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Left inset: Steven Merkel (Walworth County Sheriff’s Office). Right inset: Steven Merkel’s 8-year-old stepson Michael Meagher (GoFundMe). Background: The residence where Steven Merkel allegedly shot his stepson (WITI/YouTube).
In a tragic case that has shocked Wisconsin, a man has been handed a prison sentence exceeding 20 years for the fatal shooting of his 8-year-old stepson. The incident, which occurred while the man demonstrated firearms to the young boy, was described by prosecutors as an ill-conceived attempt to appear “cool” and “exciting.”
During the sentencing of Steven Merkel, Walworth County Circuit Court Judge Kristine E. Drettwan questioned the rationale behind the actions that led to such a senseless tragedy. “How is it cool and exciting to point a gun at an 8-year-old boy?” Judge Drettwan remarked, expressing disbelief at the defendant’s intentions.
Judge Drettwan further criticized Merkel, who was 52 years old at the time of the incident, for his late-night display of firearms to the child. “A 52-year-old, at 2:00 in the morning roughly, pulling out firearms to look cool to an 8-year-old?” she questioned. “How is that fun? How does that make you look cool?”
Steven Merkel, now 53, received a sentence of 25 years in prison followed by 10 years of supervised release, after pleading guilty to first-degree reckless homicide in August. The devastating event took place on January 20 in Walworth County, as detailed by the Town of Geneva Police Department and the Walworth County District Attorney’s Office.
Geneva town supervisor Scott Williams commented on the tragic accident in a statement shared on Facebook following Merkel’s guilty plea. “Merkel claimed the shooting was an accident after police found Michael Meagher fatally wounded inside Merkel’s home,” Williams stated, shedding light on the heartbreaking circumstances surrounding the young boy’s death.
Town of Geneva police officers and fire personnel responded to the home at around 2:25 a.m. and found Michael suffering from a single gunshot wound, according to a Jan. 20 press release. “Life saving measures” were performed but the boy succumbed to his injuries at a local hospital. When officers questioned Merkel about what happened, he “seemed frantic and was covered in blood,” according to a criminal complaint obtained by Milwaukee Fox affiliate WITI.
Merkel later told cops that “he did something stupid, and it wasn’t (Michael’s) fault” that he got shot. Merkel claimed that he took the magazine out of the 9 mm handgun that killed Michael and was under the impression that it wouldn’t fire without it. He pointed the gun at the boy and pulled the trigger, firing a single shot into him.
When police asked him why he was showing Michael the guns, Merkel told them they had been playing video games and he wanted to “look cool,” according to investigators.
“Today is the first that the court learned that the bullet went in through Michael’s upper arm or shoulder area, came out, then passed through his neck,” Drettwan explained during Merkel’s sentencing. “That’s a defensive posture. How is that fun and cool for Michael that you come out of a bedroom pointing a gun at him to the point where he’s scared, he puts up a defensive arm, and you shoot him?”
Merkel admitted to cops that he had pulled out his handgun to show Michael in the past — even pointing it down toward him while ordering him to listen, the complaint alleged. Cops said he “drank two little drinks of rum and RC that evening” before the shooting. Drettwan noted Thursday how Merkel also stated that he “showed Michael a stun gun that he had at the residence and was ‘popping it’ and pointing it toward him as he [Michael] was squirming away,” according to the judge.
“I know that alcohol was involved, although there’s no indication here that he was impaired to the point of intoxication,” Drettwan said, noting how his blood alcohol level was a 0.02 and he had two cocktails that night. “Sitting around playing video games with an 8-year-old, but you needed to drink? But there’s no indication that you were intoxicated.”
Merkel’s defense lawyer told the court Thursday that he “always says how he should’ve done something different, how he should’ve checked the firearm, how he should have not even brought it out in the first place.” The attorney asked for 11 years in prison and five years of extended supervision, while Merkel gave a statement in an attempt to show remorse.
“I’m here to accept responsibility for my actions in this tragedy,” Merkel said. “I’d like to apologize to the court as well as to the victims affected in this tragedy.”
Drettwan noted how she’s handled “a number of devastating cases” over the years, but she believes Merkel’s is “one of, if not the toughest one, because of the senseless and absolutely preventable death of an innocent 8-year-old boy who just wanted to hang out and have fun with an adult in his life whom he trusted,” according to the judge.
“I can’t imagine the pain of losing a child in any circumstances, but it’s pretty unimaginable the way that this has happened to Michael,” Drettwan concluded. “This did not have to happen. It was entirely preventable, senseless, it is something that is incredibly hard to wrap one’s head around.”