Man convicted of shooting into July 4th crowd gets 7 years

Cary F. Schmidt, who was convicted by a judge of firing a rifle into a group of July 4th revelers and wounding a teenager, was sentenced Tuesday in Ramsey County District Court to more than seven years in prison.

District Judge Teresa Warner convicted Schmidt, 51, of St. Paul, in October of first- and second-degree assault in connection with the 2009 incident on St. Paul's West Side. She sentenced him to 86 months and gave him credit for 88 days he has spent in custody. He will have to serve two-thirds of the sentence in prison before he is eligible for release.

The incident happened as a crowd gathered to watch fireworks. A man across the street from Schmidt's house in the 200 block of E. Belvedere Street told police he saw Schmidt with a rifle. A bullet that hit Gunner Footh, who was 14 at the time, and three shell casings found at the scene matched Schmidt's rifle. Footh spent a week in the hospital.

Schmidt was found lying on a couch in his garage with a can of beer at his side after police kicked down the door. He initially denied firing into the crowd and told an investigator he didn't care about the teen's injuries.

PAT PHEIFER