Officials: Game of Russian roulette showed reckless disregard for safety
By Vicky Wedig
SLN Staff
An Illinois man was sentenced Friday to 15 years in prison and 10 years extended supervision in the Jan. 2 shooting death of his best friend in the Village of East Troy.
Robert M. Sterling, 32, of McHenry, Ill., or Bobby as his friends and family call him, faced up to 65 years in prison after pleading guilty July 19 to first-degree reckless homicide with the use of a dangerous weapon for killing David A. Bauspies.
Sterling, David Bauspies and Richard D. Pryor, 48, were helping Tyler M. Odell, 22, move in East Troy on Jan. 2. The friends were drinking, taking drugs, being rowdy and behaving recklessly, he said. At one point, Odell brought out a large revolver, put a bullet in the chamber, put it up to his own head and talked about having suicidal thoughts, District Attorney Zeke Wiedenfeld said in court. Sterling took the gun, pointed it at his own head and pulled the trigger, but nothing happened. Sterling then pointed the gun at David Bauspies’ face and pulled the trigger, Wiedenfeld said.
“That reckless choice of the defendant … cost David his life,” Wiedenfeld said. “The life of David was ended just because of this careless macho behavior the defendant was trying to display.”
For the full story, see the Sept. 20 edition of the East Troy Times.
