BOISE, Idaho — The former Boise State University student who pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter will serve one year for accidentally shooting and killing Boise State hockey player, Bobby Skinner.
The deadly shooting happened in August of 2019. The 22-year-old’s parents told KTVB that their son Bobby was fun, loving, and always helped the underdog.
On Friday, 21-year-old Kyle Kelly faced a judge after he pled guilty to involuntary manslaughter. Originally, police were told Bobby shot himself, but investigators later learned that wasn't the case. Kelly turned himself in last year.
At Friday’s hearing, a judge ordered Kelly to serve one year in county jail, while crediting him for the ten days of time served. Kelly will also serve 500 hours of community service and pay $6,000 in fines, as well as restitution to the family at an amount to be determined.
“We're a little disappointed from the sentencing because we thought it should have been more severe, due to, he admitted, he pled guilty to picking up the gun and pointed it at our son and shooting him. That to me and to Bob, that's basically murder,” Tricia Skinner, Bobby’s mother said.
Bobby’s father, Bob, told KTVB that this was a situation where kids were drinking and playing with a gun or showing it off, and they hoped the judge would have used this to send a message.
“The judge had a chance to send a message with a sterner penalty that if you do this, if you insist on playing with guns and drinking alcohol and someone gets shot you could go to prison, but he choose to send a lighter sentence with a longer probation period,” Bob Skinner said.
“It hurts tremendously, it's devastating,” Tricia Skinner said. “I mean [Bobby] was our child, was killing him only worth a year in jail? I mean, and Kyle lied so many times and the judge knows that or knew that.”
Bobby is the Skinners' only son. There's a memorial fund in his honor and his parents said, they'll continue to raise money for that, which helps give kids and families who can’t afford to play hockey, the game their son loved so much.
Bob Skinner added, he wants to work with local students to demand action for gun safety groups to see tougher gun laws, so parents don’t have to go through the loss that they've gone through because their son's death could have been prevented.