Man convicted of shooting himself in groin

A man who fired a handgun into his groin at a parking lot last year was found guilty on Wednesday of a felony and two misdemeanors. David Leroy Blurton, 50, had been drinking alcohol on the evening of May 29, 2009 when he pulled a Makarov 9mm pistol from his truck near City Market in Dillon and tried to cock it, resulting in serious injury, according to Deputy District Attorney Kristine Word.

Blurton, of Summit Cove, had said the move was in self-defence after a mugger struck him in the back of the head. But surveillance footage was insufficient to support that claim, and none of his money was missing from the scene, according to a press release from the district attorney's office. The felony of reckless discharge of a firearm can result in a prison sentence of up to three years, and misdemeanor counts of “prohibited use of a weapon — drunk with a gun” and reckless endangerment combine for imprisonment up to a year-and-a-half.



But Word said the prosecution is “really looking at probation,” for the primary concern is “we just don't want him having guns. He's not a bad guy. He just made a series of really bad choices,” she said.

Heather Beattie, Blurton's attorney, said she was disappointed in the outcome — but that, based on conversations with jury members, it seemed reasonable. “Many jurors sympathized with him,” she said. “I had a juror call me at my office and leave a message saying, ‘We're really sympathetic to (the) client but feel safer as a community not having problems going on with guns and drunkenness.'”