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David Leroy Blurton had been fishing and drinking beer last year at Lake Dillon with a coworker, before heading to a Ruby Tuesday restaurant, leaving, and then getting into his truck, where he had a gun. The story gets kinda foggy from that point, but somewhere along the way, Blurton apparently fired his Makarov nine millimeter pistol, hitting himself in the groin.
Though Blurton, 50, maintains a mugger struck him in the back of the head, leading him to go for his gun, surveillance footage is insufficient to support the claim, according to the Summit Daily News, leading a jury to find Blurton guilty. Blurton’s discharge of a firearm has been found to be reckless, a felony that carries a prison sentence of up to three years, and more years could be tacked on for two misdemeanors, including being drunk with a gun.
Heather Beattie, Blurton’s attorney, says she is disappointed in the outcome. “I had a juror call me at my office and leave a message saying, ‘We’re really sympathetic to (the) client but feel safer as a community not having problems going on with guns and drunkenness.’”
Prosecutors say they will request that Blurton be sentenced to probation, according to The Associated Press, which would mean no jail time.
Not to be outdone in crotch-shooting high jinks, a 20-year-old man in Hamilton, Ohio, accidentally shot himself in the groin last week, according to the Middletown Journal.