Jury finds Connellsville man not guilty in fatal shooting of his cousin
A Fayette County jury deliberated for about a half-hour on Wednesday before finding a Connellsville man not guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the accidental shooting death of his cousin.
Jeremy Hamborsky, 25, wept and embraced his family following the verdict but opted not to comment on the outcome, as did his attorney, Emily Smarto.
Assistant District Attorney Anthony S. Iannamorelli Jr. characterized the shooting as a result of gross negligence, arguing to jurors that if even a single basic rule regarding gun safety had been followed in the early morning hours of Aug. 11, 2013, Kylie Marie Sage would still be alive.
Emanuel Kapelsohn, a Harvard-educated expert on firearms safety and accidents presented by the defense, told the jury he agreed with that assessment, but added that those gun safety rules applied to Sage as well.
One of the basic safety rules, Kapelsohn said, is that the muzzle of the weapon should always be pointed in a safe direction.
Hamborsky was seated in the rear passenger side seat of Sage’s truck as she was driving on Bellview Road at about 2:30 in the morning when she offered to let him see the .45-caliber semi-automatic pistol she bought earlier the previous day. He testified earlier he wasn’t pointing the gun at her, but downward, more toward the center console, when he racked the slide and the gun went off.
“In my opinion, (Sage) violated the rule when she handed it back to be examined, and he violated the rule when he took it,” Kapelsohn testified.
“There is no safe direction in a dark, moving vehicle on a country road with four passengers,” he told the jury.
Hamborsky previously testified that he was familiar with guns as a hunter, and he had taken a gun safety course with Sage in 2001.
He told the jury he knew he should treat the gun as if it was loaded, although Sage told him it was not.
According to Kapelsohn, even if Hamborsky had as much training as a state police officer, it wouldn’t have eliminated the possibility of a deadly accident.
“Even people who are very highly trained with firearms can still have an accident. It’s called human error,” said Kapelsohn.
He also stated he was struck by the reports that Sage and Hamborsky had both consumed alcohol that night.
Hamborsky testified he had a couple of beers throughout the night, and forensic pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht testified Sage’s blood-alcohol content was .135 at the time she died.
Kapelsohn told the jury, “The rule is, you don’t handle a gun when you’ve been drinking. Period, then end.”
Iannamorelli declined to comment following the verdict.
Tim Hamborsky, Jeremy’s father, said outside the courtroom, “Nobody wins, nobody loses. It’s been hard for all of us.”