Man who shot woman for pulling into wrong driveway sentenced to 25 to life
March 1 (UPI) -- A judge on Friday sentenced Kevin Monahan to 25 years to life in prison for shooting and killing a 20-year-old woman who mistakenly turned into his driveway last April.
Washington County Judge Adam Michelini delivered the sentence after family members urged him to hand Monahan the maximum sentence for the unprovoked shooting. Monahan was handed a lesser sentence, to be served consecutively, for tampering with evidence.
Prosecutors along with family and friends of Gillis described Monahan as unsympathetic to the incident where his fears were unfounded.
"You were deceitful," Gillis's father Andrew Gillis told Monahan in court during sentencing. "You hid the truth and you never showed remorse."
Arthur Frost, one of Monahan's attorneys said he was indeed remorseful even though he declined to take the stand during sentencing.
A jury in January deliberated for less than three hours before convicting him of second-degree murder. Monahan had told the jury he felt threatened before firing at the SUV Gillis was a passenger in rural Hebron, N.Y., but fired the shot that killed the woman by accident.
The SUV was part of a group that included a second vehicle and motorcycle that had gotten lost because of the area's spotty cellphone service. Gillis's boyfriend Blake Walsh said the group was pulling away from Monahan's home when he fired on them.
Monahan testified that he believed the vehicles were attempting to block him from leaving, so he picked up his 20-gauge shotgun. He said he fired one warning shot but the second one that struck Gillis was accidental.
