The boyfriend of a 20-year-old woman fatally shot in the neck when they pulled into the wrong driveway last year described to a jury Thursday hearing a shot pierce the car and then seeing his girlfriend slumped over in the passenger seat.
"Frantic in the car ... people were screaming," Blake Walsh said, describing the moments leading up to when Kaylin Gillis was shot.
Walsh and a group of his friends testified in the second-degree murder trial of Kevin Monahan, 66, who is charged with fatally shooting Gillis. Many fought back tears as they spoke, according to CBS affiliate WRGB. On a Saturday night last April, the couple and their group of friends drove into the wrong driveway in Hebron, some 40 miles north of Albany, near the Vermont border.
The group's caravan of two cars and a motorcycle turned around once they realized their mistake. But authorities allege Monahan came out on his porch and fired two shots from a shotgun, striking Gillis with the second shot.
Gillis' death drew attention far beyond the rural town in upstate New York. The killing happened just days after the shooting of 16-year-old Ralph Yarl in Kansas City. Yarl, who is Black, was wounded by an 84-year-old white man after he went to the wrong door while trying to pick up his brother.
Monahan's defense attorney, Arthur Frost, has said Monahan was scared by the group of strangers arriving late at night at the remote home he shared with his wife. Frost told the jury last week the shooting was a "terrible accident" involving a defective gun that went off when he stumbled and banged it into something.
Monahan also is charged with reckless endangerment and tampering with physical evidence.
"We start to panic and she's not being responsive"
Walsh, 20, and a handful of his friends testified that they were headed to a party at another house in the area and mistakenly turned into Monahan's long, snaking driveway. The house had no lights on when they pulled up. Walsh said that they were in the driveway for "about a minute" before hearing a loud noise, according to WRGB.
"We were trying to figure out where we are," said Jacob Haynes, who was in the back seat. "We knew we were not at the right house."
The lights in the house flickered on just as the two vehicles performed a quick U-turn to make their exit. Walsh recounted hearing a loud bang as he was reversing, and one of his friends in the back seat of the SUV alerted him that someone was firing a gun. Panic immediately set in.
Upon the second gunshot, Walsh said he heard a sound resembling metal breaking inside the car. He instinctively ducked as he sped away. Walsh described the occupants of the car as "frantic" and "screaming," and when he asked if everyone was alright, he realized that Gillis was slumped over the door side of the vehicle and unresponsive, as reported by WRGB.
"We started to panic and she wouldn't wake up," Haynes recounted. "We tried calling 911 but there was no signal. We noticed Kaylin. She was bleeding from the left side of her neck. I used my hand to cover the wound."
The friends used the flashlight on their phones to see that Gillis had been injured. During his testimony, Walsh became emotional as he recalled pulling up next to the Jeep driven by his friend Katherine Rondeau to inform her about Gillis.
"Kaylin's been shot. We need to get to a hospital," said Maxwell Barney, who was also in the Jeep.
Gillis' friends called for help once they found a cellphone signal several miles away. Meanwhile, Haynes kept his hand on Gillis' neck wound to stop the bleeding. A dispatcher guided the friends through CPR while they waited for help to arrive. But emergency workers were unable to save her.
Frost, who argues Monahan felt threatened, focused on how the two vehicles were briefly stopped next to each other on the driveway during cross examinations. He also established that most of the friends did not notice the private property sign by the driveway.
Some of the friends had consumed alcohol or marijuana earlier that evening, according to testimony.
Rondeau told the jury that she was leading the group of friends to what she thought was the house of a friend hosting the party.
"I thought I knew where I was going," Rondeau said, beginning to cry.
