BUTLER, PA. Man gets prison in death of boy mistakenly shot while hunting

The boy was shot in the neck and died a short time later.
BUTLER, Pa. (AP) -- A man who told police he shot and killed a 13-year-old boy after mistaking the teen for a groundhog was sentenced to more than three years in prison.
A Butler County judge sentenced Herbert Knepp of Butler to 31/2 to 10 years in prison in the shooting of Michael Buzard of Stratford, Conn., on July 11, 2002. Sentencing took place Monday.
Buzard's mother, Linda Ballero, said she was disappointed by the sentence.
"He took my son's life; therefore, I think his life should be taken," Ballero told reporters after the verdict.
What happened
Knepp, who pleaded guilty last month to involuntary manslaughter, told police he thought that the boy -- who authorities say was wearing camouflage and lying flat on the ground while hunting alone in the evening -- was a groundhog when he fired a shot from his girlfriend's back porch.
Buzard, who was visiting relatives, was shot in the neck and died a short time later. Authorities said he was not wearing the fluorescent orange clothing that is required of hunters.
Police said Knepp told them he had gone to his girlfriend's home in Butler for dinner and then went to the back porch to look for groundhogs. Knepp said his girlfriend had told him that neighbors were concerned that groundhogs were digging in their fields.
"It is a tragic situation; obviously, no one wins here," said Joe Kecskemethy, Knepp's attorney.