Prosecutors say they are not buying the story from an 18-year-old from Rutland that a fatal shooting occurred accidentally as he was handing a gun to a friend.
“This is someone who took a loaded firearm and played with it,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Eugenia Cowles said Thursday in federal court in Burlington, referring to defendant Kahliq Richardson. At best, he was extremely reckless in his actions, she said.
Through his attorney, Richardson stuck by his explanation that the shooting was an accident: that the 9 mm Taurus pistol went off as he handed it to his best friend, 19-year-old Jonah Pandiani.
“They were sharing it back and forth,” attorney Mark Kaplan, Richardson’s attorney, said Thursday in court
Richardson faces a federal firearms charge in the shooting April 3 in a Rutland motel that killed Pandiani. He also faces a state charge of involuntary manslaughter.
In court documents filed ahead of Thursday’s hearing, federal prosecutors wrote that Richardson’s explanation — that the gun went off accidentally during an exchange with Pandiani — did not appear supported by the facts.
The preliminary autopsy report stated that Pandiani died of a gunshot wound to his head and the manner of death was ruled a homicide.
According to that report and witness statements, the prosecutors’ filing stated, Richardson was in a Quality Inn motel room with several other people, doing drugs throughout the night, and was “recklessly” waving the gun around the room and toward other people.
“On several occasions,” the filing stated, “because of this conduct, the victim tried to remove the bullets from the gun, but the defendant took the gun back, reloaded it and removed the safety on the gun.”
One witness described Richardson as “showboating” with the firearm in the motel room with several people there, according to court records.
Pandiani was seated in a chair, with his back turned, when Richardson up behind him and put the gun to Pandiani’s neck and then to his head, according to the prosecutors’ filing.
The gun went off and, according to the autopsy report, the bullet traveled from the center-left of the crown of Pandiani’s head steeply downward into his neck, where it lodged in his throat.
“On these facts,” the prosecutors wrote, “it is not plausible that the gun went off ‘accidentally’ as the defendant claims.” Instead, “at the very least, the defendant’s conduct was grossly reckless, and he displayed an obvious lack of concern for human life.”
At the time of the shooting, Richardson had a restraining order against him, stemming from an incident involving an ex-girlfriend. The restraining order prohibited him from possessing a firearm, according to prosecutors.
Richardson was formally indicted Thursday on a federal charge of being a known drug user in possession of a firearm. He pleaded not guilty to the charge during the afternoon hearing and, at the prosecution’s request, was ordered detained by Magistrate Judge Kevin Doyle.
Kaplan, Richardson’s attorney, argued against his client’s detention, saying he strongly disputes the contention that Richardson’s story did not match the facts in the autopsy report. In his own court filing, Kaplan wrote the autopsy report corroborated Richardson’s statement to police that he was standing and Pandiani was sitting at the time of the shooting.
“The autopsy report would support a conclusion that as (Richardson) was handing the firearm to the victim, who was looking down while he was sitting, the gun accidentally discharged,” Kaplan wrote. “The evidence and witnesses may support that (Richardson) was acting in a reckless manner, but certainly there is little to no evidence to suggest that this shooting was anything but accidental.”
Kaplan also told Doyle that, when Richardson was arraigned earlier this month on the state manslaughter charge, Judge David Fenster allowed his client to be released to the custody of his parents and abide by a 24-hour curfew.
It was after that decision by the state judge, Kaplan said, that federal authorities jumped in and started their firearm prosecution of Richardson.
Kaplan asked Doyle on Thursday to release his client to the custody of his parents as the state judge had. Both his parents testified Thursday they would be willing to take custody of their son and report any violations.
Kaplan said the federal charge against his client — being a known drug user in possession of a firearm — is a little used offense that was brought only after Richardson was released on the state manslaughter charge.
Kaplan cited Richardson’s young age of 18 and his lack of a criminal record as reasons to release him to his parents. In addition, Kaplan said, Richardson could take part in counseling as soon as he was freed from custody.
“Just keeping him inside,” Kaplan said of his client, “I don’t think society benefits.”
However, even if Doyle had agreed to a release, Richardson would have remained jailed on a new state charge — aggravated assault stemming from an incident last fall involving his ex-girlfriend. Richardson is now awaiting arraignment on that state charge in Rutland County Superior criminal court.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Prosecutor questions whether fatal shooting in Rutland was accidental, as shooter alleges.