MOUNT VERNON – Johnson County Circuit Judge James Williamson should have let jurors decide whether Dennis Schapmire killed his father by accident or on purpose, Fifth District appellate judges ruled on Dec. 21.
They reversed Schapmire’s murder conviction and his sentence of 50 years, finding Williamson improperly refused a jury instruction on involuntary manslaughter.
The appellate court found Schapmire was consistent throughout investigation and trial that he didn’t intend to shoot his father, Nick Schapmire.
The case was remanded to Johnson County for a second trial.
Justice Mark Boie wrote, “The defendant was entitled to have submitted to the jury any defense which his testimony or any other evidence tended to prove.”
Nick Schapmire died on May 17, 2015, a day after a bullet from his son’s Magnum .357 revolver entered his cheek and exited from his right temple.
At trial in 2020, Dennis Schapmire testified that he lived with his parents and had returned from checking on his horse.
He said he had two revolvers and a pistol in his jacket.
He said his father was in bed watching television.
Schapmire said he was angry because he believed his brother Nicki messed with his truck.
He said his father told him he was crazy for thinking that.
Schapmire said he cocked the gun, pointed it at the ground, and told his father he was going to Nicki’s house.
He said he then told his father, “I better uncock this gun before it goes off.”
“I started to go left and then for some reason I went right and the gun discharged and it shot him,” Schapmire testified.
“You have to put your thumb on the hammer to uncock it and put your finger on the trigger.” he explained.
“My thumb slipped off of the hammer and then the gun discharged,” he said.
Schapmire said he had no intention to kill his father when he entered the bedroom.
His mother Shirley Schapmire testified she heard a gunshot and it took a while to make herself see what happened.
She said her son stood in shock and horror and told her, “It was an accident.”
“There’s no way in the world Dennis would ever hurt his dad,” she said.
Sheriff’s deputy John Gulley testified that he observed Nicki arguing on a phone and Nicki handed him the phone.
Gulley said Dennis was a little hysterical and told him, “I accidentally shot my father. It was an accident.”
State police sergeant Chad Brown testified that in an interview Dennis said he pulled the gun out trying to scare his father.
Brown said Dennis told him he wasn’t looking at his father when the gun went off.
He said Dennis stated throughout the interview that the shooting was accidental.
State police scientist Angela Horn testified that if he cocked the gun, a transfer bar safety would have prevented firing until he fully depressed the trigger to the rear.
She said she cocked it and struck it with a rubber mallet on both sides of the gun and on the hammer, and the hammer didn’t fall.
In a conference on jury instructions, Dennis’s counsel Alan McIntyre of Vienna requested an instruction on involuntary manslaughter.
Judge Williamson refused it.
On appeal, Fifth District judges didn’t believe Horn’s test erased all doubt.
The appellate court found she tested without a finger on the trigger and Dennis testified he had his finger on the trigger.
They found she testified to the amount of pull required to allow the gun to discharge but not the amount of pull required on the trigger.
They found she didn’t testify regarding whether a finger placement on the trigger was even necessary to uncock the gun.
“It was the province of the jury to weigh the credibility of the testimony at trial including that of the forensic scientist and the defendant,” Boie wrote.
Williamson won’t preside at a second trial, because he retired in November.