Douglas Walker, and Keith Roysdon

The Star Press

Nearly three years after a Dunkirk homeowner opened fire on an intruder fleeing from his property, the reverberations of those gunshots are still being felt.

Both the homeowner — David McLaughlin, now 34 — and the burglar — David A. Bailey, 32 — were prosecuted over the pre-dawn events of April 21, 2014.

Last April, just before the second anniversary of his shooting, Bailey filed a Jay Circuit Court lawsuit against McLaughlin for shooting him.

The homeowner in turn has filed a counter-claim against Bailey, seeking damages for trespassing.

The case was recently set for trial — on Oct. 22.

Bailey pleaded guilty to a related burglary charge in 2015, but in his later lawsuit he reversed course and maintained he had never entered McLaughlin’s garage.

He was shot in the left arm as he fled down a nearby alley, suffering what his lawsuit said was “serious and permanent damage.”

Jay County Prosecutor Wes Schemenaur’s decision to pursue a criminal recklessness charge against McLaughlin was not popular in some circles, especially in Dunkirk.

However, the prosecutor — and a Jay Superior Court jury that convicted McLaughlin in September 2014 — determined that the homeowner’s gunshots had continued after the intruder had left his property and was no longer posing a danger.

After the guilty verdict, Judge Max Ludy sentenced McLaughlin to 60 days in jail, followed by four months of home detention.

For his burglary conviction, Bailey was placed on electronic home detention for three years, to be followed by three years on probation.

In his counter-claim to Bailey’s lawsuit, filed by Muncie attorney Brian Pierce, McLaughlin seeks “compensatory and punitive damages” from the burglar for entering McLaughlin’s property “without his consent with the intention of committing a felony.”

In the immediate wake of his shooting, Bailey apparently didn’t want to discuss with police the events leading to his arm wound.

He at first tried to persuade officers he had been shot when his family dog knocked a firearm off a table.

The dog is not expected to be among the witnesses at this October’s trial.

Choosing the chairmen

The March 4 Republican and Democratic caucuses produced two new chairmen — and few surprises.

Republicans elected Victor Whitehead, a longtime party officer, as their new chairman.

Whitehead — who was challenged by Joe Shank in the caucus — succeeds Will Statom, who had led the local GOP since August 2011.

Democrats, meanwhile, chose to keep their interim chairman, former state Sen. Allie Craycraft, on a more permanent basis. The longtime Selma resident won his caucus race with a former party chairman, Mike Quirk.

Quirk — who led the local party to a near-sweep in the 2011 city election — will observe his 40th birthday in September.

To put that into perspective, Chairman Craycraft celebrated his 40th birthday in 1972, six years before he began his 18 years of service in the Indiana Senate.

Contact Douglas Walker at 765-213-5851 and kroysdon@muncie.gannett.com. Contact Keith Roysdon at 765-213-5828 and kroysdon@muncie.gannett.com.

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