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Jury convicts movie scene shooter

BRADENTON, Florida (Court TV) -- A jury found a film buff guilty of manslaughter Thursday for accidentally killing his screenwriter best friend.

The panel deliberated a little more than an hour before finding James Brand, 22, guilty in the shooting of 20-year-old Daniel Squires last summer.

As the verdict was read, Brand looked down at the defense table and squeezed his eyes shut. In the front row of the gallery, the victim's mother smiled at jurors while Brand's mother shook her head and sobbed softly.

Brand faces 30 years in prison at his July 19 sentencing.

"There is no such thing as closure. My son lives in my heart. I see him in my other children," said Carol Nelson, Squires' mother.

He claimed he did not know his handgun was loaded when he grabbed it as a prop to recite a line from the bloody thriller "The Way of the Gun." The semiautomatic discharged, striking Squires in the neck.

But prosecutor Ed Brodsky told jurors that Brand should be convicted of manslaughter by "culpable negligence" because he neither checked to see if the gun was loaded nor turned the weapon's safety on.

"His actions are so negligent as to constitute the Babe Ruth of negligence, the Mount Everest of negligence," Brodsky said during closing arguments Thursday morning.

The July 2, 2000, shooting at Brand's apartment capped a night of drinking and card playing. Brand acknowledged drinking part of a pitcher of beer with Squires at a pool hall and then having four or five vodka and orange juice cocktails.

When first questioned by detectives, Brand tearfully told them he had no idea how the gun was loaded and that there was no magazine in the weapon when it fired. He also said the victim had asked to see the gun prior to the shooting.

But later, confronted by skeptical police, he acknowledged removing the magazine after the shooting and handling and loading the gun earlier in the night. He also admitted that Squires never asked for the gun.

Instead, he said, he was performing a line from a movie for Squires to identify -- one of the movie lovers' favorite pastimes -- when he unintentionally pulled the trigger.

In his closing, defense lawyer Wade Thompson defended what he called Brand's temporary memory "blackout" of key details.

"The shock, the trauma. It's only reasonable to think he might forget a few minutes around this tragic accident," Thompson said.

Brand did not present a defense, but instead relied heavily on a taped police confession made hours after the shooting. Although the interview showed Brand waffling on details of the incident, Brand was extremely remorseful and emotional on the tape.

Defense lawyer Thompson urged jurors to distinguish between the negligence Brand showed in pointing a gun at his friend and the "culpable negligence" required for a conviction.

"If he had thought it was loaded, it'd be culpable negligence, but he didn't," Wade said.

Brodsky, however, told jurors the negligence was flagrant and criminal.

"Because James Brand didn't spare the time, the 30 seconds to check that weapon Daniel Squires will never live another 30 seconds ever, ever again," said the prosecutor.

Squires and Brand met and became friends while working at the Bradenton Country Club, where Brand's father was the general manager. More than 60 club patrons, including the mayor of the city, have written letters on Brand's behalf urging leniency.