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Jury acquits Wisconsin hunter in woman's shooting
By Matt Bean
(Court TV) -- A Wisconsin deer hunter was found not guilty of homicide Friday in the shooting death of his neighbor during the hunting season in December 2001. Michael Berseth collapsed in tears soon after the jury's decision was read aloud by the Chippewa County judge. He clasped his hands in disbelief, staring intently at jurors as they each confirmed the decision. Berseth, flanked by the sister of the victim, Sharon Jorgenson, told Court TV he felt "like a weight's been lifted off my shoulders." Holding Berseth's hand, Jorgenson said she hoped the decision in the death of her sister, Deborah Prasnicki, would allow Berseth to move on with his life. "We felt right from the very beginning that it was an accident, a tragic accident," she said. The jury of seven men and five women deliberated about two and a half hours before discarding a charge of second-degree reckless homicide and a lesser included charge of negligent homicide. A conviction on the more serious charge could have sent Berseth to prison for 15 years. Berseth's brief defense centered on the emotional testimony of his wife, Jayne Berseth, who testified that she performed CPR on the victim, and then turned to comfort her shaken husband. Berseth, 44, was hunting with two friends on the afternoon of the killing, the last day of the special "muzzle loading" season. He had already shot at a deer when he heard a rustling and saw a flash of white moving through the woods. Taking the white spot for a deer's tail, Berseth took aim and fired his rifle, he told investigators. But it was Prasnicki's white scarf, not the hindquarters of a deer, that Berseth saw. Prasnicki, 47, had spent the afternoon wrapping Christmas presents and was taking her two dogs for a walk when Berseth's shot hit her. Attempts to revive her at the scene failed. Prosecutors called 16 witnesses over two days to argue that Berseth, who lived half a mile from the accident site, knew the area well. They argued that he was familiar with the road that Prasnicki was on, and was "reckless" in shooting in that direction. Prosecutor Rachel Anderson urged jurors in her closing argument to "set your emotions aside... If he had identified his target, he would not be here today." "Ladies and gentlemen, when you're hunting with a firearm, you must be sure of your target," she said. Berseth's defense attorney, Richard Wachowski, called the killing an "honest, tragic mistake." "There's no question that Deborah Prasnicki died as a result of a gunshot from Mike Berseth," said the lawyer. "The question here is to determine whether or not that mistake was criminal." Asked whether he plans to continue hunting, Berseth told Court TV he has given up on the sport. "I just don't have an interest in it anymore," he said.
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