Milford man gets six years after pleading guilty to shooting relative
MILFORD — A city man jailed since March 2022 after police said he shot a relative during an argument over a greenhouse was sentenced to serve six years in prison Wednesday.
Before handing down the sentence to 62-yearold Eric Stoughton — and after reading a sentencing report prepared by probation officials, as well as a 26-page memorandum from Stoughton's lawyer — Judge Kevin Russo cited the “benevolent” attitude of the victim and Stoughton's history of alcohol abuse dating to his teens.
“You're not a bad man who did something bad,” Russo said. “You're a good person who did something bad. You exercised poor judgment, you know that, but I think the poor judgment was not just triggered by some sort of anger . ... I think you can probably categorize the drinking as a disease.”
Stoughton faced between five and 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to first-degree assault in November.
He apologized Wednesday during brief remarks to the judge, who noted the victims, who were not in court, were “comfortable” with the terms of the plea agreement.
"I take full responsibility for my actions," Stoughton said. "I apologize for what I've done. I'm very sorry for all the pain and suffering that I've caused. I think about how much worse it could have been every day. I made a terrible choice at the time.”
Senior Assistant State's Attorney Marc Durso had asked Russo to sentence Stoughton to a prison term reflecting the seriousness of the conduct he pleaded guilty to.
According to a witness cited in a police report, Stoughton and the victim had been arguing about a greenhouse in the backyard. The witness told police they were talking to the victim outside the home when Stoughton came out, pointing a gun at them.
Stoughton, who had been drinking, then ran after the victim while pointing and firing the gun, the witness told police. Officers responding to the scene found the alleged victim outside the home suffering from a gunshot wound to the shoulder.
“Thankfully, no one was killed during this incident, but it was a very disturbing situation and fact pattern, to say the least,” Durso said, asking the judge to impose terms on Stoughton's sentence that would address his alcohol problem. “Really it's just a sad situation all around. It didn't have to get to this point.”
Stoughton's lawyer, Charles Tiernan, said he didn't disagree with the prosecutor's characterization of his client's issues, calling Stoughton's drinking and weapons possession “a bad combination.”
He said, despite his problems, Stoughton had been a great employee at Sikorsky Aircraft, and four years from retirement at the time of the shooting.
“They just couldn't imagine him doing something like this,” Tiernan said, citing interviews with Stoughton's co-workers. “But unfortunately this did happen.”
In addition to the prison sentence — 15 years to be suspended after he serves six — Stoughton will be on probation for five years, during which the judge ordered him to possess no weapons and seek mental health and substance abuse treatment. He also signed protective orders prohibiting Stoughton from contacting the victim and witness for 40 years.
The case will be redocketed at some point to resolve what happens to more than 100 firearms taken from Stoughton's Housatonic Drive home following the incident. Last year, the lawyers agreed to have police dispose of thousands of rounds of ammunition seized after the shooting, which police said was becoming a “storage issue.”
In court Wednesday, Tiernan said Stoughton owned only nine of the guns and made no claims to any of the firearms.