Shooter Pleads Not Guilty; Victim's Mother Calls Shooting an Accident

A week after her son , Tieya Bacon stood in front of , where Frank A. Hanna stood accused Thursday of shooting his friend with a .44-caliber pistol, to set the record straight: It was an accident.

"Freddie came down the stairs and Frank pointed a gun at his head," Bacon said of the incident, which took place in the basement of 154 Springs Fireplace Road in East Hampton on May 24, at about 8:30 p.m.

"He told him to stop playing," Stephens' mother said. Hanna told him the safety was on as he lowered the gun, she said. But, it went off. A bullet struck Stephens in the arm and it went through to the side of his torso.

Stephens underwent surgery at Stony Brook University Medical Center on Friday as the bullet struck an artery, his mother said. He was released from the hospital on Monday, but is still in a lot of pain and may have permanent nerve damage.

His mother is worried he won't have use of his right arm.

"You don't play with guns," Bacon said of Hanna, who is 29, following his arraignment on charges of third-degree criminal possession of a weapon and second-degree assault, both felonies, and second-degree menacing, a misdemeanor.

She described her son and Hanna as friends and said that Hanna had called her when her son was hospitalized. "He sounded remorseful. But, this gun stuff is no joke."

"If the gun had gone off when it was pointed at his head, he would have been killed. I would be burying my son right now," she said.

In court, Hanna's attorney Susan Menu said Stephens' signed-statement to police indicated that the shooting was accidental. She told Justice Lisa R. Rana that Hanna admitted to his involvement in the shooting, had cooperated with police, and .

After the shooting, Hanna called Menu, who had been his attorney in the past. He entered a plea of not guilty. If and when a grand jury hands up an indictment in the case, the defendant will be arraigned in county criminal court in Riverhead.

An assistant district attorney prosecuting the case said that Hanna had three prior misdemeanor convictions. Given probation on one of those convictions, he violated the terms of the probation and served time in the Suffolk County jail.

The DA's office requested $75,000 bail. Menu asked for more "reasonable" bail of $2,500, and noted that no warrant had ever been issued for Hanna.

Justice Rana set bail at $50,000 cash and $100,000 bond. Hanna had not yet posted bail.

While the prosecutor mentioned the .44-caliber handgun, Detective Lt. Chris Anderson said on Thursday afternoon that the gun has not yet been recovered. 

The ADA served grand jury notice, and Menu said her client planned to testify before the grand jury. Hanna is due back in justice court on June 5, barring an indictment. The case will likely be transferred to Suffolk County Criminal Court. 

Menu told the court, twice, during her client's arraignment proceeding that the shooting victim was "well-known to the court," a statement which upset Stephens' mother.

"He's 20. He's learning. He's young and dumb," she said. "Nobody deserves to be shot like that."

Bacon defended the driver of the Hyandai Elantra, Kim Delrio, 22, of Springs, who during what police described as a "high speed chase" from East Hampton Village to Southampton Hospital after the shooting. "She did what she thought was right. She saved my son's life, I think."