The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Gunset Training Group or its affiliates.
Click HERE to view the original post on the GunSnobbery Blog
Authors note: this article deals ONLY with Ohio law. Laws vary from state to state, so keep that in mind while reading this.
This is the tale of two senseless, preventable deaths. In each incident, people were criminally charged for causing those deaths; however, the severity of the criminal charges the defendants face varies greatly. These incidents bring up a question that all gun owners should be paying attention to – when and how do gun safety violations incur criminal liability? Part 1 provides the background information about the incidents and the charges the defendants faced. Part 2 will cover HOW charging decisions are made.
The first incident occurred during a SWAT Team training session in 2024. If you did not see this story last year, let me give you a quick rundown. The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections (ODRC) has their own version of SWAT, which they call the Special Tactics and Response (STAR) Team. They’ve been around for a long time – they were formed in the aftermath of the ‘93 Lucasville prison riot. My personal experience with them is limited and took place nearly 30 years ago. In ‘96 I attended an Ohio Tactical Officers Association shooting competition for SWAT Teams in southern Ohio. That’s where I first met the STAR Team. Talk about some HUGE dudes who could shoot. What was most impressive? The fact that they were using Smith & Wesson Model 10 revolvers and Ruger Mini-14 rifles and were competing against and beating other SWAT dudes who were running semi-auto pistols, subguns and AR type rifles.
In April of 2024, the STAR Team was doing a 40 hour training week at their training center in Pickaway County, Ohio. During one of the range sessions, Lt. Rodney Osborne was shot and killed by one of the instructors, who happened to be the Team Commander – David Pearson. The Ohio State Highway Patrol (OSHP) was called in to investigate the shooting. The condensed version of what OSHP learned is this – after shooting some live fire drills, Commander Pearson had everyone unload their pistols and transitioned to some “dry fire” drills (if you’re reading this and you’re not a gun person, dry fire is basically practicing the fundamentals of shooting with an empty gun). Commander Pearson saw that Lt. Osborne was struggling with his pistol draw stroke and decided to work with him individually. The method he chose for this individual instruction was a drill he called the “mirror drill”. According to his statement to investigators, “I decided to do a mirror drill, where I would stand right in front of him and he would mirror my movements and we would do it together, which is a standard training technique.” So this means that they would be pointing guns directly at one another at the end of this drill. When Commander Pearson got to the end of his draw stroke, he pointed his pistol at Lt. Osborne and pulled the trigger. When he pulled the trigger, there was a round in the chamber. The gun fired and the bullet hit Lt. Osborne just above his Kevlar vest, killing him. This article points out the ODRC policy which allows this type of training (pointing real guns at other people); however, during interviews with the STAR members, investigators learned that the policy was not followed that day. After the case was presented to a Grand Jury, Commander Pearson was charged with Negligent Homicide.
A few weeks ago in Columbus, Ohio, Matthew Seymour was awoken by his barking dogs early in the morning. Concerned that there was someone outside his house, Seymour made the same decision that many other gun owners may make – he armed himself and went outside to check his property. The pistol he armed himself with had been in a lockbox. When he didn’t find anything or anyone outside, Seymour also did what many others may have done – he set the pistol down without locking it back up so he could go back to bed. After waking up, he left the house and picked up his 11 year old niece and brought her to his house. After dropping his niece off to spend time with his family and other friends, he once again left his house, forgetting or failing to lock up his pistol. He later received a phone call from his son, who told him that he had shot someone. Investigators later learned that at the time of the shooting there were 10 or 11 kids in the house. His son had apparently cocked the hammer in the pistol and pulled the trigger. When nothing happened, he cocked the hammer and pulled the trigger again. The second time the pistol fired. The bullet struck the 11 year old, killing her. The 14 year old was charged with Reckless Homicide. Seymour was charged with Endangering Children and Involuntary Manslaughter.
