Man who accidentally shot himself gets over 8 years in prison
By JIM SUHR
The Associated Press
04/03/2005
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - Larry Martin's illegal ownership of a gun may not have become known had he not done what has some authorities scratching their heads - accidentally wounding himself with a shotgun while on his riding lawnmower.
But the 38-year-old southeast Missouri man paid a hefty price Thursday, when he was sentenced in federal court in Cape Girardeau to eight years and four months in federal prison on a felony charge that he was a previously convicted felon in possession of a gun.
"It's a bizarre case from start to finish," said Keith Sorrell, the case's federal prosecutor. "I don't know if we can ever know the true reason of why he had the shotgun while mowing."
Hogwash, says Martin's wife, Vickie.
"I'll go to my grave saying it was a trumped-up charge," she said. "I could see if he hurt or shot somebody else. But he didn't hurt anybody but himself. It blows my mind they could put somebody in jail for hurting themselves. It's stupid."
By federal law, Martin was forbidden from having a gun in light of his 1986 burglary convictions in Bollinger County.
But Martin's wife says it wasn't even her husband's gun that got him in trouble on their land near Advance, Mo., on Aug. 4, 2001, when one of the couple's youngest boys, now 9, came running, talking of a snake in the woods.
"Go tell your dad," Vickie Martin said.
So off Larry Martin went on the riding lawnmower, snake-hunting with a .410-caliber shotgun belonging to the oldest boy, now 14.
"The snake probably would have been gone anyway by the time he got up there," Vickie Martin said.
About 30 minutes later, she said, "Here my husband comes walking down the hill, bleeding real bad. He said, 'I shot myself.' I plum freaked out."
An ambulance was summoned and whisked him to the hospital.
"I thought he was going to bleed to death on me," Vickie Martin said.
Workers who treated Martin at the hospital reported the gunshot wound to police, who say Martin admitted that he shot himself in the hand while on his riding mower.
Sheriff's deputies later found the .410-caliber shotgun on Martin's lawn. Martin escaped with little more than a "big scar" on the back of the hand, Sorrell said.
"In a report, he indicated he just shot at a snake and hit himself in the hand," the prosecutor said.
Vickie Martin says the case has taken a toll on the family, requiring the family to sell their trailer home to pay legal costs. "We lost it all over this stupid charge," she said.
