Douglas Walker

PORTLAND - A man who shot an intruder outside his Dunkirk home was found guilty of a felony charge Thursday by a Jay County jury.

David McLaughlin, 32, was charged with criminal recklessness resulting in serious bodily injury, a Class D felony carrying a standard 18-month prison term.

A Jay Superior Court jury returned the guilty verdict Thursday afternoon after deliberating for about an hour.

McLaughlin, a letter carrier with no prior convictions, took the witness stand Thursday morning and said he was in fear for his life when he fired three gunshots at the intruder as he fled.

The defendant said he had been awakened about 12:30 a.m. on April 21 by an alarm indicating someone was in his garage. When he went outside, armed with his handgun, McLaughlin said, a man "came running out of my garage and scared me."

"I yelled for him to stop and freeze," McLaughlin said. "He did not. ... It was so fast I really didn't know what was going on."

"Were you in fear for your life?" defense attorney Jill Gonzalez asked.

"Yes, ma'am," her client responded. "That's why I fired. ... I know I didn't do anything wrong."

The defendant said his gunshots were in response to arm movements that made him believe the fleeing trespasser was preparing to open fire with a gun of his own.

"I thought he was aiming back to shoot at me," McLaughlin said.

Jay County Prosecutor Wesley Schemenaur maintained McLaughlin had made no such claims in interviews with police.

Schemenaur asked McLaughlin what immediate threat to his family's safety had been posed by an intruder in a detached garage.

"What's to say they'll not try to get into my house next, sir?" the defendant responded.

McLaughlin said he had installed the alarm system in the garage after a burglary the previous summer. He said his family had also been the victim of car break-ins and that his son's bicycle was stolen from their property.

The man charged with breaking into McLaughlin's garage, 29-year-old David A. Bailey of Albany, testified Wednesday he was shot in the left arm as he ran down an alley near the defendant' s home. He denied committing the burglary.

Gonzalez on Thursday called David Hunt, the Dunkirk man who Bailey claimed was responsible for the garage break-in, to the stand. He denied any role in the events of April 21.

Schemenaur maintained Bailey was not posing a threat to McLaughlin when he was shot.

Testimony indicated the second and third gunshots were fired at the intruder as he fled down an alley. Bailey testified he was hit by the third shot, after the second bullet had narrowly missed his head.

A witness testified Thursday that he found a trail of blood that began in the alley about 75 feet from McLaughlin's property.

Judge Max Ludy Jr. did not immediately schedule a sentencing hearing for McLaughlin. The Dunkirk man will remain free pending sentencing.