Normalville man gets up to 2 years in jail for shooting deer-spotter
A Normalville man convicted of shooting a teenage neighbor who was spotting deer near his house was sentenced to 9 to 24 months in jail plus three years probation in Fayette County Court on Friday.
Following a non-jury trial, Jeremy James Pritts, 36, was convicted of aggravated assault, reckless endangerment and two counts of simple assault, but Judge Steve P. Leskinen found him not guilty of the more serious of the two counts of aggravated assault Pritts initially faced.
The victim in the case, 19-year-old Cortney Snyder, and her father, Ricky Snyder, both of Normalville, addressed the court with victim impact statements prior to sentencing.
“This took a lot out of me and my family,” Ricky Snyder said. “It’s been pure hell since day one.”
“My daughter almost died,” he said.
Cortney Snyder told the court she’s a completely different person today compared to who she was before the shooting. She said she’s plagued by nightmares and flashbacks, and loud noises scare her.
“A couple of months ago, a vehicle backfired and I was so scared I passed out,” she said.
The teen related that she still has pain from the pellets that remain lodged in her skin, and that cold weather aggravates the condition. Cortney Snyder said she missed her senior year of high school as a result of the shooting and recovering from surgery.
Pritts also had an opportunity to address the court. He turned from counsel table to address the victim and her father, saying he wanted them to know how sorry he is.
“I have a daughter and I wouldn’t want anyone to hurt her,” Pritts said. He said if the same thing had happened to his daughter, it would be terrible for him.
Pritts said there was no excuse for what happened.
At trial, Cortney Snyder testified she was riding in the back of her father’s pickup truck on Nov. 11, 2012, with her back against the cab, shining a spotlight into fields along Foxburg Road near where she lives with her parents when she heard a bang followed by pain from shotgun pellets hitting her upper body,
Snyder had open-heart surgery the next morning to remove a pellet that came within an eighth of an inch from her heart, she testified.
Pritts testified that prior to the incident, there had been a number of incidents of guns fired near his home. He said he had asked the township for help, putting up signs or other warnings against shooting near his home.
The night of the shooting, Pritts said he thought he heard gunfire outside, so he went outside and fired his 12-gauge Mossberg as a deterrent. Next, he testified he saw light coming in through the window and shining on the television, and he went outside to see what was happening.
He said he was concerned about the safety of his children and animals.
Pritts testified he was not aware there was a passenger in the bed of the truck when he fired the shotgun and that he wasn’t trying to fire directly at the truck. According to Pritts, the spotlight was not on when he fired.
Leskinen concluded that the crime did not fit the legal definition of a first-degree felony aggravated assault. That level of indifference, he said, rises to a level equal to the malice necessary to convict someone of third-degree murder.
At the sentencing hearing, Leskinen said Pritts displayed too much anger over what was an annoyance or nuisance.
“It’s not the kind of thing you retaliate for with gunfire,” the judge stated.
Additionally, Leskinen noted that he imposed a sentence that would allow him to supervise Pritts for a five-year period, and that if during that time Pritts commits any other aggressive violations, he would impose more jail time.
Pritts will also have to pay over $22,000 in restitution to the state Department of Public Welfare to cover the victim’s medical expenses.