http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/302687

COVINGTON — Burrell Hall Sr. of Clifton Forge stood Wednesday night in the hallway of the Alleghany County Courthouse as a circuit court jury deliberated nearby behind closed doors.

"Whatever happens, I'm at peace with it," Hall said. "And whatever happens, my prayers will be with the Persinger family as long as there is breath in me."

What happened within the hour was this: The jury found Hall, 48, guilty of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced him to nine years in prison for his role in the shooting death Nov. 13, 2010, of a 27-year-old Covington man during a deer hunt near Low Moor. In addition, the jury found Hall guilty of reckless handling of a firearm and sentenced him to a year in jail and fined him $2,500 for that offense.

The jury found him not guilty of hunting while under the influence of an intoxicant; evidence presented during the two-day trial suggested Hall had ingested marijuana sometime probably within 24 hours of the shooting.

On the morning of Nov. 13, Hall and a small group drove together to Horse Mountain near Low Moor to hunt deer. That same morning, Travis Scott Persinger traveled separately to the area for the same reason.

Although Hall and Persinger knew each other, they had never hunted together, according to testimony.

In midmorning, after two younger hunters in the Hall group killed a deer, they and others gathered around the group's two vehicles to talk about the kill and tell hunting stories, according to testimony. Persinger joined the group. At some point, noise in a nearby thicket led the group to conclude that a deer might be moving through that area. Persinger, according to testimony, offered to venture through the thicket in an effort to spook any deer back toward the hunters.

Shortly thereafter, about 11 a.m., Hall shot his high-powered rifle at an object he later said he believed to be a deer. Instead, from about 56 yards away, he had shot Persinger in the upper left chest. Persinger died at the scene. During the trial, no one disputed that Hall had shot Persinger, and no one suggested the shooting was intentional.

Throughout the trial, Hall's attorney, Bill Cleaveland, argued that the shooting was a tragic hunting accident but not an example of reckless disregard for human life associated with a charge of involuntary manslaughter.

Cleaveland repeatedly emphasized that Persinger was not wearing blaze orange when the shooting occurred and said Persinger had not alerted Hall and others of his position during his attempt to drive deer out of the thicket. Both those behaviors violated cardinal rules of hunting safety, Cleaveland said.

In turn, Alleghany County Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Ann Gardner repeatedly reminded the jury that Persinger was not on trial for his actions that day and that Hall's negligence met the standard for involuntary manslaughter. Hall shot without identifying his target, she said.

After the jury found Hall guilty of involuntary manslaughter and reckless handling of a firearm, he testified to jury members before they met again to deliberate about sentencing.

He did not testify during the trial.

Weeping, he apologized to the Persinger family and to his own family for unleashing what he described as a tsunami of grief for both. He said that he would have taken his own life if it were not for his family.

Meanwhile, Persinger family members told the jury in emotional testimony that his loss had been devastating.

After sentencing, Hall was remanded to jail.

Capt. Bobby Mawyer is a conservation police officer and the education and training manager overseeing hunter education for the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. Mawyer said Wednesday that the DGIF does not track prosecutions stemming from hunting accidents, but said such cases don't happen very often. DGIF conservation police officers investigate such accidents and take their findings to the local commonwealth's attorney, who makes the decision on whether or not to prosecute.

In the last fiscal year, ending June 30, Virginia had six hunting fatalities. Two were from falls from tree stands and four were firearms-related, including one that was self-inflicted. Overall in 2010-11 firearms incidents, 46 Virginia hunters were shot in the 2011 fiscal year: 14 by themselves and 32 by another person, Mawyer said. Those figures include the fatal shootings.

So far this fiscal year, which began July 1, there have been no fatalities but 13 woundings. Three were self-inflicted and 10 were by another party, Mawyer said.

Tragic, and it sounds like a real tough case all around. I wonder what the offer was if he had plead guilty.

If you compare it to the average sentence for dui homicide, I would imagine 10 years is probably quite a bit more than what the average drunk driving homicide is sentenced to. Does a straight up hunting accident deserve to spend more time in prison than the drunk driver who kills somebody? I would not think so. I would bet even though they found him not guilty of hunting under the influence, that probably still affected the sentence rendered at some level.

What a sad story for both parties. Everytime i go out with friends and were doin man drives i don't evening shoulder the gun unless i get full visual of the deer. But on the other hand i know the feeling when your on the other foot we were doin drive a few years back and i heard some shooting then heard buckshot swinging threw the woods, man what erry feeling ducking for cover.