Suspect pleads innocent in Goshen shooting
Toolbox
By Brent Curtis Staff Writer - Published: April 17, 2009
MIDDLEBURY — Jeffrey H. Young told police he acted in defense of himself and others when he opened his girlfriend's front door and shot her estranged husband in the feet as he stood on the porch.
But prosecutors in Addison County said the incident on Dutton Brook Road earlier this month in Goshen needn't have come to bloodshed at all if Young had simply stayed in the house.
Young wasn't initially charged in the April 8 shooting and he remained free while state police investigated the case. But on Wednesday, Young was arrested and charged with felony aggravated assault with a weapon and a misdemeanor charge of unlawful mischief for allegedly shooting Pedro Magana and one of the tires on the rental car Magana was driving.
Young, 40, pleaded innocent to those charges during his arraignment in Middlebury District Court on Thursday. Judge Cortland Corsones agreed to set bail at $15,000 for Young — down from $100,000 set the day before and sought by Deputy Addison County State's Attorney Christopher Perkett.
But in exchange for the lowered bail, the judge said he wanted someone to search Young's home for any other firearms which Corsones banned Young from possessing as part of his conditions of release. After some debate between Perkett, Corsones and Young's attorney Michael Straub, the judge agreed to let Young's father remove any other guns from Young's house on Carlisle Hill Road in Goshen.
In an interview outside the courtroom, Straub said Young's position hadn't changed that he shot Magana, the estranged husband of Young's girlfriend Kendra Magana, in defense of her and her daughter.
"We're surprised at the charges and it definitely was self-defense and defense of others," Straub said.
But Addison County State's Attorney John Quinn said Young provoked Magana and escalated the situation by opening the front door to Kendra Magana's house at 901 Dutton Brook Road.
"He was inside a house — essentially safe — before he went outside armed and provoked a confrontation when he could simply have stayed in the house," Quinn said.
Young's mother and father and a Middlebury lawyer who said he was representing Magana, were the only audience members present during the arraignment.
Young posted bail after the hearing.
State Police Detective Sgt. Robert Patten wrote in an affidavit that 37-year-old Pedro Magana returned to Vermont on April 6 after finishing seasonal work as a cook in Utah. While Pedro and Kendra separated before he left last fall, the pair did not divorce and Kendra said her husband has refused to sign divorce papers.
Kendra Magana told police that her husband had been physically abusive during their four-year marriage and she said she tried to obtain a restraining order against him the day before the shooting.
When Pedro Magana arrived unexpectedly at his wife's home on the morning of April 8, he found the front door locked with Young standing on the other side telling him he wasn't welcome there and demanding that he leave.
But Magana, who was unarmed, didn't leave.
Young told police he tried at first not to escalate the encounter, but when Pedro Magana wouldn't leave, he grabbed his 9 mm Sig Sauer handgun and opened the door to confront the man.
Young told police he fired a warning shot to the left side of Magana. But instead of backing off, Young told police that Magana "came at him" prompting him to fire two more shots that hit Magana in the lower legs.
After shooting Magana, Young said he stood guard over the man, who was trying to crawl back to his car. Fearful that Magana would escape, Young said he took the keys out of the ignition and shot out one of the car's tires.
Magana told police that Young fired no warning shot. Instead, he said, Young shot him first in the left foot and then the right.
He also told police that as he crawled toward his car, Young pointed the gun at him and threatened to shoot him in the head.
Doctors at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H., performed surgery on Magana last week. He remained hospitalized on Thursday in stable condition.
brent.curtis@rutlandherald.com
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