A man who gunned down his mother — a Lompoc Valley schoolteacher — with a 12-gauge shotgun as a crowd of people gathered on the street outside his San Luis Obispo apartment is guilty of second-degree murder, a jury decided Tuesday.
The jury found Christopher Shumey not guilty of the weightier first-degree murder charge.
Now, in a second phase of Shumey’s trial, the jury will have to decide whether he was sane at the time of the murder.
Shumey, 36, also was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon on a peace officer, the result of firing his gun toward a San Luis Obispo police officer who responded to the original shooting.
Shumey has a history of mental illness dating to 1999, according to court testimony.
His mother, Karen Shumey, who taught at Vandenberg Middle School, went to his apartment on Sept. 17, 2011. After the two quarreled, Karen Shumey left the apartment for 20 minutes so her son could cool off.
When she returned, he shot her twice as she stood on his balcony.
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— Patrick Pemberton is a reporter for the San Luis Obispo County Tribune. He can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
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