MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Closing statements were expected Thursday in a Monongalia County involuntary manslaughter trial.
Prosecutors claim Christopher Smith was drinking and acting recklessly with a loaded gun when it discharged striking and killing his girlfriend’s teenage brother, Damon Sochko-Seals.
Smith took the stand testifying in his own defense, showing emotion when detailing the events the night of the March 2016 shooting on Churchill Drive.
WAJR’s Joe Nelson has been in the courtroom. He said the defense and Smith steered testimony to focus on the wanton endangerment charge he is also facing.
“What the defense brought up was that there was no intent, that it was purely an accident made by a young man who was under duress and resulted in the death of a child.”
Sochko-Seals was a Morgantown High School student who’d turned 16 just before the fatal shooting.
The jury could receive the case Thursday afternoon to begin deliberations.