Now let’s talk about the individual charges that Pearson, Seymour and Seymour’s son were charged with. In Ohio, we don’t have the whole “murder in the 1st degree, 2nd degree, 3rd degree” framework that many other states have. We have, in order of severity:
- Aggravated Murder
- Murder
- Voluntary Manslaughter
- Involuntary Manslaughter
- Reckless Homicide
- Negligent Homicide
Pearson, a state certified firearms instructor, was charged with Negligent Homicide for failing to make sure his pistol was unloaded before he intentionally pointed it at a teammate and pulled the trigger. Negligent Homicide is the lowest level of homicide that could be charged in that situation. Negligent Homicide is a misdemeanor of the 1st degree and carries a maximum sentence of 6 MONTHS in jail. Negligent Homicide is just that, negligently causing the death of another with a deadly weapon (a firearm in this case) or a dangerous ordnance. To prove negligence, the State must prove that Pearson, because of a “substantial lapse from due care, failed to perceive or avoid a risk that the person’s conduct may cause a certain result or may be of a certain nature.”
Seymour, who from what we know is just an average gun owning citizen, is being charged with Involuntary Manslaughter and Endangering Children (according to this article, jail and clerk of court records only show the Endangering charge). How is he being charged with Involuntary Manslaughter when he didn’t pull the trigger? Well, under Ohio law, he can be charged with Involuntary Manslaughter because he caused the death of another by committing another crime. In this case, the other crime is Endangering Children. So how does that really work?
To be charged with Endangering Children under the section charged, the State must prove several things:
- The person charged must have some sort of supervisory/care giver relationship over the child in question. In this case, he was the parent of the 14 year old and the “person having custody or control” of the victim.
- Create a substantial risk to the health or safety of the child. Note: under this law, Seymour did not actually have to cause harm to the child, he just needed to create a substantial risk that it might happen. The fact that a child was killed because he left his loaded pistol out proves that Seymour probably did create that substantial risk.
- By violating a duty of care. In this case, the duty of care would have been to make sure his pistol was locked up and inaccessible to children.
The fact that a child was seriously injured or killed makes Endangering Children a felony of the 3rd degree (maximum sentence of 5 years in prison).
Because the State can now (from what we know) prove that Seymour committed the crime of Endangering Children, they can also charge Seymour with Involuntary Manslaughter because Seymour caused the death of another as a proximate result of the fact that he committed the felony crime of Endangering Children. Involuntary Manslaughter is a 1st degree felony (maximum sentence of 10 years plus any gun specifications they may add).
According to the news article I linked, Seymour’s son was charged with Reckless Homicide, which is a felony of the 3rd degree. Reckless Homicide is just recklessly causing the death of another. To prove recklessness, the State must prove that Seymour’s 14 year old son through “heedless indifference to the consequences…..disregarded a substantial and unjustifiable risk that the person’s conduct is likely to cause a certain result or is likely to be of a certain nature.” An adult sentence for Reckless Homicide could be up to a maximum of 5 years in prison plus any applicable gun specifications.
Just to be clear, Negligent Homicide is a much less serious charge than either Reckless Homicide or Involuntary Manslaughter. So which incident do you think is more egregious? Is a firearm instructor (who has had, at least a 40 hour instructor class plus who knows how many hours of in service training) killing another person by using a gun he forgot to ensure was unloaded in a demonstration drill a more serious violation than a father who forgot to lock up his pistol? I mean, the instructor pointed it directly at his co-worker and pulled the trigger. Is that a more serious violation than a situation where a kid with, presumably, much less (if any) firearms training than an instructor violates safety rules and accidentally (from what we know) killed his cousin? Imagine you are sitting on the Grand Jury that heard the evidence presented by the State, how would you vote?
These situations are not unique. In the time that it took me to start and finish this article, there was another “accidental” shooting in Columbus that claimed the life of two year old Va’Nyiah Mason. Details in the linked article give information about a loaded pistol being left in a bag, but not much more. That is the SIXTH accidental shooting of a child since September.
So how does the system come up with two such different charging decisions when these incidents happened roughly 15 miles apart as the crow flies? Part 2 will answer that question.