New York man who fatally shot woman after her friends pulled into wrong driveway is sentenced to 25 years to life
Source: NBC News
U.S. NEWS
New York man who fatally shot woman after her friends pulled into wrong driveway is sentenced to 25 years to life
Kevin Monahan was convicted in January of second-degree murder, reckless endangerment and tampering in the April 15 death of Kaylin Gillis.
Kevin Monahan at the Washington County Courthouse in Fort Edward, N.Y., on Jan. 23.Will Waldron / The Albany Times Union via AP Pool
March 1, 2024, 10:39 AM EST
By Minyvonne Burke
A New York man who was convicted of killing a 20-year-old woman after she and other young people mistakenly pulled into the driveway of his home was sentenced Friday to 25 years to life.
Kevin Monahan was convicted in January of second-degree murder, reckless endangerment and tampering in the April 15 death of Kaylin Gillis, whom he fatally shot after the car she was traveling in, as well as another vehicle and a motorcycle, pulled into Monahan’s driveway in rural Hebron, about 40 miles north of Albany, as they were looking for a party. ... The group was lost and in an area of New York that did not have cell service.
Monahan had testified at trial that he felt threatened by the appearance of the vehicles and motorcycle pulling into his driveway and thought he was being blocked in. He said he turned on his floodlights, grabbed a 20-gauge shotgun and fired a warning shot. The second shot he fired, the one that killed Gillis, happened by accident, Monahan testified, after he tripped over nails protruding on his deck.
At the trial, Monahan said he felt “like my soul is dead.” ... He was also sentenced to a smaller consecutive sentence for tampering with evidence.
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Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/new-york-man-fatally-shot-woman-friends-pulled-wrong-driveway-sentence-rcna141146
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Gillis’ boyfriend, Blake Walsh, told NBC News a few days after the shooting that the group realized they were at the wrong home and were driving away when shots rang out.
Walsh, who was driving a Ford Explorer, said he tried to step on the gas “and that’s when the fatal shot came through.”
Gillis was pronounced dead several miles away after the group called 911, authorities have said. Walsh said she was shot in the neck. The group had to drive 5 miles because of the lack of cell service, he said.
20-year-old Kaylin Gillis and her boyfriend, Blake Walsh
That young girl was certainly no threat. 
So Monahan didn't bother to call police after he shot Kaylin?
He didn't surrender immediately.
He originally lied and said hunters shot them.
Her dad is a corrections officer
Sounds like he had history.
HEBRON, N.Y. — The man who lived on the ridge above this little upstate town had long had a reputation among some residents as a sour character who barked at neighbors’ dogs, scolded a local church and was so averse to unannounced visitors that he had at one time used a chain to cordon off his quarter-mile-long drive........
They soon took a right turn into his drive, which is flanked by a tree with two worn “private property” signs, warning off trespassers, and a small “private drive” sign.
https://web.archive.org/web/20230419165304/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/18/nyregion/kaylin-gillis-ny-shooting.html
No trespassing signs etc need to be conspicuous and not worn out. He had removed the chain on his driveway.
And look at the long drive in the middle of no where.
One of Monahan’s neighbours, Adam Matthews, who runs an auto repair shop in nearby Salem, said Monahan had become more and more upset in recent years at people making wrong turns into his driveway.
Well, get a gate. We have them here.
He lived in the middle of nowhere. Context is everything. My parents had a vacation home in northern Wisconsin. If someone pulls up, we figure they're lost or something.
