Marine Pleads Not Guilty in Shooting

A decorated Marine accused of firing a shotgun at a crowd of club-goers pleaded not guilty Monday to attempted murder and other charges, and was ordered to be evaluated at a state psychiatric hospital.

Daniel Cotnoir was named Marine of the Year last month for his service as a military mortician in Iraq. A mortician by trade, he prepared the bodies of U.S. troops for burial and says the job took a heavy psychological toll.

Police said he pointed a 12-gauge shotgun out the window of his second-floor apartment and fired a shot at a crowd of noisy people leaving nearby nightclubs early Saturday. Two people were treated at hospitals for leg wounds and released.

Cotnoir, 33, a father of two daughters, told police that he feared for the safety of his family after someone threw an empty juice bottle through his bedroom window.

“It was never this man’s intention, as he tells me, to hurt anyone,” said his lawyer, Robert Kelley. “It was only his intention to fire a warning shot when he was placed in a threatening situation.”

A prosecutor said club-goers had seen Cotnoir standing with his gun at the window over his family’s funeral home, but thought that the weapon was fake.

Cotnoir was charged with two counts of armed assault with intent to murder, two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and one count of discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a dwelling.

He met Monday with a court-appointed psychologist, and then Judge Thomas M. Brennan ordered him evaluated at a state hospital. Another hearing was set for Sept. 2.

Last month, Marine Corps Times chose Cotnoir over 180,000 other candidates for its Marine of the Year award.

Cotnoir, now a reservist, told the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune last month that he was getting counseling at a veterans hospital.

“It’s a lot harder to talk about the job now than it was at the time to actually do it,” he said. “The stories I’ve gained from my deployment aren’t the kind of stories you share.”