10:29 AM PDT on Wednesday, April 28, 2004
Associated Press
EUGENE, Ore. -- A judge has sentenced Curtis James
Hausotter to five years and nine months in prison for killing his best
friend while hunting near Cottage Grove on a foggy morning this past
October.
Hausotter, 29, hung his head during much of Tuesday's
hearing and apologized to the family of his friend Jason Matthew Roe.
Lane County Circuit Court Judge Eveleen Henry allowed
Roe's family to testify about their feelings of loss and betrayal.
Roe's fiance, Kristina Clark, who was pregnant at the time
of the shooting, said she and Roe shared a "once-in-a-lifetime love" snuffed
out by Hausotter's negligence on Oct. 4.
"You have shown no remorse," she said. "Your continued
poor choices continue to slap this family in the face."
Hausotter pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide,
to being a felon in possession of a firearm, and for failure to appear in
court. He was sentenced to a total of five years and nine months in prison
and ordered to pay $25,000 in compensation to Clark.
Hausotter and Roe, 29, first intended to fish at a pond
near Roe's house.
Hausotter, a convicted felon, brought along a rifle, and
Roe had a .22-caliber handgun. But the pond was too dirty for fishing. So
the men decided to do some hunting in spite of the thick fog, Lane County
Deputy District Attorney Debra Vogt said.
"They separated. ... Mr. Hausotter said he saw something
in the fog. He knelt, he aimed and he fired," Vogt said.
He shot his friend in the side. The bullet pierced Roe's
heart.
"He basically was dead before he hit the ground," Vogt
said.
Hausotter told police he thought his friend was a deer.
Defense attorney Michael Phillips requested a lesser
sentence, noting that Hausotter has acknowledged from
the outset that he is responsible for Roe's death.
