Posted on 12/13/2016 12:51:12 PM PST by mowowie
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A man accused of accidentally shooting and killing a 27-year-old man at a dinner party that was live-streamed on Facebook Live would "trade places" with the man he's accused of killing, his attorney said.
Steven Leannais, 30, made his first court appearance Monday following the shooting that killed Anthony Stanford II. Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Suzan Sweeney set his bond at $10,000. Leannais is charged with third-degree felony involuntary manslaughter.
Defense attorney Leif Christman said that his client is "extremely sorry for what happened and extends his condolences to Anthony's mother, Mrs. (Trina) Ford."
"If there was any to trade places, he'd gladly do it," Christman said.
Leannais, who has never been convicted of a felony, agreed to prosecutors' request that he give up any guns he still has and surrender his concealed carry license as part of the conditions of his bond. He was also ordered to have no contact with any witnesses to the shooting.
"It's so tragic," Christman said. "His friend is deceased. He hasn't eaten or slept since it happened. He needs to get counseling."
Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Brian Murphy agreed that Stanford's death is tragic but disputed calling the shooting "accidental."
Murphy said that Leannais was responsible for firing the gun despite it being an "unintentional" shooting.
Christman said he will look into accusations that Leannais was drunk at the time of the shooting. Leannais' blood-alcohol content tested at 0.058 three-and-half hours after the shooting, according to court records.
The shooting happened about 9:50 p.m. Thursday at a dinner party Leannais hosted at his apartment in The Brick Lofts Apartments at Historic West Tech High in the 2200 block of West 93rd Street, according to police reports.
Leannais live-streamed the dinner party on Facebook Live. A person who viewed the recording of the incident provided the video to cleveland.com.
The events in the video match the descriptions of what police wrote in their report of the incident. Christman said he watched the video and could use it as part of the case.
Leannais hosted Stanford and two other friends for dinner and drinks when the shooting happened, police reports say.
One of the other partygoers went into Leannais' bedroom and grabbed his handgun.
The video shows a man waving a gun around. He asks if the video is recording and says: "We're going to walk up to this guy and say 'we're going to cap this guy's ass.'"
Someone tells the man the gun is loaded and a woman says "Don't point that at me."
The man points the gun at his face and Leannais grabs the gun and takes out the magazine and gives it back, the video shows.
Leannais grabbed the gun from his friend and told him it was still loaded, police reports say.
"There you go," Leannais says in the video. "Now it's not loaded."
Leannais took out the magazine and gave the gun back to the other man, who has not been charged with a crime in connection with the case.
The group laughs about it and the man puts the gun in his mouth and says: "I'm going to do it, I swear to God."
The man then says: "The last thing they say is always, 'I didn't know it was loaded.'"
Leannais said that's why he took the clip out and assures the viewers he took out the bullets.
"See that," he says putting the bullets up to the camera. "That would have made a bloody mess. See that hollow point right there?"
Someone shows a bottle of alcohol in front of the camera while the man again puts the gun in his mouth. Stanford then arrives. The man with the gun jokes with him, shakes his hand and Stanford looks into the camera.
Leannais grabs the camera and walks over to a kitchen counter where he shows Stanford what he made for dinner.
"Yeah, that's what's up," Stanford says. The video recording ends.
Leannais eventually picked the gun up, lowered it to his side pulled the trigger, unaware a bullet was in the chamber, according to police reports and court records. The bullet hit Stanford in the upper abdomen, according to the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner.
Stanford ran out the door after he was shot. Leannais followed and called 911, police reports say.
Paramedics met the pair in the apartment's lobby and rushed Stanford to MetroHealth where he was pronounced dead about an hour later.
Stanford was a maintenance worker in the building and repaired homes on the side, Ford said. He graduated from John Marshall High School and was a boxer when he was younger.
He still worked as a trainer to younger boxers, his mother said.
This is America with its Christian heritage sir.
You don’t like it, you go home.
“I’ll bet that everyone on FR knows that if the mag is out on a semi auto it still could be loaded, idiots.”
I’ve never handled a handgun in my life (Canadian) and I know that. I also know enough not to handle a loaded gun (and you always assume they’re ALL loaded, all the time) like that.
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Someone obviously reloaded the gun.
That someone is guilty of murder.
And I don't handle guns at all in a chaotic party full of drunken idiots.
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The video shows him remove the mag, and cycle the slide, and then pull the trigger.
obviously a prankster reloaded the gun.
Whoever that is needs a life sentence.
“Someone obviously reloaded the gun.”
That was my first thought, but then maybe a misfire the first time the trigger was pulled?
And that, Rule #1, is the foundation for the others.
Thanks for the ping. Wow.
After the slide was cycled, there couldn’t have been anything to “misfire.”
A cartridge can get stove piped if the slide isn’t pulled far enough back, but no way could it get re-chambered.
Christian? You mean idiot trolls who keep responding to me even though I dont reply to them? Now STFU and troll someone else.
Here’s a classsic example of firearms incompetence:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=FJYFcLwUVlg
Guns, alcohol and stupid people NEVER mix.
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DEA, what do you expect?
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Its all he knows how to do.
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A responsible gun owner never plays with guns. Ever. Even when the gun is confirmed as not loaded.
^^^^^ This I was taught a gun is never unloaded, it’s always the unloaded gun that kills. These rules were drummed into me, a firearm is always loaded, treat it as such. Never point a gun at anything you don’t wish to kill or destroy. If a friend of mine had treated my firearm the way this mans friend did he would have received a memorable beat down from me.
You too? This idiot is worse than my crazy ex-girlfriends. When I say “DONT CALL ME” it really means NO. At least they understood, but retard here cant get the hint.
I didn’t watch the video but if what you say is accurate, then there is something definitely not right here.
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He’s important, just ask him.
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Sadly, not just newbies either.
I’ve run into more than my share of people who have been around guns for a long time, and still do it.
Accidents like this SHOULD NOT happen ever.
Stupid people, alcohol and guns = nothing good.
“”Leannais eventually picked the gun up, lowered it to his side pulled the trigger, unaware a bullet was in the chamber, according to police reports and court records. The bullet hit Stanford in the upper abdomen””
I’ve read all the replies like I swore to do at the beginning of the year (but don’t always follow through on) and I haven’t seen anyone wondering how you (omitting for a second all the rest of what happened), hold a gun at your side, pull the trigger and hit someone in the upper abdomen. Was his friend on the floor or was the shooter standing on a chair/counter? Very odd..Can’t picture it..
I’m a female and do not like automatics...I learned to shoot a .22 caliber rifle as a kid and as an adult preferred revolvers. Fingers don’t allow for much practice shooting anymore and husband isn’t well enough to go to the range, something he misses immensely. We were able to go to the high desert a lot in CA to shoot at the inlaws place but nothing that handy or local since retiring and moving to GA.
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