Man found guilty of reckless endangerment in 3-year-old son's shooting

LAKE STEVENS, Wash. (AP) — A jury has found a Lake Stevens man guilty of reckless endangerment for leaving a loaded gun within reach of his 3-year-old.


The Daily Herald reports (http://goo.gl/pf2f2K ) jurors convicted 48-year-old Jon Holzwarth on Friday of the gross misdemeanor, for which he faces up to a year in jail.

The boy climbed up on a bedroom dresser in 2014, took his dad's pistol from a holster and pulled the trigger. The bullet caused serious injury, tearing through the child's upper lip, jaw and upper palate and requiring surgery.

Holzwarth told jurors that he'd never seen his son scale the dresser and believed the gun was secure there.

Prosecutors say Holzwarth had been warned that his son could reach the gun and that his mother-in-law had dropped off locks, encouraging him to lock up the weapon.