Friends and family members of 20-year-old Kaylin Gillis heckled her killer as he was escorted out of court to serve a 25-year-prison sentence.

Kevin Monahan, 66, was found guilty on Friday of second-degree murder, reckless endangerment and tampering with physical evidence after a two-week trial in January.

Monahan, who hails from Hebron, fatally shot Gillis after the SUV she was riding in mistakenly pulled into his rural driveway in Upstate New York last April. 

The decision came after a series of heartbreaking emotional impact statements from Gillis’ father as well as her boyfriend Blake Walsh, who was driving, and friend Alexandra Whiting, who was another passenger on the fateful night. 

The courtroom, which was full of people wearing shirts and sweaters memorializing Gillis, rejoiced as Monahan was escorted out of the courtroom after being sentenced to 25 years behind bars.

Friends and family members of 20-year-old Kaylin Gillis heckled her killer Kevin Monahan (pictured) as he was escorted out of court to serve a 25-year-prison sentence

Monahan is standing trial over the April 2023 fatal shooting of Kaylin Gillis, 20, who was shot in the neck after a car she was riding in accidentally drove down the gunman’s driveway 

Gillis (right) had been riding in the car with her boyfriend and two friends when they got lost down Monahan’s winding dirt road. He says he will ‘never be able to forgive’ Monahan for killing her

Gillis’ family and friends shouted ‘Bye Kevin’, ‘you coward’ and ‘justice served’ as he was marched out in handcuffs.

The defense asked for leniency. Monahan declined an opportunity to speak.

‘I think it’s important for people to know that it’s not ok to shoot people and have them killed for turning down your driveway,’ Judge Adam Michelini said. 

Apart from the wider deterrent effect, Michelini said it’s important that Monahan remain behind bars rather than be free to harm more people.

On the night of Gillis’ death, the group of friends had realized their error and had turned around when Monahan fired a second shot, striking Gillis in the neck as she sat in the front passenger seat of an SUV driven by her boyfriend.

Monahan maintained the fatal shot was an accident and that the shotgun was defective. He also said he believed the house about 40 miles (65 kilometers) north of Albany was ‘under siege’ by intruders, and said he came out to fire a warning shot to try to scare the group away while his wife hid inside.

Prosecutors argued that Monahan was motivated by an irrational rage toward trespassers.

A jury deliberated for less then two hours before returning guilty verdicts in January against Monahan for murder, reckless endangerment and tampering with physical evidence.

The father of Gilis previously told of his grief at losing his daughter so suddenly, and said he hopes Monahan ‘dies in jail’ 

A NYS Court Police officer to holds Kevin Monahan’s shotgun during summations in Monahan’s murder trial 

Kaylin Gillis’ father Andrew addressed the media after Monahan’s first court appearance in April, where he said he hoped the shooter ‘dies in jail’ 

According to Zillow, Kevin Monahan’s home was built in 2004 and is estimated to cost $310,000, it is only accessible through an unpaved road

Gillis’ father, Andrew Gillis, has described his daughter as someone who loved animals and had dreams of becoming a marine biologist or a veterinarian.

‘Every day we wake up to the harsh reality that that she´s no longer here. We will never see her beautiful face, hear her laughter,’ Gillis said in court Friday before Monahan’s sentence was announced.

Her boyfriend, Blake Walsh, was behind the wheel of the SUV that night. ‘I will never be able to forgive you,’ he told Monahan, who looked on with a stony face.

‘You took the life of someone who never was a threat to you, not for a second,’ Walsh said.

‘Kaylin was a sweet and loving soul. Everything you wished you could be,’ he continued. ‘If it were my decision, you’d be under the jail.’

Gillis’s friend Whiting told the killer, ‘Once in a while, I feel slightly bad for you, wondering what made you turn out this way and why, and wondering if you truly feel guilty about what you did.’

‘You made a decision that altered all of our lives forever, all because you spent three minutes in fear,’ she said.