FROM THE MIDDLE: ERIC MCLEAN

Whenever my hometown, Knoxville, TN, makes national news, you can just about bet that unless it has anything to do with UT sports, it’s going to be a controversial subject. We’ve had countless teachers accused of having affairs with their students, numerous wives and/or husbands accused of murdering their spouses – many of whom got away with it, a medical examiner convicted of abusing young men, a serial killer who murdered prostitutes whose case was dismissed even though he confessed, and now Eric McLean.

Charged with first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of his wife’s student lover, Eric was convicted this past week of reckless homicide. Meaning in all probability he will serve no time in prison for this crime. I could accept this conviction if it weren’t for the fact that Eric was the one with the rifle and there’s a seven-minute time span he can’t seem to totally account for. How can you accidentally shoot someone, much less an 18-year-old, who is sitting in a car, and you’re the one toting the rifle? He claims there was a struggle over the rifle and it accidentally went off. Well, it couldn’t have unless he had his finger on the trigger. It seems to me if you don’t intend to shoot someone, you would make darn sure your finger would be anywhere but on the trigger. Anyone familiar with forensics is well aware of the damage made when a person shoots another with a rifle at close range. Even if they struggled over the weapon, Eric was the one with the rifle, he was the one who chose to approach this young man – again, sitting weaponless in a car – with a weapon of death. All this after he called 911. Why didn’t he just wait for the police to show up and remove this person?

Eric claims two weeks before the shooting, he took the rifle from his parents’ house and hid it in the laundry room of his own home. Why? Because he was thinking about killing himself. Well, maybe so, but that isn’t what happened. Could there have been another, more sinister reason he took that rifle from his parents’ home? I’m sure we’ll never know. In any event, two families are ruined because of one man’s actions. It’s such a shame.

Now I’m waiting for Eric to write a book and a TV movie to be made. Coming soon, I’m sure.