I recall this accident getting some newsplay a while back. Having only been exposed to the high-level details I' m reluctant to judge, but my gut feeling is that he got off easy. Shooting at movement, sound, towards a road, without identifying his target sure sounds like negligent homicide.

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Wisconsin jury: Hunting death an accident
By Matt Bean, Court TV


(Court TV) — A Wisconsin hunter was found not guilty of homicide for the shooting death of his neighbor in Dec. 2001, a jury decided Friday.

Michael Berseth collapsed in tears soon after the decision was read aloud by the Chippewa County judge. He clasped his hands in disbelief, staring intently at jurors as they each confirmed their decision.

The jury of seven men and five women deliberated about two and a half hours before discarding a charge of second-degree reckless homicide and a lesser included charge of negligent homicide.

A conviction on the more serious charge could have sent Berseth to prison for 15 years.

Berseth, 44, was hunting with two friends on the afternoon of the killing, the last day of the special " muzzle loading" season. He had already shot at a deer when he heard a rustling and saw a flash of white moving through the woods.

Taking the white spot for a deer' s tail, Berseth took aim and fired his rifle, he told investigators. But it was Prasnicki' s white scarf, not the hindquarters of a deer, that Berseth saw.

Prasnicki, 47, had spent the afternoon wrapping Christmas presents and was taking her two dogs for a walk when Berseth' s shot hit her. Attempts to revive her at the scene failed.

Prosecutors called 16 witnesses over two days to argue that Berseth, who lived half a mile from the accident site, knew the area well. They argued that he was familiar with the road that Prasnicki was on, and was " reckless" in shooting in that direction.

Prosecutor Rachel Anderson urged jurors in her closing argument to " set your emotions aside... If he had identified his target, he would not be here today."

" Ladies and gentlemen, when you' re hunting with a firearm, you must be sure of your target," she said.

Berseth' s defense attorney, Richard Wachowski, called the killing an " honest, tragic mistake."

" There' s no question that Deborah Prasnicki died as a result of a gunshot from Mike Berseth," said the lawyer. " The question here is to determine whether or not that mistake was criminal."