Denville man caught at Mexican border sentenced in shooting

NEWTON – A man who fled to the Mexican border after a shooting last year in northern New Jersey was sentenced to six years in prison for the shooting and three more for assaulting a corrections officer.

Karl Friday, 40, of Denville, broke into the home of his victim and fired through a door with an assault rifle after the man had barricaded himself in a room with his girlfriend and two children. The man, who was shot in the shoulder and underwent surgery, survived the February 2013 attack. The motive hasn’t been determined.

Friday was apprehended two weeks later by Border Patrol agents at a Mexican border checkpoint in Sierra Blanca, Texas.

At his sentencing hearing Friday, the defendant said he was sorry for the shooting and cited a past drinking problem and chronic depression.

“Words can’t express how sorry I am for the injuries I caused and for the shame I’ve brought on my family and children,” Friday said, according to The New Jersey Herald. “I’m really not a troublemaker. I’m not a violent person.”

Defense attorney Martin Cheser said Friday has not had any further incidents since he was transferred to a state psychiatric hospital after assaulting the corrections officer.

Friday had originally faced first-degree attempted murder charges, but pleaded guilty to lesser charges. His wife is being enrolled in a pretrial intervention program for helping him to flee, the Herald reported.