HankT
State Researcher
imported post
It was an accident! No, It was self-defense. No, it was insanity. No, it was ingratitude. No, the guy was drinking my vodka!
A cautionary tale here -- booze and shooting guns do not mix. And a million excuses don't change that.
I can't figure out why the SA is asserting premeditation. There must be some general rationale motivating that.
Too bad they don't havebreathalyzers on guns...
Nov 28, 2007
In trial, riveting recording of friend's murder
By John Curran Associated Press
WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — They grew up together, went to grade school together and remained best friends into adulthood.
On Aug. 1, 2006, Matthew Stevens decided to throw a birthday party for his friend, Carl Ackley. They stocked up on booze and barbecue fixings and started drinking in the backyard of Stevens' trailer about 4 p.m.
Five hours later, police say, Stevens rushed into the trailer in South Reading, grabbed a .357 Magnum from under a mattress and shot Ackley to death on the front steps of the trailer before tearfully admitting what he'd done in a 911 call.
"He's dead. I killed my best friend," Stevens said on the tape-recorded call. "Oh, my God."
Jurors heard the recording Tuesday as the trial of Stevens, 47, got under way with a prosecutor telling jurors it was premeditated murder and Stevens' lawyer insisting it was a drunken accident that doesn't meet the legal definition of first-degree murder.
Ackley's blood alcohol content when he died was .31, almost four times the legal limit for drivers in Vermont; Stevens' was .26 or .27 at the time, according to defense attorney David Sleigh. According to an affidavit filed in the case, it was .16 when measured later.
"In this trial, there's not a shred of evidence that can support a finding of premeditation," he told the jury in Vermont District Court during his opening statement.
Deputy Windsor County State's Attorney Heidi Woessner gave a decidedly different view, saying Stevens was irate because he didn't want people drinking his vodka, because Ackley was pressuring him to serve dinner and because he thought Ackley didn't appreciate him throwing the party.
He told his live-in girlfriend as he pulled out the pistol in his bedroom that he was going to shoot Ackley.
"If anyone was spoiling for a confrontation that night it was the defendant, not Carl Ackley," she said.
Ackley, 44, was shot in the neck on the threshold of the trailer. He died at the scene.
In a chaotic 911 call made moments later by girlfriend Deborah Marcotte, 50, and another longer one made by Stevens himself, Stevens could be heard pleading for help, apologizing for what he'd done and saying he didn't know the gun was loaded.
In the second call, made by Stevens, he rambled, slurred his speech and cried to Capt. Kevin Anderson of the Vermont State Police, who was trying to keep him on the line until police arrived.
"It was an accident!" he said at one point. "I can't believe this even happened. This is a nightmare," he said at another point on the call.
He also told Anderson he wanted to be taken to Waterbury, meaning the Vermont State Hospital psychiatric facility.
Stevens sat quietly at the defense table as the recordings were played, while the 10-woman, six-man jury — 12 jurors and four alternates — listened and followed along reading from printed transcripts of the call.
Noting Stevens' stated remorse on the call, Woessner repeatedly told jurors "You can't apologize for murder."
"Despite his excuses — accidental, self defense, insanity — this case was murder," she said.
Sleigh said Ackley pursued Stevens from the back yard of the trailer around to the front door, where arriving police found him slumped on his knees, in a pool of blood.
He said the two friends had had at least one prior physical altercation, and suggested that Stevens' use of force was justified because Ackley was trying to attack him and that it appeared as though Ackley chased Stevens into the trailer.
"This came out of the blue, between two extremely intoxicated people," said Sleigh, who contended it wasn't a willful or deliberate killing.
http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071128/NEWS02/711280313/1003/NEWS02
It was an accident! No, It was self-defense. No, it was insanity. No, it was ingratitude. No, the guy was drinking my vodka!
A cautionary tale here -- booze and shooting guns do not mix. And a million excuses don't change that.
I can't figure out why the SA is asserting premeditation. There must be some general rationale motivating that.
Too bad they don't havebreathalyzers on guns...
Nov 28, 2007
In trial, riveting recording of friend's murder
By John Curran Associated Press
WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — They grew up together, went to grade school together and remained best friends into adulthood.
On Aug. 1, 2006, Matthew Stevens decided to throw a birthday party for his friend, Carl Ackley. They stocked up on booze and barbecue fixings and started drinking in the backyard of Stevens' trailer about 4 p.m.
Five hours later, police say, Stevens rushed into the trailer in South Reading, grabbed a .357 Magnum from under a mattress and shot Ackley to death on the front steps of the trailer before tearfully admitting what he'd done in a 911 call.
"He's dead. I killed my best friend," Stevens said on the tape-recorded call. "Oh, my God."
Jurors heard the recording Tuesday as the trial of Stevens, 47, got under way with a prosecutor telling jurors it was premeditated murder and Stevens' lawyer insisting it was a drunken accident that doesn't meet the legal definition of first-degree murder.
Ackley's blood alcohol content when he died was .31, almost four times the legal limit for drivers in Vermont; Stevens' was .26 or .27 at the time, according to defense attorney David Sleigh. According to an affidavit filed in the case, it was .16 when measured later.
"In this trial, there's not a shred of evidence that can support a finding of premeditation," he told the jury in Vermont District Court during his opening statement.
Deputy Windsor County State's Attorney Heidi Woessner gave a decidedly different view, saying Stevens was irate because he didn't want people drinking his vodka, because Ackley was pressuring him to serve dinner and because he thought Ackley didn't appreciate him throwing the party.
He told his live-in girlfriend as he pulled out the pistol in his bedroom that he was going to shoot Ackley.
"If anyone was spoiling for a confrontation that night it was the defendant, not Carl Ackley," she said.
Ackley, 44, was shot in the neck on the threshold of the trailer. He died at the scene.
In a chaotic 911 call made moments later by girlfriend Deborah Marcotte, 50, and another longer one made by Stevens himself, Stevens could be heard pleading for help, apologizing for what he'd done and saying he didn't know the gun was loaded.
In the second call, made by Stevens, he rambled, slurred his speech and cried to Capt. Kevin Anderson of the Vermont State Police, who was trying to keep him on the line until police arrived.
"It was an accident!" he said at one point. "I can't believe this even happened. This is a nightmare," he said at another point on the call.
He also told Anderson he wanted to be taken to Waterbury, meaning the Vermont State Hospital psychiatric facility.
Stevens sat quietly at the defense table as the recordings were played, while the 10-woman, six-man jury — 12 jurors and four alternates — listened and followed along reading from printed transcripts of the call.
Noting Stevens' stated remorse on the call, Woessner repeatedly told jurors "You can't apologize for murder."
"Despite his excuses — accidental, self defense, insanity — this case was murder," she said.
Sleigh said Ackley pursued Stevens from the back yard of the trailer around to the front door, where arriving police found him slumped on his knees, in a pool of blood.
He said the two friends had had at least one prior physical altercation, and suggested that Stevens' use of force was justified because Ackley was trying to attack him and that it appeared as though Ackley chased Stevens into the trailer.
"This came out of the blue, between two extremely intoxicated people," said Sleigh, who contended it wasn't a willful or deliberate killing.
http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071128/NEWS02/711280313/1003/NEWS02