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MAGNA — A man who claims he sleeps with a gun cocked and loaded under his pillow each night is being charged in connection with a shot that investigators determined went through the man's house and into a neighboring home.
Unified police were called July 5 to a home near 3700 West and 7600 South where a resident "found a gunshot hole in her bedroom wall and her neighbor's external wall," according to charging documents. No one had been injured.
The neighbor said the two bullet holes appeared to have come from the same shot.
Police then went to the neighbor's house and talked to the 46-year-old homeowner about the hole in his wall. Officers were given permission to search his bedroom and "found a .45 ACP pistol under a pillow. The gun was in 'cocked and loaded' status," according to the charges.
The officers also discovered a bullet hole near the pillow and headboard, and a hole in the sheetrock in the bedroom — in the same position as the bullet hole found on the outside of the house, the charges state.
"The angle and height of where the bullet hit the wall indicate that the gun was fired from about the same height as the mattress or a few inches higher. (The homeowner) stated he sleeps with the gun 'cocked and locked' beneath his pillow," according to the charges.
The man said he did not know anything about the gun firing "and could not explain why the firearm was discharged or why there was a fresh bullet hole in his bedroom wall."
He was charged Wednesday in 3rd District Court with illegal discharge of a firearm, a third-degree felony.
