BURLINGTON, Vt. – A Vermont man who set up a backyard firing range has been sentenced to two years in prison in the death of a professor who was shot while eating dinner in his own home.
Forty-year-old Joe McCarthy of Essex was sentenced Friday for his role in the 2008 shooting death of St. Michael's College Professor John Reiss. McCarthy had faced as many as 15 years behind bars.
No one knows who fired the shot from the semiautomatic SKS rifle that killed Reiss. But McCarthy set up the shooting range and he invited friends to his house that day to target shoot.
He was convicted earlier this year of a charge of involuntary manslaughter.
In June, another person firing on the range that day was sentenced to 60 days in jail.
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