News: No Appeal for Long Island Murderer
(Long Island, N.Y.) A State Court of Appeals denied a man from Mastic the claim that he was too intoxicated to have intent to kill a twenty-seven-year-old father with a bow and arrow. He had tried to convince the jury that the twenty or thirty ounces of whiskey he drank severely impaired his mental state as part of the grounds for an appeal. Reports stated that the man was an experienced deer hunter and had been photographed with a deer and the type of weapon involved in the killing.
The incident, which happened over five years ago, left the victim shot with an arrow in his heart. An autopsy revealed that he perished from a shortage of blood flow. He had been visiting a friend who lived across the street from the defendant.
Reports stated that the victim had three small children, and that the defendant could have faced twenty-five years in prison at the original sentencing. He had been allegedly arguing with a roommate about rent payments before getting into a drunken altercation with the victim. Once source claimed that the exchange began after he shot an arrow into a truck and the victim witnessed the incident from the house across the street.
A jury at the courthouse in Riverhead convicted the defendant of one count of second-degree murder. According to reports, the victim died in a hospital after the three-foot arrow impacted his body. Sources claim that the arrow was made out of aluminum and that the compound bow had cost the defendant over a thousand dollars.
Prior to firing the deadly arrow, he allegedly yelled to the victim and asked him if he wanted any trouble. After being impaled, the victim pulled out the arrow as it protruded from his back. He stumbled about helplessly before falling and collapsing on the street.
The defendant was eventually captured by state police fifteen miles from his home at a stop in Westhampton Beach. He pleaded not guilty to the charges and was held without bail. His lawyer attempted to question whether the killing should be considered intentional.
A similar case occurred last April when a thirty-five-year-old New Jersey man was shot in the back with an arrow fired by his neighbor. Prior to the incident, they had argued about parking and he claimed that the weapon felt like a rock. He didn’t notice the arrow, which stuck three to four inches in his back, until he reached the front door to his residence.
He called for his girlfriend who contacted emergency services and brought him to a hospital. He was kept for observation but was later stabilized and released while his neighbor was arrested. Two bows were confiscated by authorities and he was charged with aggravated assault and a weapons offense.
