Romanian Orphanage Filmmaker Shot Dead Over Shrubbery
“A documentary filmmaker known for helping rescue children from squalid Romanian orphanages in the early 1990s was fatally shot following a dispute over the trimming of shrubbery outside his Southern California home.
John Charles Upton Jr. was found dead Thursday on a dirt path in the yard of his Encinitas home and his neighbor Michael Vilkin admitted to shooting Mr Upton.
Vilkin, 61, is in jail charged with murder but he claims that he killed Upton in self defense.
Vilkin was cutting large shrubbery from Mr Upton’s yard that overflowed into Vilkin’s property.
The two men had arguments throughout much of the last year, and Vilkin says that is why he brought a .44 Magnum gun with him when he went to trim the hedge.
‘It was self-defense; I did not go to him. He came to me threatening and pulled a gun at me. I did not go to him. I stayed away on my property,’ Vilkin told local 10 News from behind bars.
Police have not said whether Mr Upton, 56, had a gun on him at the time of the shooting just after 9am Thursday morning.
‘I shot him; you know, I predicted him to fall immediately because this is a .44-caliber Magnum,’ Vilkin said.
‘He did not, he did two or three steps toward me and then I shot him in the head.’
That version of events does not sit well with Mr Upton’s family, as his brother told the station that it was Vilkin who came looking for a fight.
Michael Upton told the station that Vilkin ‘wrapped the gun up inside of a jacket, a hand gun, proceeded to basically I think kind of bait my brother into a confrontation and pulled the gun out and shot him right in the head.’
Upton’s brother said that John and Vilkin previously argued about trees.
This is a second major loss for the family as Michael Upton said that their mother died from cancer just hours before John.
The late Mr Upton earned recognition in the 1990s after publicizing the brutal conditions in Romanian orphanages.
He was instrumental in bringing an estimated two dozen orphans to America for medical care and adoption.
Mr Upton’s work in Romania also gained the attention of influential activists, inspiring billionaire philanthropist Richard Branson and actress Jessica Lange to help rescue youngsters from Romania.
Upton went on to create an online network of films about charitable causes.
Vilkin is being held without bail on first degree murder charges, and his arraignment will be held on Tuesday.”
[Daily Mail 3/29/13 by Meghan Keneally an Associated Press]
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