Alleged hunter harassment results in death

[AWH]

There are many many holes in that story. I find it amazing how quickly people jump to conclusions. On the surface, it's easy to do, we all do it when we read or hear things in the news which we would like to believe are credible sources. But when do you ever see newspaper reports tell the story just as it happened? If you read the story closely, there are several pieces that just don't fit that should cause you to ask, "what's the real story"?

Most comments I've read on this story here and elsewhere are a case of "guilty until proven innocent". I'm glad that's not how the real world works. There are more than two people that know what happened and it's amazing that the reporter(s) would publish what they did without gathering more of the information that's out there.

I heard about this story within days after the reported incident and when B420 says it's a hatchet job of a reporting job, this is an understatement. Out of respect to all parties involved, it doesn't do any good to speculate on what happened or what will happen. The facts will come out and I'm sure things will play out appropriately. It's just a sad deal that it even came to this.

Aaron

[DanOmite19]

What a terrible story, and a terribly written story... I also think there are probably alot of facts missing that will probably(hopefully) come out. I definately think the "business card" thing is [PoorWordUsage]. I highly doubt the majority of you have stands that someone could tip over no matter how hard they tried. Don't get me wrong, if the case ends up be he tried to get him out of the tree by pulling the stand down, then I hope he gets the book thrown at him, and them some...

[wannafish2]

Am I missing something? If the confrontation occurred on Nov 6, why wasn't the ambulance called until Nov 7? did he lay there for 24hours? if so, how does McCormick explain that? and I'm also not buying the "it just tipped over" story.

[pulleye16]

regardless of what happened on either side, it should never come down to someone getting hurt or killed. Walk away from a situation and call LEO even if you're right on somehting and live to hunt another day. One mans dead and the other is probably going away for awhile up state...not worth a tresspassing issues for me!

[bogwalker]

Stories don't carry any weight until you hear both sides. It all comes out in the wash as they say.

[IL Res]

I was saddened to hear about this unfortunate situation. Thank god that the laws of this country afford an individual his day in court to defend himself, rather than being found guilty by the press or the majority of opinions in this forum.

I wasn't present so I can't comment or pass judgement to the "facts" of this case.

I do, however, know Mr. McCormick personally and find the charges/ published descriptions of the events to be totally out of character. He's a hard-working individual and minds his own business. I appreciate having him as a neighbor and have experienced a similar tresspass situation in the past year.

I will pray for both individuals and their families.

[motley man]

The biggest mistake was made when the law was not contacted about the problem in the first place. If there are problems in the outdoors, don't make it bigger with confrontations. Let the officials sort it out. I've had deer stand legs cut, ladder rungs cut, and trees cut down by people that think they own the land. I just called DNR and they sorted it out. This all happened on state land.

[B420]

ST. PAUL — The Minnesota Court of Appeals has reversed the manslaughter conviction of a man accused of pulling down a deer stand while another man was in it.

An appeals panel ruled 2-1 Monday the trial court should have acquitted Kevin McCormick.

A dispute arose in 2010 when the Breezy Point man spotted a deer stand he believed was on his property. The stand fell during the dispute. Jerry Benedict was in it, and died of multiple injuries over two weeks later.

Prosecutors said McCormick caused Benedict’s fatal injuries. But McCormick argued the stand toppled by accident, and that other evidence showed Benedict likely suffered his fatal injuries later that day, in a fall from a second stand.

The Court of Appeals says the circumstantial evidence was insufficient to sustain McCormick’s conviction.

For more information, read the ruling at: http://bit.ly/19Zm58N.

[LightningBG]

Very interesting to see more details in the court documents. The deceased suffered broken ribs, dislocated shoulder and fractured vertebrae. Yet was riding an atv, shooting a rifle, and climbed another stand later that day. Seems very plausible that those injuries came from another incident later that same day.

I've had broken ribs before and I wasn't able to do much of anything without significant pain, let alone ride an atv. And shooting a rifle, climbing another stand, or riding an atv with a dislocated shoulder and a cracked back doesn't seem too pleasing.

[Bear55]

Yep sounds like Mr. McCormick was in the clear on this one, strange case to say the lease.