But the confrontation was extremely messy. One of the weapons that killed the Olivers, for example, belonged to the Olivers.
Remorse weighs heavy on the three men who admit to killing family friends. Jose Alfredo Jimenez said Friday he feels bad for the family of Jimmy Olvier and Jimmy Oliver, Jr. -- the men he and his children shot to death last August.
"To me, that's my family," he said. "Those people are my family. I wish that day would've never happened that way."
But Jimenez said he also thought the family deserved the truth. He told the judge the shooting didn't really result from an attempt by the Olivers to steal from the illegal marijuana grow in his backyard. Instead, he said the Olivers were mad at his family for an earlier fight with other friends. His stepson, Michael Pranger, ended that fight by going into the house to get a gun.
Even prosecutors admit the Olivers then showed up with at least one gun of their own.
"My son took the gun away from them and there was a little scuffle and one of them got shot," Jose Alfredo Jimenez said. "My son shot one; my other son shot the other."
Jose Mario Jimenez shot Jimmy Olive, with a gun the Olivers brought. Michael Pranger used his own gun to shoot Jimmy Oliver, Jr. The younger Oliver was also hit by a bullet from a second gun. The Jimenezes claimed it was self-defense, but they've also shot a neighbor in a previous incident almost 20 years earlier.
The Olivers' family called them cold-blooded murderers.
"What do have to say for yourself about this?" asked Kathleen Davis, the mother of Jimmy Oliver and grandmother of Jimmy Oliver, Jr. "You killed two of them. My son, my grandson, I will never, ever, ever see. You took them away for all of us. For what? "
The elder Jimenez will serve a four-year sentence for involuntary manslaughter. His son and stepson will each serve three years, but all three of them should be out by August 2015 at the latest. The Olivers' family says they may not have gotten life, but they will get what's coming to them in life.
