An upstate New York homeowner was found guilty Tuesday of fatally shooting a young woman who accidentally parked in her driveway last spring.
Kevin Monahan, 66, was found guilty of second-degree murder after a two-week trial for the murder of 20-year-old Kaylin Gillis, after jurors deliberated for less than an hour.
Gillis and his friends were looking for another home on April 15 when they accidentally drove into Monaghan's rural driveway in an SUV in Hebron.
Monahan went onto his porch with a 12-gauge shotgun and fired two shots into the car, hitting Gillis in the neck as she was sitting in the passenger seat.
Gillis' boyfriend was behind the wheel of the SUV and was pulling out of Monaghan's driveway when the homeowner opened fire.
Gillis was dead by the time paramedics arrived.
The house they were looking for was just half a mile down the road.
Monaghan argued throughout the trial that the second shot was due to a malfunction of the weapon and that he did not intend to fire the fatal shot.
“I didn't mean to fire the second shot…the gun went off,” Monahan testified, adding that when Gillis pulled up, he thought his home was “under siege” by a caravan of looters. He claimed that he fired a warning shot to prevent the attack. group off.
He then claimed he tripped over a nail protruding from the deck, dropped his gun, and the gun went off, hitting Gillis as it fell to the ground.
Prosecutors presented a very different picture of the man, who arresting officers had described as having “absolutely no remorse” for what he had done.
“He acted out of anger. That's all you can infer from him firing at people within 90 seconds of entering the premises,” Assistant District Attorney Christian Morris said in closing arguments Tuesday.
“He was going to pick up a shotgun and get them to leave as quickly as possible. He didn't care if they got hurt or killed.”
Monaghan was known for his explosive temper, neighbors told the Post after the killing.
“He had a short fuse. There was no question he had a short fuse. I think he was a little bit of a narcissist,” neighbor Adam Matthews said in the spring.
“He didn't do anything wrong, but other people didn't know Jack,” Matthews said, explaining that Manahan was especially sensitive about people mistaking his driveway for a driveway.
with post wire
