RUTLAND — A Poultney teen has pleaded not guilty to a charge of involuntary manslaughter in the shooting death of 19-year-old Daniel Hein over the weekend.
William Bailey, also 19, said in Rutland criminal court Monday that he accidentally shot his friend with a gun he thought was unloaded.
Vermont State Police reported earlier that Bailey was arrested after police responded to a report of an injured man in a vehicle parked in a driveway on Roberts Avenue in Poultney, just south of Castleton. Police said Hein was dead when they arrived.
Police allege Bailey shot Hein with a semi-automatic handgun. Police later learned there were four people in the vehicle, two of whom had fled.
Dylan Czarnecki, 21, also of Poultney, was later found and interviewed. According to state police, he has been booked on probation violations by the Department of Corrections. The fourth person in the car, 21-year-old Jonathan Testa, was reached Monday, police said.
Bailey, who lives in Granville, New York, is being held on $50,000 bail.
