Many people try to the self-defense argument with mixed results. I'm not a defense lawyer, prosecutor or lawyer of any sort so I can't tell you what chances are of acquittal but am just relaying to my own knowledge of self-defense laws from the standpoint of a a martial arts and self-defense instructor along with what I know from talking to police officers regarding self-defense. Just speculation on my part in this particular case if the mother shot the man for slapping her child I would be so confident she would be acquitted. Their weren't cameras that recorded the incident so there wasn't an objective record. We don't fully know the old guy's past so there is a chance he might also have a sympathetic past, especially if he is dead. For that matter the witnesses might not fully side with the mother. Without more information or a sense of what the DA's strategy I don't think we can presume automatically what would happen.
