Crime lab to examine bullet Kenneth S. Welsh allegedly shot

BY KEVIN BONESKE

REPORTER/PHOTOGRAPHER

A trial in Oneida County Circuit Court for a 61-year-old Tripoli man accused of trying to shoot his wife at their town of Lynne residence in April 2016 has been put on hold to allow time for the state crime lab to examine a bullet he allegedly shot.

Kenneth S. Welsh, who has remained in custody since his arrest more than a year and nine months ago, appeared in court Thursday for a pre-trial conference. Welsh’s trial was slated to start Feb. 5, but his attorney, Jon Padgham, and district attorney Michael Schiek agreed to have a bullet found in the windshield/dashboard area of a vehicle Welsh’s wife drove sent to the crime lab.

“There’s apparently some issues about the exact caliber that was used, and so, before we go to trial, we’d like to clear that up,” Schiek said. “Unfortunately, there’s a turnaround process for submitting that sort of evidence to the crime lab. We would not be able to submit it and then get a return prior to the Feb. 5-7 jury trial date.”

Welsh’s next court date is a pre-trial conference March 13. He is now scheduled to stand trial April 11.

Welsh, who is being held on a $40,000 cash bond, faces felony counts of attempted first-degree intentional homicide and first-degree reckless injury as well as misdemeanor counts of battery and operating a firearm while intoxicated. Upon conviction, the felony charges alone carry a maximum possible penalty of 47.5 years of initial confinement in prison, followed by 25 years of extended supervision, and/or a $50,000 fine.

Welsh is accused of possessing a firearm during a physical altercation with his wife, Mary Butler, on April 19, 2016, when he received a gunshot wound to his shoulder during the altercation. Upon Butler then leaving the residence, court records allege Welsh shot the windshield of the vehicle with which she drove away.

Court records also state Welsh, who was upset because he and his wife were about to be evicted from the house the couple lived in, had been making threats and was apprehended at his residence after Special Response Team officers responded to the scene and used beanbag rounds to subdue him.

Welsh previously entered into a plea agreement to an amended felony charge of first-degree recklessly endangering safety and a misdemeanor count of operating a firearm while intoxicated. He was sentenced Jan. 6, 2017, to three years of initial confinement is prison and two years of extended supervision with 262 days of credit toward his prison time.

However, Judge Michael H. Bloom agreed last November to allow Welsh to withdraw his plea and vacated that sentence because a previous attorney who represented Welsh, Rodman Wells Streicher, didn’t provide all the elements of the information Welsh needed to make that plea.