Syracuse.com - Cortland hunter shooting death trial a sad tale with important lesson

[HuntingNY-News]

"The mantra is know your target and beyond it .¤.¤. and knowing all that in regard to the ballistics of the round you’re using," said Mike Arnold, of Camillus, who teaches both hunter-safety courses and the instructors who teach them. He said it’s a point he and other instructors repeat "ad nauseam" during their classes.¶

It’s a sad story with an extremely important lesson for anyone who hunts.

Robert Ross, 44, of Solon, was found not guilty last week of his uncle’s hunting-related death in Truxton.

A Cortland County jury acquitted him of criminally negligent homicide. Another felony charge of second-degree manslaughter was dismissed by County Judge Julie Campbell for insufficient evidence.

Ross fatally wounded his uncle Alton Carr with a shotgun slug on Nov. 20, 2010. The two were deer hunting on family-owned property in the town of Truxton.

During the trial, witnesses for the prosecution, led by Assistant District Attorney Kevin Jones, noted that Ross had set up a hunting ground blind for his 54-year-old uncle that was some 160 yards away from his own in a pasture. The key point was that Ross positioned himself to shoot in Carr’s general direction.

Testimony revealed that three deer took a direct path between the two blinds, and that Ross took three shots at them despite the fact that they were close to where he knew his uncle was. The prosecution maintained that Ross failed to perceive a "substantial and unjustifiable risk" that his uncle might have been killed.

If he had been found guilty, Ross could have faced prison time.

Lawyers representing Ross said Carr’s death was an accident.

"My sentence was known to me the day it happened and I’m going to live with it for the rest of my life," Ross was quoted by the Cortland Standard as saying following the jury’s verdict.

The lesson learned here is something that every hunter-safety instructor preaches in class, and that should be heeded by hunters of all ages when they takes to the woods, fields and waterways.

"The mantra is know your target and beyond it .¤.¤. and knowing all that in regard to the ballistics of the round you’re using," said Mike Arnold, of Camillus, who teaches both hunter-safety courses and the instructors who teach them. He said it’s a point he and other instructors repeat "ad nauseam" during their classes.

"I feel real bad for this guy," he added. "Most of these kind of accidents involve friends and family members of the hunter. But you’ve certainly got to ask yourself — was it preventable? Yes, it was."

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog