A New York judge has sentenced a man to more than 25 years in prison after he was found guilty of murder for fatally shooting a woman who mistakenly pulled into his driveway last year while searching for a house party.
Kevin Monahan, 66, received the sentencing on March 1 after having been convicted of reckless endangerment, second-degree murder and tampering with physical evidence in the death of 20-year-old Kaylin Gillis.
“People who commit murder generally don’t recidivate a lot, they don’t commit the same crime … it’s a low rate of recidivism,” Judge Adam Michelini told Monahan before handing down the sentencing.
“But with you, I think you really could possibly do the same thing again. It’s obvious to me that you feel justified,” Michelini said to Monahan, WRGB-TV reported. “You don’t take any responsibility for the outcome of your actions.”
On April 15, 2023, in Hebron, New York, Gillis drove onto Monahan’s property looking for the correct address with no cellphone service at the time, NBC News reported.
A motorcycle and another vehicle also pulled into the driveway. Monahan testified during his trial that he felt threatened by the presence of the vehicles and the motorcycle and assumed he was being blocked in. In response, he turned his floodlights on and grabbed a 20-gauge shotgun, according to WNYT-TV.
According to Monahan, he fired off a warning shot, and he said the second shot that killed Gillis was fired accidentally after he tripped over nails on his deck, WNYT-TV reported.
Monahan appeared to express remorse during testimony, stating, “I just feel like my soul is dead. There’s just a hole in me. I took someone else’s life,” according to WNYT-TV. But the judge, who accused Monahan of lying, did not feel he was sorry.
“The first thing you do on the witness stand when you come up here and testify is you made a joke to the jury about them finally being able to see your face,” Michelini told Monahan last week, according to WRGB-TV.
“You senselessly took the life of Kaylin Gillis and you have the gall to sit here and talk about how you plan to finish up the work on your house and race motocross in the future,” Michelini said. “You don’t deserve that. What would make you think that you deserve those things?”
The judge told Monahan that he deserved to spend the maximum time in prison allowable under the law.
“The only regret you have is that you’re finally facing the consequences for your actions,” Michelini said in court. “You murdered Kaylin Gillis, you shot at a car full of people and you didn’t care what would happen.”
The judge sentenced the man to 25 years to life in prison for the second-degree murder charge.
Monahan also received a consecutive sentence of one-and-a-third to four years in prison for tampering with physical evidence, and a sentence for reckless endangerment will be served concurrently, The Associated Press reported.
Monahan’s defense team intends to appeal the sentencing.
The fatal shooting of Gillis last year came two days after Black 16-year-old Ralph Yarl was shot in the head by an 85-year-old white man in Kansas City, Missouri, after going to the wrong house, Atlanta Black Star reported previously.
Yarl, who was attempting to pick up his siblings, recovered from his injuries sustained in a shooting that officials believe was related to the teen’s race.
