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Kirby avoids attempted murder
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Jurors burned the midnight oil Friday deliberating deep into the night before finding Floyd Kirby guilty of shooting a fisherman in the lake behind his home.Kirby, 76, faces three to six years on two aggravated assault counts and one misdemeanor reckless endangerment count on which jurors convicted him following six hours of deliberation Friday night. Jurors arrived at the verdict around 11 p.m., opting to acquit the elderly Vietnam veteran on the top charge of attempted first-degree murder in the case of the injured fisherman Ken “Stubby” Murray.Murray was hit with buckshot pellets in the shoulder, arm and torso as he and friend Stan Owenby fished on Harvest Farms Lake on the morning of May 10, 2011. While owning a lot on the lake four doors down from Kirby, the men were fishing behind the Kirby home when the man squeezed off four shots with a shotgun, one of those shots having buckshot, the others delivering bird shot.During his testimony Friday, Kirby maintained that while he had walked down toward the lake to warn the fisherman to “read and heed” his no trespassing sign as it pertained the water behind his house, he did not know the boaters were still down range when he opened fire on black birds in the trees.“I pointed out my sign,” testified the feisty 76-year-old, who said he posted the area as no trespassing after his dog was killed by boaters and his dock vandalized.