Yeager v. State

The defendant, who was upset that the victim was going to re-enlist in the Navy and leave her, shot the victim in the head after he twice asked her to put down her father's rifle and she gave police three different versions of the events.

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Rachel Larae Yeager was convicted by a jury of malice murder in connection with the shooting death of Kevin McDonald.1 On appeal, Yeager asserts that the evidence was insufficient to support her conviction, and she claims that the trial court erred in instructing the jury on criminal negligence. Finding no error, we affirm. Kevin McDonald was visiting Yeager at the mobile home she occupied with her father. McDonald was killed by a single gunshot to the head, fired from a .22 caliber pump action rifle. Yeager called 911 to report the shooting. She told the responding officer that she had taken the gun to the back porch to shoot at trees, but she was unable to do so because the gun jammed; and when she went back inside the mobile home, the gun accidentally discharged, hitting McDonald. The victim was found on Yeager’s bed; the weapon lay on the floor in the doorway to that bedroom.

Yeager was taken to the sheriff’s office where she was advised of her Miranda rights, executed a waiver and admitted that she had “lied to a degree,” altering her account of the events. She told the officers that she and McDonald had a sexual relationship, and she was upset with him because he was re-enlisting in the Navy; she was unable to tell him of her feelings for him so she gave him a written note which stated: “I am in love with you and I know that it will never be returned in a million years and that is why it hurts. I am sorry, I tried not to, but I couldn’t help it”; she asked him to read the note after she left the room; she returned 15 minutes later to find McDonald asleep; she became upset, awoke him and told him to leave; when he would not go, she retrieved her father’s rifle, “holding it on its side by the barrel with the bottom of the gun toward her waist.” Yeager claimed that she intended to kill herself; however, the weapon began to slip out of her hand, and as she reached to catch it, it discharged, shooting McDonald.

Yeager v. State

The defendant, who was upset that the victim was going to re-enlist in the Navy and leave her, shot the victim in the head after he twice asked her to put down her father's rifle and she gave police three different versions of the events.

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