US highway sniper jailed for 27 years

A schizophrenic who admitted involuntary manslaughter and 10 other charges over a series of Ohio highway shootings has been jailed for 27 years.

Charles McCoy, 29, admitted firing the shots over five months in 2003 and 2004 but pleaded innocent by reason of insanity to murder and 23 other counts. His death penalty trial ended in a mistrial.

McCoy cried in court in Columbus yesterday as he began to read a statement apologising to victims. His lawyer took over reading it.

“I was ashamed by my disease and I didn’t want to admit I was mentally ill,” the statement read. “I never knew or thought that by not taking my medicine, I would be able to do these things.”

McCoy, of Columbus, told psychiatrists that he threw wood and bags of concrete mix off flyovers and shot at cars to quiet voices in his head that called him a ”wimp”.

Psychiatrists for both sides agreed that McCoy had severe delusions that television programmes and commercials were speaking directly to him and mocking him. Towards the end of the shootings, he believed firing from flyovers would make news coverage of pop star Michael Jackson stop.

The only person hit by a bullet, Gail Knisley, 62, was killed on November 25, 2003, while a friend was driving her to a doctor’s appointment.

Her death alerted authorities to earlier linked shootings. As buildings and more vehicles were struck, some frightened commuters changed their routes to avoid the area of Interstate 270 where Knisley died. About 77,000 vehicles travel the outerbelt encircling Columbus every day.

Knisley’s son, Brent, told McCoy during the sentencing phase: “We hate what you did to my mother and to all of us.

“I could stand here for hours listing all the things you did to my father, my wife, my brother, all of her friends and especially my two children, but you couldn’t possibly understand because you didn’t know her.”

McCoy’s first trial, which ended in May with the jury unable to decide whether he was insane, centred on whether McCoy’s delusions kept him from understanding that the shootings were wrong. Prosecutors then decided not to pursue a death sentence.

The prosecution’s psychiatrist said McCoy still showed he knew his actions were wrong by the steps he took to avoid capture, such as moving the shootings to other counties when publicity focused on I-270.

When McCoy’s father called him to say police wanted to test his guns, McCoy gave permission, then drove for 36 hours to Las Vegas. He was captured there after a few days, on March 17 2004.

McCoy was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia at 21 after his parents found him looking for cameras in the walls of their home.

McCoy’s parents said they hoped their son could get treatment in prison.

“I would like to apologise to the community,” said his mother, Ardith McCoy. “This was not our son who did this. Our son was a very sweet, mild-mannered person.”