Killeen Police Department

Patrick Edward Myers

A Fort Hood soldier pleaded guilty Thursday to involuntary manslaughter -- admitting he accidentally shot his friend while trying to scare away the hiccups. 

Spc. Patrick Edward Myers, of Spartanburg, S.C., was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in military prison for fatally shooting 22-year-old Pfc. Isaac Lawrence Young, of Ash Grove, Mo., in the face in September while they were watching a football game at an apartment in Killeen, Texas. 

Myers was also busted to private and will receive a bad-conduct discharge, the Associated Press reported.

Police said three men were inside the apartment on Sunday, Sept. 23, watching a football game and drinking alcohol when one of the men produced a handgun, handled it in an "unsafe manner," and shot the victim in the face.

An arrest affidavit obtained by the Associated Press in September said Myers apparently pointed a gun at the victim's head to scare him and stop the hiccups.

Myers said he thought the gun had dummy rounds when it was discharged. 

The case was tried in military court on the Central Texas Army post because the both victim and suspect were soldiers. Myers has been in the Bell County Jail on a $1 million bond. 

Killeen Police Department

Patrick Edward Myers

A 22-year-old Fort Hood, Texas, soldier was shot in the face and died after what prosecutors say was an attempt by a fellow soldier to cure the victim’s hiccups.

Patrick Edward Myers, of Spartansburg, S.C., was charged with manslaughter in the case and remains in the Bell County Jail on $1 million bond, according to a news release from the Killeen, Texas, police.

Police say three men were inside a Killeen residence Sunday night watching  a football game and drinking when one of the men produced a handgun, handled it in an “unsafe manner,” and shot the victim in the face.

An arrest affidavit obtained by the Associated Press said Myers apparently pointed a gun at the victim’s head to scare him and stop the hiccups. Myers allegedly thought the gun had dummy rounds when it discharged.

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The victim was being taken by ambulance to an airfield for transport to a hospital when he died.

After a review by the Bell County District Attorney, Myers was charged with manslaughter.

A Fort Hood spokesman on Tuesday declined to release the name of the victim, saying relatives had to be notified.

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The death on July 8 of Brooklyn Foss-Greenaway is being treated as a homicide, by authorities in Maine. A 10-year-old girl is charged with homicide in the case.

A 10-year-old girl has been charged with manslaughter in the death of an infant from Clinton, Maine, WLBZ television reported Friday, citing state police. 

Three-month-old Brooklyn Foss-Greenaway died July 8 after being left in the care of a babysitter in Fairfield, about 6 miles from Clinton, according to police.

Police automatically investigate the death of a child under three, reports said.

The state medical examiner's office ruled the death a homicide on Wednesday, WLBZ reported.

"In this case there was some warning signs that we thought very early on," Department of Public Safety Spokesman Steve McCausland told WABI television. "The medical examiners have confirmed that and obviously the case now has been declared a homicide."

"The cause of death is being withheld as the medical examiner continues to work on that aspect," he said, according to WABI. 

The 10-year-old, whose name was not released, is in custody of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, the WLBZ report said.

The baby's mother, Nicole Greenaway, said the 10-year-old is the daughter of the babysitter, the Bangor Daily News reported. Greenaway said she works with the woman at a medical facility in Waterville, ME.

The girl is the youngest person in Maine to be charged with manslaughter in at least 25 years, WLBZ reported, citing McCausland. It was not clear whether she was charged as a juvenile or an adult.

She is scheduled to appear in court Oct. 22 with her attorney. 

According to earlier reports, emergency responders arrived at the scene six minutes after receiving a 911 call on the night of July 7 saying the baby was not breathing and unresponsive. The baby died later at the hospital, WABI reported.

Data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics show that 88 children between the ages of 10 and 12 were arrested on murder and non-negligent manslaughter charges between 2003 and 2009. Of them, 14 were girls.

During that same time, seven children under the age of 10 were arrested for similar crimes; one was a girl.

In 2005, a 7-year-old boy from Kentucky was charged with killing his mother’s boyfriend, according to an Associated Press report at the time. He was too young to be tried as an adult and was, at the time, sequestered away from older adults at a juvenile detention facility.

In 2008, an 8-year-old boy from rural Arizona confessed to fatally shooting his father and his father’s friend.

"I went upstairs and then I saw my dad and then I got the gun and then I fired it at my dad," the boy told prosecutors, according to an ABC News report. "He was on the ground and then I reloaded it."

These juveniles cannot, according to a recent Supreme Court ruling, be sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.

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SAN FRANCISCO -- A cyclist charged with vehicular manslaughter in the death of an elderly pedestrian at a busy San Francisco intersection pleaded not guilty Wednesday.

