OTTAWA – Today in Franklin County District Court, witnesses recalled a birthday party filled with drinking, rap music and the violent video game Halo that resulted in the July shooting death of 19-year-old Sky Cadorette. Witnesses in the second-degree murder trial of Mark Sherman said at one point during a birthday party for Sherman on July 10, he produced a 9-millimeter semi-automatic pistol and passed it around to people standing in his bedroom. One witness, Matt Lowry, said in testimony this morning that when Cadorette came into the bedroom, she playfully told Sherman to shoot her. Other witnesses didn’t say they remembered that. Lowry said Sherman thought the gun was on safety but he pointed it at her and it went off. She was shot in the mouth and was killed.
Sherman’s attorney, Frederick Meier, challenged Lowry and asked if he had taken the gun off safety, which Lowry denied. During his testimony, Lowry confessed he originally lied to police that he was at the party because he was on probation and was banned from drinking or handling firearms. The trial was scheduled to continue this afternoon.
