A former Florida deputy sheriff was found guilty Wednesday of killing his girlfriend last year in what he claimed was an “accidental discharge.”

The six-person jury deliberated for about 90 minutes, including lunch, before returning a guilty verdict on a charge of manslaughter with a firearm for Leslie Dale Boileau Jr. in the death of 25-year-old Polina Wright, the Ocala Star-Banner reported.

Boileau, 33, was a deputy with the Marion County Sheriff’s Office when he shot Wright in the head with an AR-style rifle on September 19, 2024, killing her instantly, as CrimeOnline reported. He called 911 himself, telling dispatchers he and Wright had been out to dinner then returned home and were “cleaning the guns” and “pointing them at each other.”

He was the only defense witness called during the trial. In his testimony, he said that he was cleaning the rifle after they returned home from dinner and that Wright asked about the firearms and how to use them, so he showed her, the Star-Banner said.

According to Law&Crime, Boileau said in a post-Miranda interview that he let Wright handle the unloaded rifle then reloaded. He said he saw that Wright had picked up a fully loaded handgun, so he set aside the rifle and took the handgun to clear it of any live ammo. Then he let her “dry fire” the gun before turning his attention back to the rifle.

By that time, he had forgotten he reloaded it.

“Boileau stated he grabbed the rifle and dry fired it one time,” an affidavit says. “On the second dry fire attempt, Boileau had forgotten that he placed the loaded magazine into the rifle which shot one live round in the direction of Wright, ultimately killing her. Boileau claimed he did not chamber a live round from the rifle magazine.”

At the end of the interview, he described his behavior as “sloppy.”

In his testimony at trial, he confirmed that part of his firearms training was to never point a weapon at someone, the Star-Banner said. He claimed, however, that he didn’t point the weapon at Wright but had no real answer as to how she was shot in the forehead if he hadn’t.

In closing arguments, prosecutor Tucker O’Neill  told the jury that an intentional act that results in an unintentional death is the very definition of manslaughter and that Boileau had intentionally pointed the gun and intentionally pulled the trigger.

Boileau’s attorney, Anthony Tatti, argued that Boileau hadn’t pointed the gun and that the evidence did not support the prosecution’s case. It was, he said, negligence but not manslaughter.

The judge remanded Boileau to jail to await sentencing. He faces up to 30 years in prison.