Software developer Chris Bucchere, 36, is accused of recklessly speeding downhill through a red light and into an intersection crowded with pedestrians in the city's Castro District on March 29. He struck Sutchi Hui, 71, who was crossing the street with his wife and died of his injuries four days later.

The case, a rare felony prosecution of a bicycle rider for a fatal accident, comes amid a 71 percent increase in bike traffic in San Francisco in the past five years. It also marks the third instance in which a pedestrian has been killed by a cyclist during the past year in the Bay Area.

Evidence against Bucchere, who is free on $150,000 bond, includes several eyewitnesses and a surveillance video that have helped investigators put his estimated speed at up to 35 miles per hour.

A spokeswoman for District Attorney George Gascon's office, Stephanie Ong Stillman, said investigators had evidence Bucchere also ran a number of stop signs on his way downhill to the intersection where the crash occurred.

'Plowed through'
Authorities also suspect Bucchere was the author of an online blog post about the accident in which the cyclist recalled being "too committed" to stop at the traffic light before going through it.

"I couldn't see a line through the crowd and I couldn't stop, so I laid it down and just plowed through the crowded crosswalk in the least-populated place I could find," the post said, going on to describe a "river of blood on the asphalt" in the aftermath of the collision.

The post drew criticism from other people in the forum when Bucchere wrote that the moral of the story was that it was important for cyclists to wear helmets, local station KTVU Channel 2 News reported. The post was later removed. 

The San Francisco Chronicle said Bucchere had been trying to set a speed record for a popular bike route through that neighborhood, and an electronic monitoring device on his bike provided investigators with some of their evidence against him.

In a written statement issued to reporters at the courthouse on Wednesday, Bucchere's lawyer, Julie Salamon, said her client "anticipates the day when he may express his deepest condolences to the Hui family for their tragic loss. But for now, while the case is ongoing, he will continue to cooperate with the authorities and to respond responsibly to the charges in court."

Bucchere, who left the courthouse without speaking to reporters following his 10-minute arraignment, is due back in court on July 27, when the judge will set a date for a preliminary hearing.

Stillman said Bucchere was the first bicyclist charged by Gascon with felony vehicular manslaughter, an offense for which prosecutors must show gross negligence and is punishable by up to six years in prison.

In March, cyclist Randolph Ang, 23, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter for running down a 67-year-old woman who died a month later. He was sentenced to three years' probation and 500 hours of community service.

In a more recent accident, a 92-year-old woman was struck and killed by a cyclist in a crosswalk near El Cerrito, east of San Francisco.

Msnbc.com staff and Reuters contributed to this report.

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WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- A jury on Friday found John Goodman, a South Florida polo mogul, guilty of DUI manslaughter and vehicular homicide in the Feb. 12, 2010 crash that killed Scott Wilson.

Police say a drunken Goodman, the founder of the International Polo Club Palm Beach, rammed his black Bentley convertible into Wilson's car two years ago, causing it to roll into a canal. Goodman is accused of leaving the scene and waiting nearly an hour to call 911 as Wilson died.

Goodman was later found to have a blood alcohol level more than twice the legal limit.

Prosecutors argued Goodman likely had 16 to 18 drinks before he got behind the wheel, and said Goodman walked away from the crash scene and called his girlfriend and a friend before finally calling 911, WPTV reported.

Read more about this case on NBCMiami.com

Goodman's attorney, Roy Black, said his client only a had a few drinks that night. He claimed the Bentley malfunctioned and accelerated into the intersection. Black also said Goodman drank after the crash to ease his pain.

The case made headlines after Goodman legally adopted his girlfriend, in what was seen as a legal manuever to protect some of his wealth from a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Wilson's family. Goodman settled with the Wilson family for an unspecified amount earlier this month, shortly before the criminal trial began, according to WPTV.

Goodman is facing up to 30 years in prison when he is sentenced on April 30.

Read more about his case on WPTV.com

After nearly two weeks of testimony, the prosecution and defense made their closing arguments on Thursday before turning the case over to the six jurors late in the day.

They deliberated for about a half hour before deciding end their deliberations and resume Friday morning.

"The jury in the Goodman case exercised sound judgment in its analysis of the factual and expert evidence in this trial" said State Attorney Peter Antonacci in a statement after the verdict. "Scott Wilson was a young man with a bright future and his life was tragically cut short. I hope that Scott's family now experiences some closure so that the healing process can go forward in this particularly tragic event."

Scott Wilson's mother thanked the jury after the verdict.

"I know that it took a lot for them to come up with a conclusion and justice has been served," Lily Wilson said. "I'm always gonna miss my son."

Msnbc.com staff contributed to this report from NBCMiami.com.

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