LINCOLN, Neb. – A man serving time for shooting his ex-girlfriend in Nebraska — marring her "happiness is a warm gun" tattoo — has been ordered to pay her medical bills.
Lancaster County District Judge Steven Burns entered a judgment this week of nearly $20,000 in favor of Andrea Eberspacher and ordering Paul Boye to help cover Eberspacher's medical bills from the Feburary 2014 shooting, the Lincoln Journal Star reported (http://bit.ly/1G1Pk5p ) Saturday.
A trial has been set for September in which a jury will be asked to determine if she deserves more for pain and suffering.
Boye is serving 10 to 15 years in prison for the shooting after being convicted of second-degree assault last year.
Court documents say the shooting occurred during an argument between Boye and Eberspacher after they had smoked methamphetamine and consumed vodka.
Eberspacher's attorney, Perry Pirsch, said the couple had been arguing when she felt a sudden pain in her right side and back and screamed that Boye had shot her.
The .22-caliber bullet tore through her right kidney, liver and colon and lodged near her spine. Pirsch said Eberspacher needed a foot-long incision through her midsection, leaving a scar that bisects her tattoo of the lyric from the Beatles. She had to spend two days in intensive care, the lawyer said.
Eberspacher sued Boye last year.
At Boye's sentencing in October, his attorney in the criminal trial, Dennis Keefe, said the shooting was an accident and that Boye apologized to Eberspacher on the way to the hospital.
___
Information from: Lincoln Journal Star, http://www.journalstar.com
The hottest stories ripped from the headlines, from crime to courts, legal and scandal.
