Sgt. Warren Callais testified Thursday that Chouest “stalked” the victim, walking in a crouching manner before he fired at his head.

“The defendant shot to kill Shawn Galjour,” Assistant District Attorney Annette Fontana said in her opening statement on Wednesday, according to WWL. “This was a senseless murder.”

But lawyers for Chouest maintain that he didn’t intend to kill a human being. In his opening statement, defense attorney George Ledet Jr. explained that the 31-year-old actually thought “he was shooting an alligator.”

Chouest, said Ledet, had been high for days prior to the incident, using cocaine, methamphetamine, prescription pills and alcohol. When he found out he’d killed a person, Chouest cried, according to Ledet.

I’d just like to take a second and let it soak in that there are still parts of this country where people get all jacked up on meth, blow, and pills and then head off into the swamps to kill alligators.

Now I’m no lawyer, but I am a part-time internet detective and from reading a whopping two articles about this case it’s obvious to me that there was some measure of murder involved. You don’t ‘stalk’ a creature and not realize it’s a human being and not an alligator, unless of course you’re hallucinating, in which case you’re still guilty (in my mind).

For more on this story you can head on over to PEOPLE or WDSU.