Justin Finklea’s mother cried as she described to the judge taking her two young grandsons to visit their father’s grave recently.
They went to decorate the marker for Christmas, her son’s favorite holiday.
One of the boys — who are now 6 and 8 — fell to the ground and put his arms around his father’s gravestone in grief, Cristy Finklea said in a Ramsey County courtroom Wednesday.
They all “ache” for Justin Finklea, the mother continued, adding she struggles to sleep now and that her husband wakes up repeatedly from nightmares.
The 25-year-old father was accidentally shot by his friend, Joel Paulson, while the two were drinking at a duplex in St. Paul’s West Seventh Street neighborhood last December.
Cristy Finklea spoke at Paulson’s sentencing hearing Wednesday, where Ramsey County District Judge Nicole Starr agreed to the terms of the plea deal in the case and sentenced Paulson to 10 years of probation.
He was also ordered to spent 365 days in jail.
“I wanted to forgive (Paulson) when I heard this was an accident … but I can’t,” Cristy Finklea said.
‘I WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO FULLY FORGIVE MYSELF’
Family members of both men wiped away tears as they sat in the courtroom’s gallery during the 45-minute hearing.
Paulson, 32, sniffled and cleared his throat when it was his turn to speak.
“Throughout this process, I haven’t been myself … I haven’t been able to speak freely,” Paulson said. “I just want the families to know … the community to know … the court to know … that I’m sorry … I will never be able to forgive myself fully or expect that (Justin’s) family would either.”
The hearing came a month after Paulson pleaded guilty to a second-degree manslaughter charge.
On Dec. 20, Paulson, Finklea and a third friend had been drinking whiskey and playing around with a handgun at a home in the 400 block of Michigan Street that night when Paulson picked up the 9-mm handgun and pointed it jokingly at his friend, according to testimony at his plea hearing.
Thinking it wasn’t loaded, he pulled the trigger, fatally shooting Finklea.
‘HE MAY NOT HAVE WANTED TO KILL (JUSTIN) … BUT HE DID’
Paulson started administering CPR to his friend immediately, but Finklea died of his injuries.
“The defendant may have been expecting a click, but instead it was a bang,” Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Ryan Flynn said during the sentencing.
“This is a hard case,” the prosecutor added. “What do you do with a defendant who killed a human being but didn’t want to. … The law says (you) should go to prison … but it also allows for exceptions.”
The state agreed to probation for Paulson because Finklea’s family “wanted to take a chance on him,” Flynn said.
Under terms of his probation, Paulson won’t be allowed to consume alcohol, use mind-altering drugs not prescribed by a doctor, or own or possess a firearm.
His decision to drink and handle a gun that he didn’t check for bullets was a prime example of extreme “culpable negligence,” Flynn said.
“(He) may not have wanted to kill Justin … but he did,” Flynn said.
‘MORE THAN A NAME AND A COURT HEARING’
Flynn read a letter during the hearing written by the mother of Finklea’s two sons. She said the last year has been the hardest of her life and described the agony of telling her boys that their father was dead days before Christmas. There is a “permanent pain” in their lives now, she wrote.
Finklea was an animal lover who liked to take long baths and sing loudly “just to get a smile,” she said.
“He was loud, funny and caring … he would do anything to make you feel better. … He was incredibly loving,” she wrote.
“I hope you all know he was more than a name and a court hearing,” she continued. “He was a work in progress that was senselessly cut short.”