Aug. 1, 2024

The Night Kaylin Gillis Never Came Home

Show Notes
Transcript

The Night Kaylin Gillis Never Came Home

In this episode, hear the tragic story of Kaylin Gillis, a young woman whose life was senselessly cut short due to a simple mistake. We explore the events leading up to that night, the chilling courtroom drama, and the strong and stern last words of the judge. Through the lens of this heartbreaking case, we delve into the complexities of justice, responsibility, and the devastating consequences of a single moment.

#TrueCrime #KaylinGillis #JusticeForKaylin #CourtroomDrama
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You just don't get it. It's obvious to me that

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you feel justified. You don't take any responsibility for the

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outcome of your actions. I think you really could possibly

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do the same thing again. Those were the words of

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a Washington County judge spoken to the defendant in a

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courtroom earlier this year. This was the last thing the

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defendant heard before finding out their sentence, and it was

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a sentence that they would receive for tearing apart a

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dozen young lives and leaving one person dead. Caylen Gillis

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was born on February twenty third, two thousand and three,

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and grew up in Schulerville, New York. She had just

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graduated from high school, where she'd been a flyer on

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the high school cheerleading team, and was on her way

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to college. She was just about to head out on

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the trip from New York to Florida to study to

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become a marine biologist when she was invited out to

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one last party. Caylen agreed to go, and she and

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a group of friends piled into their cars and took

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off towards the small town of Hebron, New York. One

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friend was on their motorbike, leaving the rest to split

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up between the two remaining cars. Caylen was in the

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passenger seat of her boyfriend's SUV, and she was one

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of the people trying to figure out if they were

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actually heading in the right direction. As it turns out,

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cell phone coverage and street signs are in short supply

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in Hebron, and those vehicles full of young people about

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to head off to college slowly drove down the dark

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and rural roads. They made a wrong turn. This was

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the fateful turn that would forever change their lives, and

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it was a turn that none of them would be

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able to fully come back from. On the other side

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of things, Kevin Monaghan was sixty five years old and

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sleeping in his bed with his wife when he claimed

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to hear someone coming down his driveway. When he looked

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out the window, he saw multiple cars and a motorbike

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slowly making their way towards his house, and he thought

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that he was under attack. He told his wife to

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hide in the closet and snatched up his shotgun. Once

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out on the front porch, he fired once into the

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air to warn his would be assailants away. When they

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heard the shot, all of the vehicles stopped in their

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tracks and began racing back out of the driveway. That

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was when the second shot rang out back in the cars.

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The group of twenty year olds frantically tried to get

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out of Kevin's driveway as fast as they could, and

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then they made the terrifying discovery that one of them

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had actually been hit. In the passenger seat of the

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last car left in the driveway, Caylean clung to life.

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The second shot had struck the car and caught Kaylan

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in the neck. Her friends did what they could to

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keep her stable as her boyfriend, Blake Walsh, took off

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speeding down the road. They had no cell reception and

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the group couldn't call for help until they reached the

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neighboring town of Salem. When the first responders arrived at

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the scene, Caylen was unfortunately already gone and there was

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nothing they could do for her. She was only twenty

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years old at the time of her death, and her

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only mistake had been accidentally going down the wrong driveway.

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The police were quick to act and went straight to

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Kevin's house to arrest him. Kevin was uncooperative with the authorities,

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and that came as no surprise to anyone who actually

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knew him. Neighbors claimed that Kevin was a mean and

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hostile man who would sometimes be physically aggressive. He'd actually

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already been arrested for aggravated assaults with a weapon back

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in two thousand and one, but the charge had been

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dismissed before he could be taken to court. According to neighbors,

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because of the lack of signage and cell phone coverage,

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it was a common thing that people would mistake Kevin's

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driveway for a road and accidentally go down it instead

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of understanding the situation. Kevin became more and more annoyed

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and irritated by this, and that all accumulated that evening

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in twenty twenty three, when Calin lost her life back

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at the scene, Kevin held the police up for over

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an hour. He first tried to call the police off

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by talking to the police dispatcher and then his attorney

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over the phone, and then he tried to weasel his

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way out of the situation altogether. Recorded on the eight

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body cameras worn by the responding officers that night, Kevin

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can be heard saying that he'd been in bed since

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half past eight and had no idea what had happened.

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He claimed that he had never even left his bed,

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let alone fired his weapon, and that hunters must have

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been the ones to shoot at the cars. And then,

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perhaps unsurprisingly, within a few minutes, he changed his story.

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Kevin confessed and said that he had in fact fired

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a warning shot that night, but he'd fired it up

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into the air. Everything after that, he claimed, had simply

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been an accident. I didn't mean to shoot the second shot,

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he told the police and later the courts. According to

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his own accounts, after firing the warning shot, Kevin had

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tripped on some nails on the porch and dropped his gun.

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The gun had then hit the floor and misfired, accidentally

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hitting the car and Kaylan. That was it, one accident

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that had led to another and left one young woman

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with her whole life ahead of her dead. The prosecution, however,

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disagreed with Kevin's versions of events. In courts, they showed

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him video footage of the porch and asked him to

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point to the nails that he had tripped on that night.

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Kevin couldn't. They then made the argument that Kevin had

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acted that night as he usually did with anger quote

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he grabbed a shotgun and intended to make them leave

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as fast as possible. He didn't care if they were

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hurt or killed. Kevin disagreed, and he told the courts

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that he'd been afraid for his and his wife's lives

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and that he'd only tried to protect his home and family.

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But Kevin also made it incredibly difficult to believe his

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version of events. Local police and responding officers testified that

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Kevin had shown no remorse for killing Kaylen, and Kevin

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himself practically confirmed that the moment he sat down on

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the witness stand. Judge Adam Mcalaney later addressed Kevin and

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his behavior. Quote, the first thing you do on the

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witness stand when you come up here and testify, he

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told Kevin, is you made a joke to the jury

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about them finally being able to see your face. You

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senselessly took the life of Calen Gillis, and you have

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the gall to sit here and talk about how you

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plan to finish up the work on your house and

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race motocross in the future. You don't deserve that. What

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would make you think you deserved those things? I think

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that you really could possibly do the same thing again.

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It's obvious to me that you feel justified. You don't

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take any responsibility for the outcome of your actions. You

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just don't get it. The jury agreed. Kevin was found

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guilty of second degree murder on January twenty third, two

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thousand twenty four. He was sentenced to twenty five years

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to life in prison, plus a consecutive sentence of up

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to four years. Calen's boyfriend, Blake Walsh, who was only

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nineteen years old on the night that Caelen was killed,

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later described the shooting to the press. I tried to

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step on the gas as fast as I could, he said,

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and that's when the fatal shot came through. My world

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was taken from me. Blake and Calen had already been

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together four years at that point, and the two of

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them had been talking about getting married. She was just

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beginning to find her way in the world with kindness, humor,

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and love. Caylen's family released in their public statement the

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shooting came at a startling time in American history. Within

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one week of Kaylen Gillis, a teenager who'd mistaken an

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address to pick up his younger brothers, and two cheerleaders

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entering the wrong vehicle were all shot. All of the

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shootings revolved around mistake and addresses or simple mistakes, but

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Kaylen Gillis was the only one to lose her life

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because of it. That is ten Minute Murder for today,

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brief and binge able true crime. I'm Joe. I'm the host,

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The Night Kaylin Gillis Never Came Home

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