LIVING HERE
Stepdad convicted of shooting his stepson has been sentenced.
Steven Merkel, 53, received a 25-year prison sentence and ten years of extended supervision after pleading guilty to first-degree reckless homicide in August. According to a Jan. 20 press statement, cops and firefighters from the Town of Geneva arrived at the home approximately 2:25 a.m. and discovered Michael with a single gunshot wound. “Life-saving measures” were taken, but the kid died from his injuries at a local hospital.
When officers questioned Merkel about what had occurred, he “seemed frantic and was covered in blood.” Merkel later told police that “he did something stupid, and it wasn’t (Michael’s) fault” that he was shot. Merkel stated that he removed the magazine from the 9-millimeter handgun that killed Michael, believing that it would not shoot without it. He leveled the gun toward the youngster and pulled the trigger, firing one shot into him. When authorities inquired why he was showing Michael the pistols, Merkel explained that they had been playing video games and he wanted to “look cool,” according to investigators. Merkel revealed to investigators that he had previously pulled out his revolver to show Michael, even pointing it down at him and commanding him to listen, according to the complaint.
Police said he “drank two little drinks of rum and RC that evening” before the shooting. Drettwan observed Thursday that Merkel also indicated that he “showed Michael a stun gun that he had at the residence and was ‘popping it’ and pointing it toward him as he [Michael] was squirming away,” according to the court. “How cool and exciting is it to point a gun at an 8-year-old boy?” asked Walworth County Circuit Court Judge Kristine E. Drettwan at Steven Merkel’s sentencing on Thursday. “A 52-year-old, at 2:00 in the morning roughly, pulling out firearms to look cool to an 8-year-old?” Drettwan blasted. “How enjoyable is that? “How does this make you look cool?”
Drettwan stated that she has handled “several devastating cases” over the years, but she believes Merkel’s is “one of, if not the toughest one, because of the senseless and absolutely preventable death of an innocent 8-year-old boy who just wanted to hang out and have fun with an adult in his life whom he trusted,” according to the judge. “I can’t imagine the pain of losing a child in any circumstances, but it’s pretty unimaginable the way that this has happened to Michael,” says Drettwan. “This did not need to happen. It was completely preventable, senseless, and really difficult to comprehend.”
