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A 29-year-old Weber County man has been sentenced to prison for up to five years for critically injuring a 9-year-old boy while "dry firing" a loaded shotgun last year at a Roy trailer park.
David Larry Dunlap had been using alcohol and marijuana before firing the shotgun through the window of a trailer as the boy walked by eight feet away.
Dunlap told police he cleaned the shotgun, reassembled it and believed it was unloaded when he pulled the trigger on Nov. 7.
The victim, Braden Schroeder, was struck by seven pellets of double-aught buckshot from his neck to his thigh, according to police.
Prosecutors have said the boy was recovering, although surgeons left some of the buckshot inside his body.
Schroeder, of North Ogden, was at the trailer park visiting his grandfather. Dunlap, of Riverdale, was house sitting for his grandmother.
Dunlap was charged in 2nd District Court with second-degree felony discharge of a firearm and third-degree felony possession of a firearm by an unlawful user of a controlled substance.
He pleaded guilty to lesser charges of third-degree felony aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and class A misdemeanor attempted possession of a firearm by an unlawful user of a controlled substance.
Judge Michael Lyon on Monday ordered the two convictions to run concurrently and ordered Dunlap to pay restitution for the boy's medical costs.