And this owner of a legal firearm:


Man accused of accidentally killing toddler to be released from jail

The Fineview man accused of accidentally shooting and killing his girlfriend's 22-month-old child will be released from jail and put on home monitoring, because the District Attorney's Office doesn't intend to pursue a first- or second-degree murder case against him.

Harrison Marshman Jr., 30, appeared via video from the Allegheny County Jail for a bail review hearing Monday before Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Manning, eyes occasionally downcast but otherwise expressionless. He had previously been denied bail following the Sept. 1 shooting of Josiah Gift Taylor in Marshman's Allegheny Dwellings apartment.

This time, the state wasn't pursuing a capital murder case against Marshman and had no objection when defense attorney Lee Rothman asked that Marshman be released from the jail and placed on home monitoring to await trial on charges of homicide and endangering the welfare of a child, said Assistant District Attorney Phillip Hong-Barco.

Rather than return to the scene of the shooting, Marshman will stay with his father in Homewood with an option for work-release, Manning said. The judge also ordered Marshman have no contact with members of his girlfriend's family.

Rothman told Manning the shooting was accidental, after Taylor had picked up Marshman's legally owned and licensed firearm. Marshman took the gun from the child to remove the magazine and set it where he thought it couldn't be reached, but Taylor found it again, Rothman said. When Marshman realized there could have still been a round in the chamber, he again took the gun away, but it went off about four inches from Taylor as Marshman checked it. Taylor died that afternoon at Allegheny General Hospital.

Rothman argued that while his client was gainfully employed and had no criminal record, he may not have understood his statements to police given his relatively low IQ. His formal arraignment is scheduled for Oct. 15.