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(Trends Wide) — A court charged with murder the man who shot and killed a woman who was a passenger in a car that mistakenly got into her driveway in rural New York.
Kevin Monahan, 65, was charged with manslaughter, reckless endangerment and tampering with physical evidence, according to the indictment.
The court told Trends Wide that Monahan was arraigned Wednesday and pleaded not guilty to the charges. Trends Wide has contacted Monahan’s attorney for comment.
Monahan is accused of shooting a vehicle full of passengers, including 20-year-old Kaylin Gillis, when they accidentally turned into his driveway while looking for a friend’s house last month in Washington County, about 35 miles north of Albany.
Gillis died soon after.
Blake Walsh, Gillis’s boyfriend, said he was driving the car the night they made the wrong driveway. The man told NBC in a phone interview that he, his late girlfriend and two friends were looking for a party. Four friends were traveling in another vehicle and also took the wrong entrance.
“We thought we were heading in the right direction,” Walsh told NBC. “We didn’t have cell service to find out. As soon as we realized we were in the wrong place, we started dating, and that’s when it all happened.”
After a bail application hearing, the defendant returned to police custody. Prosecutors argued that Monahan’s confrontational and compulsive temperament had to be taken into account and requested that he be returned to custody without bail, Trends Wide previously reported.
Monahan’s attorney, Kurt Mausert, told a hearing that his client should have been granted parole because he had never been arrested or convicted in New York state and has been a local resident for more than 30 years.
The attorney disputed the sheriff’s description of events, saying there were several vehicles revving their engines and approaching the Monahan driveway at “high speed.”
The victim’s father, Andy Gillis, has called for justice, describing his daughter as a “smart, kind and caring” young woman who dreamed of becoming a marine biologist or veterinarian.
“For this man to sit on his porch and shoot a car without any threat is just … it makes me so angry, and I just hope to God that he dies in jail,” Gillis said after Monahan’s bail hearing in April. “Kaylin deserves justice.”
Monahan is expected to return to court on July 28 and his trial will begin in September.
Trends Wide’s Laura Ly and Mark Morales contributed to this report.
