Sept. 13 – WILKES-BARRE – A Luzerne County jury discovered Peter Jonathan Gillis responsible of first-degree homicide and reckless endangerment Wednesday for the deadly capturing of Robert Francis Kyle Jr. in Exeter Township in June 2020.
The jury deliberated for an hour after a three-day trial earlier than Choose Joseph F. Sklarowski Jr.
Closing arguments have been held earlier Wednesday, with Gillis’ lawyer, Bernard J. Brown stated his consumer didn’t act maliciously and didn’t intend to kill Kyle, 57, whereas Deputy District Lawyer Thomas Hogans stated the deadly capturing was intentional, calling it an accident. “to implement.”
Gillis, 60, was reportedly in a dispute with Kyle over property that Kyle and his spouse, Barbara Kyle, had bought close to their property on Route 92. Gillis, of 2395 Route 92, and Kyles dwell throughout the road from one another.
Brown instructed the jury that Kyle threatened to shoot Gillis throughout a confrontation in April 2020, about two months earlier than Kyle was killed in self-defense.
Hogans who, together with Assistant District Lawyer Kyle Scanlon, stated there was “zero” proof that Kyle was in possession of a firearm when he allegedly made the risk in April 2020.
The deadly capturing occurred in Gillis’ driveway on June 19, 2020.
All through the trial, Hogans and Scanlon relied on surveillance footage recorded from cameras put in on Gillis’ dwelling.
On the day of the deadly capturing, cameras recorded Kyle leaving his dwelling in a Chevrolet 1500 pickup truck to hook up a wooden splitter from the again of his adjoining property, which he bought in March 2020.
Gillis was recorded watching Kyle go away his automotive in his personal automotive as he headed down the identical road as Kyle.
Minutes later, Gillis returned to his residence with Kyle stopped and partially turned off Route 92 with the Chevrolet in tow of the wooden splitter.
Kyle was recorded getting out of the Chevrolet whereas Gillis is seen within the footage firing photographs from the gun.
Hogans confirmed the jury the rifle, .223 caliber, that Gillis used within the capturing.
“(Gillis) kills Bob Kyle on video,” Hogans stated throughout his closing argument. “The one factor Peter Gillis meant when he pulled the set off was to kill Bob Kyle.”
When Gillis was recorded firing 17 photographs, he did so whereas a automobile, pushed by David Mills and occupied by Nicholas Hauser, was within the line of fireside as he traveled on Route 92, leading to a reckless endangerment conviction.
Mills and Hauser testified that they noticed Kyle together with his arms within the air and Gillis hearth the gun.
Because the jury exited the courtroom, Barbara Kyle cried softly and instructed the jurors, “Thanks.”
Gillis faces life in jail when he’s scheduled to be sentenced on November 28.