Global Courant 2023-04-20 04:48:00
FORT EDWARD, NY –
The father whose 20-year-old daughter was fatally shot after she and her friends got lost and drove to the wrong house in the rural town in upstate New York raged Wednesday at the man who pulled the trigger.
“Having this guy sitting on his porch shooting at a car without threat just makes me so angry,” said Andrew Gillis, whose daughter Kaylin Gillis was killed Saturday. “And I only hope to God that he dies in prison.”
The anguished father spoke at the courthouse where the man charged with the murder of Kaylin Gillis, Kevin Monahan, was denied bail by a judge. Monahan, 65, appeared in court wearing a jacket, tie and handcuffs. He answered questions from the judge, but mostly sat silent.
“My daughter was an honor student. She hoped and dreamed of… becoming a marine biologist or a veterinarian,” Andrew Gillis told reporters, his voice cracking with emotion. “She loved animals. And this man took that away from us.”
Gillis, her boyfriend Blake Walsh and their friends got lost while going to another friend’s house nearby. They were in two cars and a motorcycle as they pulled into Monahan’s long, unpaved driveway in the town of Hebron, near the Vermont border.
When they realized the mistake and turned around, Monahan fired a shotgun blast, authorities said.
Andrew Gillis said Walsh, who wanted to marry his daughter, blamed himself for the tragedy.
“The first time I saw Blake after this happened, he was like, ‘It’s all my fault,'” he said. “And I said, ‘No, it’s nobody’s fault, except that guy who pulled the trigger. You had no idea something so bad could happen on a country road.'”
Assistant District Attorney Christian Morris described Monahan in court as “confrontational and short-tempered”. He said Monahan recently caused a scene at a local motor vehicle department office. Monahan also had a 1980 felony and a 2001 aggravated assault with a gun charge in Vermont that was later dismissed, the prosecutor said.
Morris said there could be other charges against Monahan, including attempted murder.
Monahan’s attorney, Kurt Mausert, told the judge the 1980 felony was for drunk driving and that his client had no criminal convictions. He said his client should not be judged on rumors and innuendos.
Mausert has previously called law enforcement’s version of events a “shallow, simplistic” account of what actually happened.
After the trial, Andrew Gillis said Kaylin’s loss is felt by his wife and Kaylin’s two younger sisters. He also remembered his daughter leaving that day and packing her bathing suit with plans to hit the hot tub at her friend’s house that evening.
“If there’s one thing I’m thankful for,” he said, “is to tell her I love her before she walked out the door.”
