Marine Acquitted in Massachusetts Shooting

[fontman]

Marine Acquitted in Massachusetts Shooting
(AP)
Published: June 30, 2006

A jury in Salem acquitted an Iraq war veteran who was accused of injuring two people when he fired a shotgun into a raucous crowd of clubgoers outside his home. The man, Sgt. Daniel Cotnoir of the Marines, was found not guilty of two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. Two jurors hugged him outside the courthouse. Mr. Cotnoir's house overlooks a parking lot that is across from two nightclubs. On the night of the shooting last August, a crowd gathered after the clubs closed, and Mr. Cotnoir testified he felt "under attack" when a bottle was thrown through his window.

[OLE SARG]

I bet this will cut down on the partying at this location!!!! Back in my younger days there have been incidents where I probably would have done the same damn thing!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SEMPER FI,

[Focus Fate]

Good to hear! :-)

[rb1651]

I'm glad to hear that Sgt. Cotnoir was found innocent, but we all know some dumb*** lawyer somewhere is going to file a civil lawsuit againt him on behalf of the "injuries suffered by the victims".

[thedrifter]

June 30, 2006

Marine of the Year acquitted of charges in shooting

By Ken Maguire
Associated Press

SALEM, Mass. — A jury deliberated just two hours Thursday before finding an Iraq war veteran and former “Marine of the Year” acted in self-defense when he fired a shotgun into a group of club-goers outside his home, injuring two people.

The jury acquitted Marine Sgt. Daniel Cotnoir, a 34-year-old reservist, of two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon in the shooting last August.

Cotnoir had rejected an earlier plea deal. He could have faced up to 20 years in prison. He stood stoically and showed no emotions as the verdicts were read.

Prosecutor John Dawley urged jurors not to “give him extra points because he was in Iraq.”

“He is basically a good guy,” Dawley said. “But this is not a case about making someone a bad guy. Good people do bad things. Good people occasionally have monumental lapses of judgment.”

Defense attorney Robert Lewin asked jurors to put themselves in Cotnoir’s shoes, noting a bottle was thrown through Cotnoir’s bedroom window at about 3 a.m. while his children slept upstairs.

“You really have to try to put yourself in his room that night,” Lewin said. “How do you think you’d feel?”


Lewin also pointed to a prior incident during which someone fired a gun at Cotnoir’s house.

“Consider not only what happened that morning, but also the history of violence in that parking lot,” he said.

Cotnoir, who served eight months in Iraq in 2004, helped create a mortician’s unit for the Marine Corps, for which he was credited in winning the Marine of the Year award.

Ellie