A man from New York has been convicted of murder for shooting a young woman when she mistakenly drove into his driveway.
A jury found Kevin Monahan, 66, guilty for shooting 20-year-old Kaylin Gillis on a Saturday night last April after she and her friends pulled into his rural driveway near the Vermont border while they were trying to find another house.
Monahan was also convicted of reckless endangerment and tampering with physical evidence.
Donald Boyajian, an attorney and spokesperson for the Gillis family, said they were thankful for the trial’s outcome but “it doesn’t change what is going to be forever, which is the loss of their beautiful daughter”.
Mr Boyajian added: “Obviously it’s a just result, but a very sad time for the family.”
On the night of the incident, the group of friends was travelling in a convoy of two cars and a motorcycle looking for another person’s house party, when they mistakenly turned into Monahan’s driveway in the rural town of Hebron, about 40 miles north of Albany.
They began leaving once they realised their mistake, but Monahan came out to his porch and fired twice from his shotgun, with the second shot hitting Miss Gillis in the neck as she sat in the front passenger seat of an SUV driven by her boyfriend, authorities said.
During closing arguments on Tuesday, the prosecution told jurors Monahan was motivated by irrational rage toward trespassers.
“He acted out of anger. That’s the only thing that can be inferred from shooting at people within 90 seconds of being on his property,” said Assistant District Attorney Christian Morris. “He grabbed his shotgun and intended to make them leave as fast as possible and he didn’t care if they were hurt or killed.”
The murder conviction carries a maximum sentence of 25 years to life, which prosecutors are seeking at Monahan's sentencing on March 1.
Monahan and his attorney maintained the shooting was an accident involving a defective gun.
Monahan said he believed the house he shared with his wife was “under siege” by intruders when he saw the vehicles approach. He said he first fired a warning shot to scare the group away.
He said he then tripped over nails sticking up from the porch, lost his balance and the shotgun struck the deck. That, he said, accidentally caused his gun to fire at the Ford Explorer carrying Gillis.
“I didn’t mean to shoot the second shot,” Monahan testified last week. “The gun went off.”
Prosecutors also presented evidence during the trial that Monahan claimed to have been sound asleep when police showed up at his house later that night.
Miss Gillis’ father, Andrew Gillis, has described his daughter as someone who loved animals and had dreams of becoming a marine biologist or a veterinarian.
Miss Gillis was killed days after the shooting of 16-year-old Ralph Yarl in Kansas City. Ralph, who is Black, was wounded by an 84-year-old white man after he went to the wrong door while trying to pick up his younger brothers.
