Bride going to jail for fatally shooting niece on wedding day
BEAVER, Pa. - A western Pennsylvania woman has been sentenced to 16 to 32 months in jail for fatally shooting her niece during a party celebrating the shooter's wedding.
A Beaver County judge sentenced 31-year-old Christina Nicole George-Harvan, of Patterson Township, on Wednesday. She had been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and reckless endangerment in March.
Police say George-Harvan accidentally fired one shot into the abdomen of 21-year-old Katelyn Francis of Fairmont, West Virginia in April 2014. It happened outside a bar where they had celebrated George-Harvan's marriage, during an argument over who would drive the truck belonging to the groom, who was drunk.
A defense attorney says the gun went off accidentally when George-Harvan was moving it inside the truck.
Prosecutors say George-Harvan shouldn't have been handling the gun under the circumstances.