A man who fatally shot a 20-year-old woman after the SUV she was riding in mistakenly was driven into his rural driveway in upstate New York was sentenced on Friday to 25 years to life in prison.
Kevin Monahan, 66, was convicted of second-degree murder in the death last April of Kaylin Gillis. She was riding in a group of two cars and a motorcycle that was trying to leave the property after the drivers became lost on their way to a party and pulled into Monahan’s long, winding driveway in the dark.
The group was looking for a party at another person’s house in the town of Hebron, about 50 miles north-east of the state capital of Albany, not far from Lake George.
Prosecutors asked the judge on Friday for the maximum sentence of 25 years to life in prison, with additional time for tampering with the murder weapon. The defense asked for leniency. Monahan was offered the opportunity to speak in court but chose to turn down the offer.
“I think it’s important for people to know that it’s not OK to shoot people and have them killed for turning down your driveway,” the judge, Adam Michelini, said.
Apart from the wider deterrent effect, Michelini said it was important that Monahan remain behind bars rather than be free to harm more people.
Gillis’s death came days after the shooting of 16-year-old Ralph Yarl in Kansas City. Yarl, who is Black, was wounded by an 84-year-old white man after he went to the wrong door while trying to pick up his younger brothers.
On the night of Gillis’s death, the group of friends had realized their error and had turned around when Monahan fired a second shot, striking Gillis in the neck as she sat in the front passenger seat of an SUV driven by her boyfriend.
Monahan maintained the fatal shot was an accident and that the shotgun was defective. He also said he believed the house was “under siege” by intruders and was firing a warning while his wife hid inside. Prosecutors argued that Monahan was motivated by an irrational rage toward trespassers.
Gillis’s father, Andrew Gillis, has described his daughter as someone who loved animals and had dreams of becoming a marine biologist or a veterinarian.
“Every day we wake up to the harsh reality that she’s no longer here. We will never see her beautiful face, hear her laughter,” Gillis said in court on Friday.
Her boyfriend, Blake Walsh, was behind the wheel of the SUV that night. “I will never be able to forgive you,” he told Monahan, who looked on with a stony face.
