CT Supreme Court Rejects Appeal In Hunting Death

High Court Rejects Appeal In Hunting Death
Associated Press, August 07, 2001

HARTFORD Conn. (AP) - The state Supreme Court has upheld a Coventry man's manslaughter conviction in a fatal hunting accident

Brian K. McMahon was convicted in May 2000 of manslaughter for accidentally shooting and killing Ron Eckert Jr., a 33-year-old lawyer who took his dog out for an early morning walk while visiting relatives in Coventry in October 1998.

Among other things, McMahon's lawyer had argued that the law under which McMahon was convicted was unconstitutionally vague because it does not to define the phrases "extreme indifference to human life" and "grave risk of death."

But the high court, in its ruling released Monday, upheld the status and the conviction.

McMahon was sentenced to 19 years in prison on the charges.

McMahon had testified that he thought he had a deer in his sights, in a clearing on private property, when he let out the single shot that killed Eckert, who was visiting his parents.

In sentencing McMahon, Judge Jonathan J. Kaplan said the Coventry resident was knowingly breaking more than a half-dozen hunting laws that Sunday morning and was even wearing camouflage to avoid detection. AP-ES-08-07-01 0848EDT

Man gets prison term in woods killing

May 19 2000 12:00AM  By By Brian M. Trotta Journal Inquirer

Vernon Superior Court Judge Jonathan Kaplan said he struggled for more than a week to formulate an appropriate sentence for Brian K. McMahon Jr., the Coventry man convicted last March of shooting and killing another man while hunting illegally near his home one Sunday morning in October 1998.

Kaplan said he endured several sleepless nights while reading scores of letters from McMahon's supporters and from the friends and family of victim Ronald Eckert Jr.

On Thursday, Kaplan said he had settled on a punishment that reflected McMahon's decade-long history of hunting violations, criminal convictions, alcohol abuse, and violence: a 30-year sentence, suspended after he serves
19 years in prison.

"Everyone is going to pay a price," Kaplan said to the dozens of family members of both men who had gathered for the hearing. "It's a horrible price and nothing is going to make it better."

McMahon, 25, of 206 Gardner Tavern Road in Coventry, had faced a maximum of 48 years and three months in prison after being convicted of nine charges, including first-degree manslaughter with a firearm.

At the end of a week-long trial in March, Kaplan said McMahon violated so many hunting laws and rules for safe marksmanship when he went into the woods to hunt deer with a new rifle that he should have known he was at a great risk to kill someone.

Tolland State's Attorney Patricia Swords had asked for the maximum, 45-year sentence on the manslaughter charge, saying it was the only way to teach McMahon that he was not "above and beyond the reach of law."

Swords said McMahon's criminal history, which includes convictions for larceny, assault, drunken driving, and numerous hunting violations, showed a continuing disrespect for the law and a pattern of enablement by his family, who tolerated his antisocial behavior.

"Brian McMahon doesn't get it. He doesn't get it even now. He doesn't understand how reckless his action was, and he probably never will."

But Kaplan said Thursday he ruled out the maximum penalty for McMahon because he did not think the message sent by such a stiff sentence would be
heard by others like McMahon.

McMahon's lawyer, M. Hatcher Norris, admitted that McMahon has a troubled past but said his life began to turn around when he met his wife. Since then, he said, McMahon has become a caring husband and an excellent father.

Norris said McMahon also cooperated with every aspect of the investigation into the shooting, including twice showing investigators how it happened. McMahon, he said, even gave an affidavit that helped settle a $300,000 claim by Eckert's family against his mother's homeowner's insurance.

McMahon used the hearing to apologize to the Eckert family for the first time, telling them he has tried to picture how he would feel if it were his son that was dead.

"I can't imagine what you went through," he sobbed. "If in some way my sentence eases your pain, I hope it does."

McMahon also acknowledged his past, and admitted that he had never really had to face the consequences of his actions.

"Throughout the years I've done a lot of stupid things and broke a lot of laws," he said. "I didn't look at how the compound effects of my actions can lead up to a great disaster."

But the most poignant moment of the three-hour hearing was an eloquent address by Eckert's widow, Anna, in which she described how her husband, in both life and death, had affected her.

"Although he was brutally taken from me, I still feel like the luckiest woman in the world for having him in my life," she said.

Eckert said she found it unbelievable that McMahon left her husband to die after hearing him cry for help. He lay bleeding next to a rock where the couple had once planned their future together.

"I could never imagine that such wickedness walked on the planet. I thought it only existed in movies."

Eckert's mother, Jean, said her son's death was not a hunting accident, as McMahon had claimed. Rather, she said, it was the culmination of McMahon's history of flagrant violations of the law.

"If this terrible tragedy were truly an accident, I would curse fate and leave the explanation to God," she said.

"Brian McMahon was no hunter. He was not committing an act of poaching, he was committing an act of manslaughter."

