Man Found Guilty Of Murder In Wrong Driveway Shooting In Upstate NY

An upstate New York man was found guilty of manslaughter Tuesday for shooting at a car that accidentally drove into his driveway last spring, killing a young woman. He claimed he fired the fatal shot accidentally.

On the night of April 15, the defendant, Kevin Monahan, fired two shots from a .20 caliber shotgun, one of which struck a car carrying 20-year-old Kaylin Gillis, who was hit in the neck and briefly then died. Ms. Gillis and a group of six friends had been trying to find a friend's house for a Saturday night party when they pulled into Mr. Monahan's mile-long driveway in the rural town of Hebron, N.Y., about 60 miles north of Albany. .

During the two-week trial, Mr Monahan, 66, had argued that he had not intended to shoot at the car in which Ms Gillis was sitting, but had tripped on his porch. He said he initially fired a warning shot after seeing a caravan with two cars and a motorcycle arriving at his house at night.

He was described by his lawyers as “an old man” who had woken up in bed and was terrified that “a group of looters” had come to attack him and his wife Jinx, who had been hiding in the house, also armed with weapons. a gun.

But authorities had raised doubts about the danger Mr Monahan may have felt that night, noting that the vehicles turned to leave. And prosecutors had expressed deep skepticism about his defense argument, saying in a closing statement on Tuesday that Mr Monahan had acted with hostility and callous disregard for the young people who had come across his property.

“Kevin Monahan did not act out of fear,” Christian P. Morris, Washington County's first assistant district attorney, said in an address to the jury before a nearly packed courtroom in Fort Edward, NY. “He acted out of a lower emotion than that: He acted out of anger.”

Mr Morris said Mr Monahan shot twice in quick succession, even though the cars and motorcycle had only been in the driveway for about 90 seconds.

“These vehicles were in his driveway, they were at his house, they disrupted his night and they didn't leave quickly enough,” he said. “He grabbed his shotgun and planned to get them out as quickly as possible. And he didn't care if they got hurt or killed.”

Prosecutors also used surveillance footage and 911 calls to show that Mr. Monahan and his wife had initially lied to authorities, telling a police officer who arrived shortly after the shooting that they had had no visitors that evening. Mr. Monahan also feigned confusion about why neighbors had heard gunshots, Mr. Morris said, suggesting hunters were prowling through the woods behind his house in the dark.

“It's a total farce,” he said.

Mr. Monahan was also found guilty of reckless endangerment and tampering with evidence, related in part to his attempts to clean the shotgun after the shooting.

Ms. Gillis' death stunned the local community and reverberated across the country, another random killing spree in a country all too accustomed to gun deaths. Days before the New York shooting, there had been another shooting in Kansas City, Missouri, of a black teenager who had approached the wrong house while trying to pick up his brothers.

Ms. Gillis's friends — all in their late teens or early twenties — had witnessed a terrifying scene the night of the shooting, with the sudden flash of the shotgun and the glass shattering in the car in which Ms. Gillis was sitting in the passenger seat. She was hit in the spine.

In the moments after the shooting, the victim's friend frantically tried to find a cell signal — often sparse in rural New York — to call 911 while others tried to perform CPR.

Mr. Monahan was known around town as a somewhat gruff character and had posted “Private Property” signs, warning of trespassers, and a small “Private Driveway” sign at the bottom of his driveway.

But his lawyers insisted the shotgun had fired on its own after Mr Monahan – who was wearing flip-flops – tripped on a nail on the veranda and crashed into a railing, an argument they said was supported by a single test of a gunman's weapon. New York State Police investigator in which it was discharged after falling. (The gun failed to discharge during a series of other tests.)

Ms Gillis, who had wanted to become a marine biologist, was mourned by friends and family, many of whom filled the courtroom during the trial. This included her father, Andrew, a corrections officer, who had prayed for a conviction, saying he wanted Mr. Monahan to be severely punished for his crime.

“I just hope he dies in prison,” Mr. Gillis said last spring, shortly after his daughter's death.

Mr. Morris also noted that Mr. Monahan was standing on a raised porch more than twenty feet above the vehicles — “He had the high ground,” the prosecutor said — which were about 80 feet away and turned around.

“There was no threat; there were no marauding robbers,” Mr Morris said. “These were lost children.”