Gun play ends in death
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Thomas Day reacts during his arraignment in Windsor District Court on Wednesday. Day has been charged with the shooting death of a teenager. For additional coverage, see Page A6. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS |
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By Alan J. Keays Herald Staff - Published: March 15, 2007
WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — The night before he shuffled into court in shackles to face a murder charge, Thomas M. Day had downed two mixed drinks and was working on his third when he held a gun in his hand and asked one of his closest friends a question.
"Do you trust me?" Day, 23, of Quechee asked Cory Manley, 18, of South Royalton.
"I trust you, but not the loaded gun," Manley replied.
"Nothing's going to happen, see," Day said as he pulled the trigger on his mother's .38-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver.
The gun, held by Day an arm's length away from Manley, then fired a fatal blast into Manley's chest, sending him crashing onto the kitchen floor of Day's mother's home on Dawn Drive in Quechee.
That is the story Manley's brother, Aaron Manley, who said he was in the kitchen and witnessed the fatal shooting, told police shortly after it occurred, according to court records filed Wednesday in White River Junction District Court.
Authorities were quickly called to the home and Cory Manley was rushed by ambulance to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H., where he was pronounced dead.
Day was placed in a police cruiser at the scene and later charged with second-degree murder in Cory Manley's death. Day pleaded innocent to the charge Wednesday in White River Junction District Court and was ordered held at the Springfield prison for lack of $150,000 bail.
If convicted of the charge, Day faces the possibility of spending the rest of his life behind bars.
Day, wearing a bulky dark jacket and blue jeans, looked down at the defense table through much of his arraignment. Several of Day's family members and friends sat in the courtroom Wednesday behind him, including his mother, Elizabeth Day, whose home was the scene of the fatal shooting.
"No comment," many of them said after the hearing came to a close.
Only hours earlier, the shooting that led to the murder charge took place in Quechee, a village of the town of Hartford. Hartford Police said they were called about 8:40 p.m. Tuesday for a report of a shooting at a home at 29 Dawn Drive.
Hartford police and rescue workers arriving at the home found Cory Manley lying on the kitchen floor, suffering from a gunshot wound to his chest and unresponsive.
At the scene, police said, Manley's brother, Aaron, identified Day as the shooter. Aaron Manley told police that he was in the kitchen with his brother and Day when Day started "showing off" with the gun.
"(Day) thought he was cool because he knew where all the bullets were at any given time," Aaron Manley told in his statement. "(Day) knew there was five bullets in the cartridge and it held six. (Day) would position the cartridge so he would pull back the hammer and pull the trigger so the gun would dry fire."
At one point, Aaron Manley told police, Day put the gun to his own head and pulled the trigger and nothing happened.
"(Day) did that about six times then he pointed it at my chest and said, 'Do you trust me?'" Aaron Manley told police. "(Day) pulled the trigger and nothing happened."
Day did the same to Cory Manley, and the gun fired the fatal shot into his chest, Aaron Manley said in his statement. As soon as he saw what happened, Aaron Manley told police he called 911 and sat alongside his brother until rescue workers arrived.
Several hours later, at about 1:30 a.m. Wednesday at the town police station, Hartford Police Detective Sgt. Shawn Lundrigan interviewed Day, who agreed to talk about the shooting, court records stated.
Day's statement was slightly different, particularly about whether the gun was loaded at the time he was handling it.
Day told the detective he was at his mother's home Tuesday evening in Quechee when his mother and sister went to bed and he joined the Manley brothers in the kitchen. Day said he had been drinking rum and Cokes with Aaron Manley, adding that Cory Manley was not drinking, the affidavit stated.
Day said he was on his third mixed drink when he went to a drawer in the kitchen where his mother had kept her gun as protection for herself, the detective wrote in an affidavit.
Day added that his mother kept the six-shot revolver loaded with five rounds, and kept the chamber under the firing pin empty. He said that he took the five bullets out of the weapon and thought the gun was not loaded.
"(Day) advised that he was playing around with the gun, dry firing it and at some point put the gun to his own head and pulled the trigger and also pointed it at his chest," Lundrigan wrote in the affidavit.
The detective then asked Day if he pointed the gun at Cory Manley and pulled the trigger.
"Day advised he had, but did not mean for it to go off, that you know, the alcohol and all," the affidavit stated.
Day told the detective that he then put the gun down, either placing it back in the drawer or on the kitchen sink as police were called to the scene.
"Thomas Day advised that he knew the cops would be coming and sat up and lit a cigarette," the affidavit stated.
Asked again if believed he unloaded the bullets from the gun, Day told police "he was not sure if in fact he had counted all five bullets or not, only that he had assumed when he dumped the bullets out of the chamber that all five had fallen out."
The last homicide in Windsor County was on Aug. 2, 2006, in South Reading. In that case, police say Matthew M. Stevens fatally shot Carl L. Ackley, 44, during a birthday party held for Ackley. Stevens have pleaded innocent to a first-degree murder charge.
Stevens currently is held without bail at the Springfield prison awaiting trial.
In court Wednesday afternoon, Kevin Griffin, a court-appointed attorney representing Day, said that his client is a lifelong resident of the Upper Valley, born on the New Hampshire side of the Connecticut River and raised on the Vermont side in the town of Hartford.
Day, who dropped out of high school, was currently unemployed with a job interview set for later this week, Griffin said.
The defense attorney tried unsuccessfully to convince Judge Robert Bent to release his client to the custody of his mother, or at least impose a much lower bail amount. Almost any bail amount set by the judge, Griffin said, would likely result in Day staying behind bars while the case is pending.
"He doesn't have any money," said Griffin, adding that, if released, his client had nowhere to flee. "The only ties he has are to this community."
Windsor County State's Attorney Robert Sand argued that the since the second-degree murder charge carried a potential life sentence, the judge could order Day held in jail without bail pending the resolution of the case.
Should the judge decide to set a bail amount, the prosecutor requested $250,000, citing the seriousness of the charge as well as Day's past criminal record, which includes five misdemeanor convictions and pending charges of drunken driving and marijuana possession.
Day's record date back to 2000 and includes convictions for underage drinking, disorderly conduct and marijuana possession, Sand said in court. "This is not someone who is a stranger, even at his young age, to the criminal justice system," the prosecutor said.
After listening to both attorneys, Bent set bail at $150,000.
"I have substantial confidence in the ability of a bail bondsman to bring someone back for that amount," the judge said.
During the roughly 30-minute arraignment, Griffin also raised questions about the state's decision to charge his client with second-degree murder.
"Some might argue that the appropriate charge here should be involuntary manslaughter," Griffin said, adding that his client cooperated with authorities and provided police with a detailed statement.
Griffin said Day "fully believed" the gun he was holding at the time of the shooting was not loaded.
"Everyone seems to agree there was no intent to kill here," the defense attorney added. "The issue to litigate is the degree of reckless … I don't think this is a case where evidence can be deemed as great as to second-degree murder."
Sand defended his decision to file the second-degree murder charge.
"There is a prong of second-degree murder that says when your conduct is so reckless, when you show such a wanton disregard for the risk of death, when you show such extreme indifference to the value of human it is tantamount and the functional equivalent of intentional conduct," Sand said after arraignment. "Mr. Day is charged in this case with showing extreme indifference to the value of human life."
Contact Alan J. Keays at alan.keays@rutlandherald.com.
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