Edward Taibi kills a toddler with stray bullet

[Sister Iroz]

SWAN LAKE, N.Y. — An upstate toddler was killed by a stray bullet when a New York City deer hunter fired his rifle too close to her grandparents' Hudson Valley home.

Edward Taibi, 45, of Queens was being held without bail Monday after arraignment on a second-degree manslaughter charge in the town of Bethel court. Taibi was hunting from a tree stand Sunday afternoon in rural Sullivan County when he shot a deer. He came down from the stand and fired the .30-caliber rifle again about 400 feet away from a trailer home in Swan Lake, a small community just south of the Catskill Mountains.

The bullet hit 16-month-old Charly Skala in the upper body. She was flown to Westchester Medical Center, where she died. Police said the child's parents live in nearby Woodburne.

Taibi is friends with the owner of the neighboring property and had hunted there before, said State Police Lt. Pierce Gallagher.

His case was assigned to the Sullivan Legal Aid Bureau, where attorney Jeff Bradley said Monday it was too soon to comment on the case.

Several neighbors declined comment Monday afternoon when reached by The Associated Press.

The rifle season for deer opened Saturday in the region that includes Sullivan County. Under state law, it's illegal to discharge a firearm or bow within 500 feet of any occupied residence or business unless the hunter owns or leases the property, or has the owner's consent, according to Maureen Wren of the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

Swan Lake is about 85 miles northwest of New York City.


http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,453464,00.html?sPage=fnc/us/crime

[DarkPrincess]

Hunting season is always trouble. Someone always wanders into the wrong place or fires a gun too close to someone else. Has Dick Cheney taught us nothing?

[maryhaze]

& people wonder why i don't allow any hunting on my land.

[Silvahalo]

Damn, that is so tragic! Imagine the mother going to her baby with a hole in his chest bleeding his life out?? I'd be out of my mind!

Rest in peace baby Charly.

[Dakota Valkyrie]

http://i39.tinypic.com/1rdwrd.jpg
On Friday, the Queens man who fired the gun surprised an upstate courtroom, pleading guilty just as his trial was set to begin.

The trial was supposed to last into next week, but instead, the man who killed a toddler took a plea – in part to spare the family of the young victim the trauma of a trial.

46-year-old Edward Taibi pleaded guilty to second degree manslaughter.

Last November, Taibi was in a tree stand when he fired a high-powered hunting rifle at a deer. The shot blasted through a nearby trailer, killing 16-month-old Charly Ann Skala.

"At least he owned up to it," Darlene Conklin, the victim's grandmother, says. "I'm glad he did what he did, so we don't have to relive that day."
[...]

Taibi will be back in Sullivan County Court in October, hoping for the minimum sentence: two years behind bars. That would be eight months longer than Charly Skala's sad, brief life.

The judge delayed sentencing until the start of the hunting season. He wants the case to be back in the news then, as a safety warning to other hunters.http://wcbstv.com/topstories/hunter.shooting.guilty.2.1051793.html

I love the judge's way of thinking!!!

[Jerri Blank]

Granny wants girl's killer freed
Inmate cites judge's words in parole bid

WOODBOURNE — A grandmother of the 16-month-old Sullivan County girl who was fatally shot in 2008 by a hunter says he shouldn't be in prison for what he says was a "sad accident."

"I think this would be better-served as a community service for 17,520 hours rather than sitting in a jail for the same amount of time," Ava Skala wrote to Sullivan County Court Judge Frank LaBuda two years ago, when Edward Taibi pleaded guilty to manslaughter for killing Charly Ann Skala. A rifle round he says was meant for a deer blasted through a Swan Lake mobile home and killed Charly.

The judge who sentenced the Queens hunter to two to eight years behind bars echoed that request.

"To the extent that Mr. Taibi would be eligible for parole or other programs at the earliest date, it would be helpful ... to have Mr. Taibi involved in a hunter safety course," LaBuda wrote to the commissioner of corrections in December 2009.

Taibi is using statements like these in his campaign for release from Woodbourne Correctional Facility, where he's served 27 months of that term. He was denied parole in June. His next chance is June 2013.

Taibi, who is scheduled to appear on WCBS-TV Thursday night, has long said he pleaded guilty to spare Charly's family more pain — especially because he knew what it was like to lose a child. His 12-year-old daughter, Carmela, died from cancer, two years before he killed Charly.

In an eight-page letter to the Times Herald-Record, Taibi said he was told he would serve the minimum time.

"All along we were told two years," he wrote.

"Something here is very wrong," he added. "Here I am stuck in prison when I did my two years and a lot of people think I don't belong here in the beginning."

But LaBuda stresses that Taibi got what he agreed to.

"There were no promises made, no under or above the table deals," he said this week.

The prosecutor of the case, then-Sullivan County District Attorney Steve Lungen, agrees.

"When he pled guilty, he understood clearly that parole is an independent decision," he said. "He was never told anything else. No one can guarantee what parole will do. I viewed this crime as very serious. The house where he killed her with the second shot was right within view of his scope."

While Charly's grandmother Skala says she "absolutely wanted the board to grant him parole," the baby's other grandmother — who was with Charly when she she was shot to death — isn't so sure.

"Bottom line is, he took the deal," said Darlene Conklin. "It was no less than two, no more than eight. The judge said, 'Do you understand?' He said yes."

Conklin says Taibi's campaign for release just makes her and her family — including Charly's young sister — relive the killing.

"He's saying he's a hostage of New York state. But when he gets out, he goes home. Charly got death. We got a life sentence without her."
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120202/NEWS/202020336/-1/SITEMAP

[DamagedGoods]

A grandmother of the 16-month-old Sullivan County girl who was fatally shot in 2008 by a hunter says he shouldn't be in prison for what he says was a "sad accident."

"I think this would be better-served as a community service for 17,520 hours rather than sitting in a jail for the same amount of time," Ava Skala wrote to Sullivan County Court Judge Frank LaBuda two years ago, when Edward Taibi pleaded guilty to manslaughter for killing Charly Ann Skala. A rifle round he says was meant for a deer blasted through a Swan Lake mobile home and killed Charly.

My gut reaction was, "Fuck him and the deer carcass he rode in on!" However, upon further pragmatic consideration, I find myself agreeing with her that his time could be better spent for society and justice by community service, preferably in a manner that shines a light on how easily this sort of thing is prevented.

This is assuming a lifetime ban on hunting for him, and, admittedly; that he isn't stupid enough to do it anyway.

Unfortunately I am LONG since past believing people in general have any semblance of rational thought.

ETA: wtf happened to the first half of my post?