Man Sentenced In Neighbor's Fatal Shooting After Dog Dispute

PONTIAC (WWJ/AP) - A 29-year-old Iraq war veteran has been ordered to serve 6 years to 15 years in prison in the fatal shooting of his Walled Lake neighbor during a dispute over a lost dog.

Marine veteran Charles Simkins apologized to the family of 45-year-old Edwin Criswell whom he shot and killed two years ago in Walled Lake after Simkins' dog went into his yard.

Simkins was sentenced Tuesday in Oakland County Circuit Court in Pontiac. A jury found him guilty last month of manslaughter.

Simkins' attorney Todd Flood says the two got into a fistfight December 17, 2013, when Criswell would not give Simkins his dog back and that he fired at his leg in self defense, but it accidentally hit an artery.

"The gunshots were on an upward angle, they weren't on a downward angle - so if they were at an upward angle - how is that? That means that the gun had to be lower obviously, than the entry wound, which it was our contention that Mr. Simkins was on his back," said Flood.

Flood says Simkins suffers from PTSD from his time in Iraq.

"I don't know anyone who went through Faluja," said Flood, "that hasn't come back with some form or stressors that don't have Post Trauma Stress Disorder, especially those who saw battle."

The men grappled and Criswell was shot to death in his front yard.

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