McMahon's mother, Wendy, said her son's antisocial behavior is rooted in the abuse he witnessed and suffered at the hands of an alcoholic father.

"I'm not here to say Brian did no wrong that day," she said. "Brian just didn't know the consequences."

When McMahon is released from prison, he will be on probation for five years. Kaplan ordered him not to use or possess alcohol or drugs during that time and to undergo regular tests for their presence in his blood.

McMahon will also have to obtain psychiatric and substance-abuse counseling. He will not be allowed to use or possess any firearms or live in a house where firearms are kept.

After handing down the sentence, Kaplan set an appeal bond at $750,000, which McMahon was unable to post. McMahon had been free on $500,000 bond since his 1998 arraignment. McMahon's family members sought a $250,000 real-estate bond, but the judge said the stakes had become too high to allow McMahon to post such a small bond.

In closing the hearing, Kaplan asked the Eckert family to try to make something good come out of their son's death. He noted that his former law partner, who had lost her son in an automobile accident, dedicated herself
to a local group for grieving parents and encouraged them to do something similar in their son's honor.

"He would have wanted his family and friends to do something positive," Kaplan said. ©Journal Inquirer 2000


Man Convicted Of Manslaughter

By LARRY SMITH, The Hartford Courant
March 25, 2000

VERNON - The judge who convicted a Coventry man of first-degree manslaughter in an October 1998 shooting death ordered Friday that he be closely monitored by court officials until his sentencing.

Brian K. McMahon Jr. was convicted Thursday in the death of Ronald Eckert Jr. by Rockville Superior Court Judge Jonathan J. Kaplan. His sentencing is scheduled for May 12.

McMahon also was convicted of eight other crimes, including third-degree criminal trespass, hunting without a license and hunting deer during a closed season. During his trial, Eckert admitted that he was illegally hunting deer when he shot Eckert.

A prosecutor requested that McMahon's $500,000 bail be tripled, saying the original bail was not enough to prevent him from attempting to flee to avoid a long prison term. McMahon faces five to 40 years in prison, said State's Attorney Patricia A. Swords.

Kaplan did not increase McMahon's bail, but ordered that McMahon report to the bail commissioner's office before 10 a.m. Monday through Friday, be home by 9 p.m. every day, and not drink alcohol or use controlled substances except for prescriptions issued by a physician.

Swords argued that bail should be set at $1.5 million.

``That sounds like a lot, but the defendant has been convicted of a crime that is next-most to murder,'' Swords said.

Swords cited several reasons for her request. One was that McMahon attempted suicide with a firearm in March 1996 during a breakup with a girlfriend. McMahon also has a long history of trouble with the law, she said.

Earlier this year, McMahon was seen with another man attempting to sell five guns to a sporting goods store in Coventry, Swords said. After the 1998 shooting, McMahon was ordered to stay away from firearms as a condition of his release, she added.

``Most recently, he has again shown his disregard for the law,'' Swords said. ``His bond needs to be increased because he has nothing to lose.''

M. Hatcher Norris, McMahon's attorney, argued that increasing the bond was not necessary. He said McMahon had appeared at every court proceeding required by law since he was arrested in 1998.

When McMahon was seen with another man trying to sell five rifles, it was because he and his brother, Nicholas, were attempting to get rid of all of the firearms owned by the family, Norris said.

McMahon's family put up their assets to secure the $500,000 bond, Norris said.

``His $500,000 bond is a substantial amount,'' Norris said. ``He has nothing to lose? He has everything to lose. He has a family that, if he were to fail to appear, would lose everything they worked for in life.''

McMahon also pleaded guilty Friday to an additional charge of illegal hunting of deer, a charge he also was convicted of in 1992. The crime carries a fine of $200 to $1,000 and up to a year in prison. A hearing on another charge of use of a firearm in commission of a class A or B felony is scheduled April 24.

The Associated Press
March 24, 2000

VERNON, Conn. (AP) A Coventry man has been convicted of manslaughter in a hunting accident in which a Massachusetts man was killed while out walking his dog.

Brian K. McMahon Jr., 25, Thursday was found guilty of first-degree manslaughter with a firearm in the shooting death of Ronald Eckert Jr., 33, of Hingham, Mass. The shooting occurred Oct. 25, 1998.

Judge Jonathan J. Kaplan, who heard the case, said that when McMahon decided to hunt in the woods behind his home, he broke so many laws he should have known he could endanger someone's life.

McMahon was also found guilty of eight other charges, including third-degree criminal trespass, hunting deer without a permit, hunting deer on private land without the written consent of the property owner, hunting deer on private land during a closed season, hunting without a license, hunting without wearing required orange clothing, discharging a firearm in the direction of another person and hunting on a Sunday, which is prohibited.

McMahon, who remains free on bond, faces up to 40 years in prison when he is sentenced.