Father Guilty in Fatal Shooting of Daughter : Courts: Costa Mesa man admits accidentally killing teen and gets one-year jail sentence. Officials say alcohol played role in incident.

A Costa Mesa man who accidentally shot his daughter to death as he checked his gun pleaded guilty Wednesday to involuntary manslaughter and was sentenced to one year in County Jail and three years’ probation.

An attorney representing David Curtis Stinson said no punishment could be worse than the warehouse supervisor’s suffering since he killed 15-year-old Callaster Natis Stinson.

“He’s doing better, but it’s a very depressing thing,” Deputy Public Defender Ron Klar said. “It’s very difficult for him. This doesn’t end it.”

Authorities said Stinson had been drinking alcohol before the accident last October.

“What happened was tragic,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Debbie Lloyd said. “But when you drink and play with guns, it’s a very dangerous situation. It’s like drinking and getting into a car and killing someone. It happens too much.

“The defendant chose to do those things, and it’s not too surprising when you put the two together--drinking and guns--that something like this is going to happen.”

Stinson, 39, will start his jail sentence Oct. 16, possibly through a work-release program that would allow him to keep his job, Klar said. A judge released Stinson from custody last November on the condition he give his gun to police and enroll in an alcoholism counseling program.

He had faced a maximum sentence of nine years in state prison.

Stinson had raised his daughter on his own since she was 9. He won custody of her from his former wife who, according to court records, did not have enough money to feed their daughter while living in an abandoned bus in Riverside County.

Authorities said the teen-ager was shot in the neck while her father cleaned or checked his gun as the two talked in his room.

Times staff writer Susan Marquez Owen contributed to this story.