Man Pleads Guilty In Shooting Over Stolen Straw Bale

Man Pleads Guilty In Shooting Over Stolen Straw Bale

PORTSMOUTH, Ohio — A man who shot and killed a Chillicothe teenager last year over a bale of straw will not spend more than 10 years in prison after striking a deal with prosecutors.

Eric Whisman pleaded guilty Friday to reduced charges of reckless homicide that stemmed from the shooting last October, 10TV's Brittany Westbrook reported.


Whisman, 36, said he became angry when he saw Nathaniel Kennedy and his friend stealing a bale of straw from the shooting club where he worked.

As Kennedy and his friend fled with the straw in a pickup, Whisman fired a warning shot from a rifle. A second shot from the rifle struck and killed Kennedy.

http://www.10tv.com/live/content/local/stories/2008/08/15/straw.html?sid=102

another gun nut vs no gun fight

DUers have agreed to disagree.

The gun control advocates have acknowledged that the psycho arm-yer-grandma "guns don't kill people do" loonies may have a point in some alternate, twisted universe.

#1, you could flub the warning shot and hit someone or otherwise shoot in an unsafe direction.

#2, in most states, you cannot legally shoot unless you are legally justified in shooting in self-defense, so firing a warning shot when you are not in danger may get you in legal trouble even if you do it safely.

#3, you impair your hearing and dark-adapted vision unnecessarily, which is not necessarily a safe thing to do if things are allegedly bad enough that you are firing warning shots.

Having said that, there may occasionally be circumstances in which firing a warning shot may be safe and legal (and I know someone who did so in one circumstance, when armed poachers were poaching on his land at night), but the situation in the OP was not it.

Personally, I don't think the second shot here was a warning shot. Hitting things with a rifle generally requires aiming (contrary to Hollywood BS). I suspect he was probably aiming at the vehicle and not thinking about the fact that a hunting rifle will shoot all the way through a typical truck.

..."Whisman fired a warning shot from a rifle. A second shot from the rifle struck and killed Kennedy."

So he actively fired a warning shot. But then a second shot from the rifle just happened, and that's the one that killed the young man.

I don't mean to make hay, but I'm surprised that he didn't jump bale.

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