FORT EDWARD — A 911 call from Kevin Monahan on the night he's accused of fatally shooting 20-year-old Kaylin Gillis when she and a group of friends accidentally turned down his driveway last spring was a focus on the opening day of the 66-year-old Hebron man's murder trial Thursday.
Monahan, who faces a top count of second-degree murder, allegedly shot at a vehicle in a caravan looking for another person's house the night of April 15. One of the two shots allegedly fired by Monahan hit Gillis, who died a short time later. Poor cellphone reception and GPS have been said to have delayed the efforts of the girl's friends to obtain emergency medical care for her.
Washington County Assistant District Attorney Christian Morris began his opening statement by repeating something Monahan said to a 911 dispatcher on the night of the incident: “‘I wish they’d get out of my yard so I could go back to bed.’ Those were his words to the 911 operator,” Morris said.
Morris said that after police, paramedics and other emergency services had not been able to save Gillis, officers then went to Monahan’s home. There, Monahan asked the police if they'd been sent to his home, but Monahan himself had called 911 some time before, Morris said.
Morris told the jury that there will be at least 25 witnesses in this case. He then outlined the alleged events of the night of the shooting. He explained how Gillis had been part of a group of teenagers and young adults hanging out when they were invited to go to Hebron to another friend's party. One member of the group rode his motorcycle while the rest of the group rode in two other vehicles.
“The sum total of time they [the group of friends] were in that location was less than three minutes,” Morris said.
Morris said the three vehicles met about 30 yards away from Monahan’s home, rolled their windows down and discussed how they had not been at the correct home because all of the lights were off. Then, the vehicles began to turn around and head back down the driveway, which was when Monahan, Morris said, fired his shotgun twice.
Morris told the jury Monahan’s neighbors will testify that they saw the group of vehicles drive up the driveway and then come down. He said they will testify that they did not hear the group revving their engines or shouting, but that they will testify that they heard two gunshots.
When police arrived at Monahan’s home afterwards, Morris said, Monahan’s voice was, “Calm, cool and collected,” when he was on the phone with 911.
“This 911 call is kind of a defining moment in this trial,” Morris said.
This case is not about intentional murder, the prosecutor said. This case is about a mindset and about a “depraved indifference toward human life.”
Morris told the jury the shotgun shells had been picked up, and the gun had been wiped of fingerprints. He said that Monahan recklessly endangered not only Gillis, but all of the other teenagers in the group.
Monahan’s defense attorney, Arthur Frost, repeatedly called Monahan an “old man” who was scared.
“This was a terrible accident,” Frost said. “Somebody should have realized that by now.”
Frost told the jury that Monahan’s gun was not working property, and that it went off accidentally.
“It’s defective, it’s broken, it goes off when no one even pulls the trigger,” Frost said.
The defense told the jury the group of friends had been revving their engines in Monahan's driveway, and that the two SUVs parked blocking the driveway — Monahan and his wife’s only escape. Frost said, because the couple was old, they were asleep and they were awakened by the loud noises. He said Monahan and his wife were afraid, and that he gave his wife a revolver and some ammunition and told her to hide in their closet when the noises of the vehicles woke them up. He then said Monahan got dressed, loaded his shotgun and went out onto his porch.
“Kevin held his gun up in the air — he doesn’t point,” Frost said. “It’s like a rattlesnake’s rattle, it’s a warning, he can protect himself.”
Frost said Monahan shot his gun up into the air as a warning to the group of people on his property. Frost said it worked, and the vehicles started to drive away. He said Monahan started to walk away, stumbled and banged the gun. Frost said the gun went off for a second time on its own without Monahan touching the trigger.
Drop tests were done on the gun by investigators. Frost said once the gun was tested, it went off without anything touching the trigger. He said that the group of cars did not act lost, and if they were lost he questioned why they would not have gotten out of their vehicles to ask for directions.
Throughout the morning, a number of individuals in the courtroom — friends and family of Gillis — were visibly crying. When Frost repeatedly called the incident an accident, many shook their heads in disbelief.
“So here sits the man,” Frost said. “And at the end, you [the jury members] will have to decide, is he a monster with an evil, wicked black heart?”
Monahan also faces charges of reckless endangerment and tampering with evidence.