Brian Smith
A Jackson County man convicted of second-degree manslaughter will be back in Madison Circuit Court on Thursday for final sentencing.
David A. Daugherty, 42, was convicted in mid-November after a jury deliberated for just two hours following a three-day trial.
Daugherty was on trial for the Dec. 23, 2008, shooting death of Christopher Shane Adkins, 34, of Berea, outside a home in the 5500 block of Battlefield Memorial Highway.
Adkins was shot from five to seven yards away with a 12-gauge shotgun, ballistics tests indicated, and the pellets struck him in the neck, shoulder and upper chest.
Dr. Kristin Rolf, a state medical examiner, testified that the pellets struck Adkins’ heart, lungs and aorta, and one of the pellets was carried into Adkins’ brain, where it caused bleeding.
Daugherty’s lawyers, public defenders Meena Mohanty and Sarah Bryant, argued that Daugherty fired the shot in self-defense.
Adkins allegedly brandished an aluminum baseball bat and shattered the passenger window of Daugherty’s pickup truck before he was shot, Daugherty testified.
Daugherty took the stand in his own defense and engaged in heated exchanges with prosecutor Jennifer Hall Smith over a number of aspects of his testimony, including the distance from which Adkins was shot and the circumstances that led to the shooting.
Daugherty and another man, Adam Anglin, had followed Adkins and two women from Jackson County to the Berea home where the shooting took place.
Daugherty claimed he was following Adkins and the women to give one of the women, Kay Horn, $40 he had promised her, and said that Anglin wanted to speak with the other woman, Deidre Isaacs.
After returning the guilty verdict against Daugherty, the jury took only 16 minutes to return a sentence recommendation of 10 years in prison.
Under state parole guidelines, Daugherty will be eligible for parole after serving two years in prison if sentenced to the 10-year term.
He has been in custody for more than a year following his arrest in the days after the shooting.
The sentencing hearing is set for 2 p.m. Thursday.
Brian Smith may be reached at bsmith@
richmondregister.com or at 624-6694.
