Anthony Borrelli

aborrelli@pressconnects.com | @PSBABorrelli

John Guzy is accused of fatally shooting Derek D. Prindle and wounding his father in Bainbridge

A grand jury handed up a 17-count indictment that included murder and attempted murder charges

After the shootings%2C Guzy drove to the state police barracks in Sidney and was taken into custody

A month after he held his fatally wounded 26-year-old son in his arms, Derek S. Prindle is still reeling in the aftermath of a traffic dispute turned deadly.

On Friday, the 60-year-old Afton resident looked on as his son's accused killer, John M. Guzy, pleaded not guilty in Chenango County Court to a 17-count indictment that included murder and attempted murder charges. Guzy, 56, is accused of killing Derek D. Prindle and wounding his father during a confrontation outside a Bainbridge fitness center on Oct. 27.

During the arraignment, Judge Frank Revoir read aloud the charges against Guzy and later ordered him to be kept in the Chenango County jail. Defense lawyer Benjamin Bergman, of Binghamton, said an application to set bail for Guzy could be made in a future court appearance.

Derek S. Prindle watched from the courtroom gallery, surrounded by about a dozen family members and supporters.

Friday's legal proceedings were later overshadowed outside the courthouse as the father recounted the day of the shooting, tears rolling down his face and his voice at times quivering.

In the span of two minutes, he said, he was "robbed of a very special person."

A daylight nightmare

This was Prindle's recollection on Friday of the path that led to his son's death:

On Oct. 27, at about 1:25 p.m., the Prindles were driving along Route 7 in the midst of a day of shopping and routine errands. The 26-year-old was driving their Hyundai Santa Fe at 51 mph in a 55 mph zone, his father recalled.

A half-mile from the eventual site of the shootings, the younger Prindle told his father another driver was "really close behind me."

The driver, whom police later identified as Guzy, then pulled up along the Prindles' driver side to pass their vehicle, lingered for several seconds, then sped in front and stopped short, almost causing a rear-end collision. Then the driver drove 50 or 60 yards further down the road and hit the brakes.

The elder Prindle rolled his window down and motioned for the driver's Chevrolet Trailblazer to pull off the road. Both vehicles then pulled into the parking lot of Peak Fitness on Route 7, and Derek S. Prindle stepped out of his vehicle to ask the other driver what the problem was.

A heated confrontation in the parking lot followed.

Within a few moments, Derek S. Prindle had been shot in the stomach, and he called for his son to help. Then Derek D. Prindle and the other driver struggled briefly, before the younger Prindle was fatally wounded by a second gunshot.

Once the 26-year-old was shot in the chest and fell, Derek S. Prindle rushed over to help his son. At that point, the driver put the gun to the elder Prindle's head and pressed the trigger — but the gun apparently jammed, he said.

The driver got back into the Trailblazer, and Prindle scrawled its license plate number in the dust coating his own car, he said.

A witness dialed 911 and a state trooper on patrol responded to the fitness center parking lot. The trooper found the elder Prindle struggling to revive his son, police said.

"I held him in my arms, his eyes were rolling, his mouth was trembling," a sobbing Prindle said Friday. "I tried to give him CPR, I told him I loved him — but it was too late."

Aftermath

According to Chenango County District Attorney Joseph McBride, following the shootings Guzy drove from the fitness center to the state police barracks in Sidney, tossing the .25-caliber Beretta pistol used in the shooting out his truck window along the way. He was taken into custody by state troopers.

The discarded gun was recovered by police the next day off the south shoulder of Route 7, less than a mile from the Peak Fitness lot, prosecutors said.

The younger Prindle was pronounced dead at Tri Town Hospital Sidney not long after the shootings. His father spent more than a week at UHS Wilson Medical Center in Johnson City before being released. He is continuing medical treatment.

Derek D. Prindle followed in his father's footsteps by working as a carpenter.

His family has remembered him as a family-oriented young man with a passion for studying movies. He was 2008 graduate of the Afton Central School District who later attended SUNY Broome Community College.

"Just the thought that my son gave his life for me — I have to be strong and live a good life and do what I can in his honor," Derek S. Prindle said Friday.

A part-time Chenango County corrections officer since June and a 20-year New York City police officer before that, Guzy could be sentenced to 25 years to life in state prison if he's convicted of the top charge: second-degree murder.

A grand jury indictment was handed up Nov. 20 and added a host of charges against Guzy, many of them related to firearms police seized in a search of his residence on Oct. 30, and allegations he was driving drunk around the time of the shootings. He registered a blood alcohol content of 0.11 percent, which is above the legal limit, according to prosecutors.

Guzy has been indicted on the following felony charges: second-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder, two counts of first-degree assault, two counts of first-degree criminal use of a firearm, two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, and one count each of third-degree criminal possession of a weapon and tampering with physical evidence.

He also was indicted on six counts of fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon and one count of driving with a blood alcohol content above 0.08 percent, all misdemeanors.

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