A jury in state district court Wednesday found a 53-year-old man guilty of criminally negligent homicide for the 2017 shooting death of his wife, 24-year-old Megan Smith.
The jury also decided to give a punishment of two years in state jail plus a $10,000 fine to Robert Hand. The criminally negligent homicide conviction is a lesser charge. Hand was indicted and on trial for manslaughter, a second degree felony, which carries a punishment of two to 20 years in state prison, plus a fine.
Megan Smith died of a gunshot wound in the upper back the evening of March 13, 2017. She was inside a house in the 1500 block of Main Street where the couple and their two young children were living.
Hand testified he did not know the pistol was loaded when she was shot.
The trial was held in the 260th District Court before Judge Buddie Hahn.
Should have got the max! At least he’s behind bars now where he belongs.
That was the max. No one even considered the fact that the babies are now parentless. Probation would have been sentence enough as he has to live with what happened.
The jury convicted him of the lesser charge of criminal negligent homicide. The maximum penalty for that is 2 years. The could/should have convicted him of reckless manslaughter, thus giving him up to 20 years.
His testimony was different than both witnesses and both forensic experts and even different than his statement to police, which was also different than his statements to the media.
He also claimed he never owned a gun before and wasn’t aware of basic gun safety precautions, yet he also said he kept the gun in a locked box because of the children. So, obviously, he knew guns were dangerous.
I don’t understand what the jury was thinking.
It’s his own fault that the children lost their parents. He killed their mother and in doing so, also put his freedom at risk.
And, since he testified that at 53 years old, he didn’t know any better than educate himself about basic gun safety before buying one, then his basic parental skills could also be called into question.