Baseball bat trumps nail gun
John Conley, 40, of Mission Hill, today pleaded guilty to manslaughter for using an aluminum baseball bat to kill a downstairs neighbor who was himself wielding a nail gun during an argument on April 12 of last year, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney's office:
Evidence and testimony would have established that (Frederick) Montgomery, who worked as a contractor and repairman, was holding a Ramset tool gun, a device that fires nails and resembles a shotgun. Seeing the object, Conley went back upstairs and retrieved the baseball bat.
Evidence would have shown that Montgomery made his way up to the second floor landing as Conley made his way down. It was there that Conley swung the bat, striking the defendant multiple times. Montgomery fell to the first floor, where his body was found by Boston Police responding to Conley’s 911 call.
Montgomery died six days later.
Conley was sentenced to 14 to 16 years at MCI Cedar Junction. More from the DA.
Comments
Um...
...a Ramset tool gun, a device that fires nails and resembles a shotgun.
Well, they got the "fires nails" part right. Some Ramset nailers might more closely resemble an orange Uzi or MAC-10, but a shotgun? That's a stretch.
Of course, in MA, anything with a trigger on it is classified as an assault weapon.
Side note: Freddy was doing some electrical work for us for our condo conversion in Rozzie at the time this happened. Needless to say, he was unable to complete the job.