Sentence Issued in Fatal Phelps Hunting Accident

There will be no jail time for the Ontario County man who accidentally shot and killed his hunting partner on Thanksgiving Day 2021.

The Finger Lakes Times reports 62-year-old Kevin Hudson was sentenced this week to 300 hours of community service and five years probation for the shooting that occurred near Cross Road in Phelps that killed 28-year-old Zachary Barse, of Gorham.

Barse was tracking a deer he had shot when Hudson, who was in a tree stand, fired at movement in an area of thick brush near a creek thinking it was the wounded game. Barse was struck in the upper body by a single round and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Hudson pleaded guilty to a felony charge of criminally negligent homicide.