Saturday, July 14, 2007

It wasn't mailed

In 2005, Gary Alan Hemsted, 49, was cited for driving with an expired drivers license by the Shasta County CA sheriff's department. He blamed his wife's failure to renew it at the time and evidently decided to use a very non-traditional approach to deal with it.

A sheriff's patrol car pulled in their driveway just as Gary was venting his anger over the ticket. Detective Steve Grashoff testified that he heard Gary threaten to shoot his wife's horse before he fired a round from a .22-caliber rifle that narrowly missed his wife but hit the barn. Lisa Hemsted, 42, wisely took off running and headed down the family driveway while Gary took chase in his pickup truck. At one point, Lisa climbed over a fence to get away and Gary aimed his rifle at her. After telling her "you're dead" he fired a shot that hit her in the right thigh according to Grashoff.

This June, after spending 796 days in jail, Gary pleaded no contest to attempted voluntary manslaughter, using a firearm and causing great bodily injury and was sentenced to ten years in jail. Hemsted's attorney, Richard Maxion, said that his client may only end up serving six years of the sentence after time already spent in jail and good behavior credits are factored in.

It would seem that not only is he fortunately, a poor shot but he managed to put himself in jail instead of just paying the fine and remembering to mail in his own renewal next time.

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