An American sixty-year-old accused of killing a 20-year-old passenger, accidentally parked with a group of friends in her driveway while looking for another house, hoped to “open the dialogue” by pulling the trigger, he confided in court Friday.
“I took someone else’s life. It’s just horrible. (…) It’s indescribable. I don’t even know how to answer. I just feel like my soul is dead,” Kevin Monahan, 66, told Washington County Court, according to the Times Union.
Wiping away tears Friday, the 60-year-old from upstate New York took the stand at his trial on charges of second-degree murder, reckless endangerment and tampering with physical evidence, nine months after fatally shooting Kaylin Gillis in front of his home.
The man reportedly recounted having drawn his 20-caliber hunting rifle last April when the group of friends, who were traveling in two vehicles and a motorcycle, parked in his driveway by accident while looking for another address.
Believing himself to be the victim of an “invasion”, he then fired a first time into the air to warn the gang that he was armed.
“When you are alone, you have to imagine the worst case scenario. My only job is to protect my wife (…) For me, the warning shot is almost like opening a dialogue,” he testified according to the American media.
Without a response from them, the man who was wearing flip-flops would then have tripped over nails protruding from his entrance and accidentally fired in the direction of the vehicle in which the young woman was sitting, according to his statements.
Alongside her boyfriend, Kaylin Gillis was then fatally shot in the neck.
“I had no intention of taking the second shot. The weapon went off by itself (…) No, I did not (pull the trigger),” insisted the sixty-year-old, according to the “Times Union”.
Under cross-examination, however, he admitted to not having attempted to question the group to find out if they were lost, or to tell them to leave, indicating that he feared making the situation worse.
The trial is expected to continue Monday.
