KINGSTON – An Ulster County Court jury found a Kingston man not guilty of assault in the shooting of his then-three-year-old daughter with a pellet gun.
Andrew Wellington, 24, had been charged in the February 22 wounding of the girl who sustained wounds to her lip, temple, neck, hand and torso.
When she was taken to the hospital and questioned by staff, Wellington told them his daughter shot herself with a BB gun while she was upstairs alone in her room. The police investigation that followed revealed no one else was with the child at the time she was wounded. A BB pistol recovered at the scene was identified by Wellington as the gun.
At trial, the victim, now four, was allowed to testify, although given her age, her testimony was unsworn. She said her father had shot her.
Wellington did not testify.
He has both prior misdemeanor and felony convictions and is in jail awaiting hearings on his violation of probation.
