KINGSTON – A 50-year-old Town of Ulster man was convicted on Wednesday in Ulster County Court of manslaughter in a non-jury trial before Judge Bryan Rounds.
Gregory Thayer was found guilty of killing of Bruce Swierc, 48, of California and Rhinebeck.
The conviction means that Thayer committed murder as charged by a grand jury, but suffered extreme emotional disturbance at the time, which under the law, permits conviction of manslaughter.
He was also convicted of criminal possession of a weapon.
When sentenced in July, Thayer faces up to a total of 40 years in prison.
Thayer shot his friend after they were hanging out during the evening of September 29, 2021. He maintained Swierc got him “pissed off” because he was “talking trash” and “making f—d up comments.
That’s when Tayer left the kitchen, went upstairs to his bedroom, got a gun, returned downstairs and shot Swierc in the back of the head while he was sitting at the kitchen table and had bent down to pick up his phone.
After shooting his friend, Thayer called his sister, Stephanie Thayer, instead of 911 or police.
Swierc lived in California with his wife and family. He was visiting the Hudson Valley where he grew up to console his mother, a Rhinebeck resident, who had recently lost her partner a few months after losing her sister.
